Headlines

Insolvency proceedings have been initiated against another company of crisis-hit 3C real estate group, The Times of India reported. In the wake of a plea by a buyer who has not received his plot, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) appointed an insolvency resolution professional (IRP) to resolve the financial liabilities of Three C Homes Pvt Ltd, the 3C group subsidiary that is building Lotus City, a residential plot scheme in Sector 22A of Yamuna Expressway. The IRP has a maximum 270 days for the resolution, following which the project could be pushed into liquidation.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) has sent inspectors to investigate the finances of the Chang Jung Girls’ Senior High School in Tainan after school dean Tai Chih-hsun confirmed that the school is on the brink of insolvency and cannot pay its faculty, the Taipei Times reported. In August, the school’s board of directors declared a salary cut, which led to the dismissal of two board members: Wang Chao-ching, who doubled as the school’s dean, and Chen Tsung-yen, the deputy minister of the interior.

Eurozone bond yields rose on Wednesday after more upbeat European economic data helped offset some of the anxiety about a new Brexit cliff-edge that boosted demand for safe-haven government debt a day earlier, The Trust Project reported. Investors have been dumping eurozone government debt for riskier assets in recent weeks on signs the economy is rebounding and in anticipation of an agreement on the first phase of a trade deal between Washington and Beijing. Read more

U.K. retail sales posted a surprise fall in November, marking a fourth straight month without growth for the first time since at least 1996, Bloomberg News reported. The volume of goods sold in stores and online fell 0.6%, the largest decline this year, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. Economists had expected a 0.2% increase. Sales excluding auto fuel also dropped 0.6%. The headline measure has now failed to increase since July, the longest period without an expansion since the ONS’s records began 23 years ago.

An influential global watchdog has warned that the vast market for leveraged loans has become increasingly vulnerable to shocks, in a move that could heighten regulatory scrutiny of the risks surrounding corporate debt, the Financial  Times reported. The Basel-based Financial Stability Board said in a report on Thursday that the recent rapid growth in leveraged loans — credit for lowly rated, more indebted companies — has been accompanied by a weakening of protections for lenders that has not been fully priced into markets.

Mexico’s central bank delivered its fourth quarter-point reduction in a row opting to continue the cautious pace of easing despite the economy having ground to a halt, the Financial Times reported. Banxico on Thursday lowered its key lending rate to 7.25 per cent as expected. Only one of the five board members voted for a half-point cut, the bank said in a statement. While the central bank had room for a bolder move, analysts said there were lingering concerns about core inflation and fears a surprise bigger cut could wipe out the peso’s recent gains.

Britain took a step into uncharted territory this year, aiming to make its banks safer. But it might have just driven risk to places where it’s less manageable than before, Bloomberg News reported. The experiment -- the result of an analysis of how the financial crisis damaged Britain’s economy -- began Jan. 1. Big lenders were “ring-fenced”: retail deposit-taking was legally separated from riskier activities, primarily investment banking. Advocates compared ring-fencing to the U.S. Glass-Steagall act, passed after the 1929 crash.

Argentina’s nine-day-old government has moved quickly to sidestep a debt crisis, appealing to bondholders including Pacific Investment Management Co. to roll over maturing debt, Bloomberg News reported. Finance Secretary Diego Bastourre and his deputy, Ramiro Tosi, met with Pimco officials and local bondholders on Dec. 18 to persuade them to accept new notes in exchange for 24.5 billion pesos ($410 million) of bonds maturing on Monday, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Tarom (RO, Bucharest Otopeni) is to receive two batches of funding from the Romanian state coffers in order to stabilise the ailing carrier and then to allow it to restructure going forward, ch-aviation reported. The country's Transport Minister Lucian Bode announced on B1 TV, the Romanian television network, which was then subsequently reported on news.ro, that he will discuss the possibility of handing over EUR157 million euro (USD 175 million) to Tarom with the European Commission in Brussels.

Administrators plan to close 40 per cent of Harris Scarfe’s national store network in a bold plan to make the ailing department store viable for sale,The Weekly Times reported. Deloitte Restructuring Services sent a flyer to prospective buyers outlining a dramatic restructure, according to The Australian Financial Review, which included shutting 27 of the 66 stores. The closures will mainly focus on the less-profitable sites in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.