Headlines

The former owner of Thames Water has expanded its sprawling network of UK assets by taking control of London City Airport, The Telegraph reported. Australian investment giant Macquarie is to acquire a further 50pc stake in the capital’s business travel hub, just four months after acquiring an initial 25pc. While the value of the London City deal was not disclosed, it is believed to be worth billions of pounds and comes after Macquarie announced plans last year to invest £20bn in the UK.

Bankruptcies continued to decline in September, according to Statistics Netherlands, the NL Times reported. A total of 276 companies went bankrupt last month, 97 fewer than in September of the previous year, a 26 percent drop. Compared with August, the number of bankruptcies decreased by 1 percent. In September, the bankruptcy rate, measuring the number of bankruptcies per 100,000 companies, stood at 7.5. This compares with 10.3 per 100,000 companies a year earlier.

Nearly four out of 10 South Korean construction companies were found to be potential insolvent firms last year, unable to cover their interest expenses with operating profits, the Chosun Daily reported. As the construction industry downturn has prolonged, a significant number of construction companies have found themselves in a state of insolvency where even paying interest with operating profits has become difficult, making normal business operations challenging.

Swiss private bank Julius Baer is facing significant credit losses after financing real estate projects linked to Germany's now-insolvent Degag Group, the Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Monday. The bank has filed claims for 48 million euros ($55.74 million), which exceeds its 2023 profit in Germany, the paper said, citing a preliminary report to the insolvency administrator. The matter is a blow for Julius Baer, which last year reported losses of 586 million Swiss francs on loans to collapsed property company Signa.

Quantuma’s Andrew Watling and Duncan Beat, the joint liquidators of La Perla, which traded as Global Management (UK) Limited, have finalised the sale of the lingerie business and its Italian factory to American billionaire businessman Peter Kern, who is the former CEO of Expedia travel group, Business & Accountancy Daily reported. The business first faced problems in 2023 when HMRC issued a winding up order due to a £2.8m unpaid tax bill forcing the business to the wall.

Austrian former billionaire Rene Benko went on trial on Tuesday in the first case connected to the collapse of his property group Signa, which at its peak acquired stakes in New York's Chrysler Building and British department-store chain Selfridges, Reuters reported. Signa became the biggest casualty of Europe's property downturn when some of its main units filed for insolvency in 2023. Prosecutors are conducting a sprawling investigation into possible crimes committed, and estimate the related damage caused at around 300 million euros ($348 million).

Swiss authorities' 2023 decision to write off 16.5 billion Swiss francs ($20.53 billion) in Credit Suisse bonds was unlawful, a court said on Tuesday, raising fresh questions about how the bank's rescue and subsequent takeover by UBS was handled, Reuters reported. The March 2023 decision by market regulator FINMA to wipe out Credit Suisse's Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds during the state-engineered takeover by its old rival UBS triggered an investor backlash and legal challenges. In a partial decision, the court said the 2023 AT1 bond write-off lacked a legal basis.

The U.K.’s labor market loosened a little in the three months through August, with unemployment creeping up and wage growth slowing, as firms continued to hold back from hiring, the Wall Street Journal reported. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.8%, from 4.7% in the three months through July, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. The jobless rate, which has slowly risen from a low of 4.0% in the summer of 2024, was higher than consensus expectations from economists polled by The Wall Street Journal that it would stay the same.

Global markets are getting too comfortable with risks like trade wars, geopolitical tensions and yawning government deficits, which, combined with already overpriced assets, increase the chance of a "disorderly" market correction, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Underscoring the IMF's warning, President Donald Trump's revived threats on Friday to hike tariffs on China stoked investor fears of a major asset price correction. The comments sparked a sell-off in U.S. stocks and sent bitcoin tumbling.

Kenya is one step closer to regulating crypto in the country, as its parliament enacted the Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill 2025 last week, a senior parliament member told Reuters. The bill will now need to be signed by Kenyan President William Ruto in order to create the legislative framework, which regulates crypto service providers and addresses potential misuse in the industry. "We are hoping that Kenya can be now the gateway into Africa," finance committee chairman Kuria Kimani told Reuters.