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Hong Kong jeweler Jun Lam has already closed one shop. His remaining outlet sits in an almost deserted shopping mall at the heart of a district regularly hit by sometimes violent protests that have rocked the Chinese-ruled city since June, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Restaurants, hotels and retail outlets like Lam's, many of which cater to mostly mainland Chinese tourists, form a central pillar of a small business sector that employs more than one million people in the city.
On 11 July 2019, the UK government published draft legislation for the Finance Bill 2019 which contains important changes to insolvency law, Bdaily reported. From 6 April 2020, HMRC will have secondary preferential status for taxes collected by businesses on behalf of taxpayers (including VAT, PAYE income tax, employee National Insurance Contributions and Construction Industry Scheme deductions). This is in part, a return to the preferential status held by HMRC in 2003 but surrendered in the reforms brought in that year.
At the turn of the millennium, a group of entrepreneurs in their twenties banded together in a cramped office near a New Delhi bus terminal to start what they hoped would be India’s answer to Charles Schwab, the Financial Times reported. Almost two decades later, founder Sameer Gehlaut — the son of a politician and army officer, once dubbed India’s youngest billionaire — and longtime executive Gagan Banga have more than achieved their dream, turning their company Indiabulls into one of the country’s most prominent financial groups.
China Minsheng Investment Group will cut compensation of its top and mid-level executives from this month to support strategic restructuring, it said in an announcement, Bloomberg News reported. The Shanghai-based company that aspired to become China’s answer to JPMorgan Chase & Co. said on Tuesday it will reduce salaries for senior and mid-level management by as much as 83% to lower costs. Average cuts for senior and mid-level management will be 53% while ordinary employee pay will remain unchanged, it said.
The Nordic business of collapsed travel firm Thomas Cook has reached a deal with a buyer, a company spokesman said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Nordic operations, also known as Thomas Cook Northern Europe, said last month that it was looking for new owners. It is a separate legal entity and aims to continue to operate as usual. Fredrik Henriksson, head of communications at Thomas Cook Northern Europe/Ving, said the firm would unveil the buyer on Wednesday, declining to give further details. The business said on Monday it had attracted several bids and interest from over 10 parties.
Italy’s troubled fashion house Roberto Cavalli said on Tuesday a court had approved a debt restructuring agreement needed for its sale to Dubai’s Vision Investment Company, a group owned by the founder of Damac Properties Group, Reuters reported. Italian private equity firm Clessidra took over 90% of the label from its founder in 2015, in a deal that valued the company at about 390 million euros ($433.10 million), sources said at the time. But the new owner was unable to turn around the Italian brand despite appointing a new CEO and a new designer.
South Africa unveiled a long-awaited plan to save its debt-stricken power utility, including exposing it to greater competition, lowering fuel costs, increasing renewable-energy output and selling non-core assets, Bloomberg News reported. A policy paper released by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan envisions Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. relinquishing its almost century-old near-monopoly of the electricity industry.
The Russian central bank is set next year to slightly soften capital buffer requirements on banks that assess their own credit risk, deputy governor Vasily Pozdyshev told Reuters, in a bid to encourage more lenders to take up the practice, Reuters reported. The move comes as the Russian central bank presses for banks to conduct in-house risk assessments, saying it allows for better management of banks’ capital cushions and could cut the cost of borrowing.
The state-run International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) has completed its recovery, plans to set up its own investment company and is preparing for its planned privatisation, the bank’s management board chairman told Reuters. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev ordered in 2015 the privatisation of the oil-rich country’s biggest bank after a clean-up to get rid of distressed assets resulting from poor management, Reuters reported. Two years later IBA proposed a plan to restructure $3.3 billion of its debt, later receiving approval from creditors holding 93.9 percent of the affected debt.