Headlines

European Union leaders will call next week for a harmonisation of the 27-nation bloc's bankruptcy and corporate tax laws to attract more private capital for the EU shift to renewable energy and a more digital economy, a draft document showed, Reuters reported. Draft conclusions of a summit of EU leaders scheduled for April 17-18, seen by Reuters, also showed leaders would call for the development of a European securitisation market and for better supervision of cross-border financial market actors.

The number of corporate bankruptcies with liabilities of at least ¥10 million in fiscal 2023 rose 31.5% from the previous year to 9,053, topping 9,000 for the first time in nine years, a survey by Tokyo Shoko Research showed on Monday, the Japan Times reported. In the year through March, bankruptcies mainly rose among small and midsize companies as they struggled to raise prices to reflect higher material and other costs. Labor shortages were also behind the rise in bankruptcies.

Fashion retailer Esprit’s Belgium subsidiary has filed for insolvency due to rising costs and cash flow difficulties, the Wall Street Journal reported. Esprit Belgie Retail filed for the commencement of insolvency proceedings over its assets at the insolvency court of Belgium on April 8, Esprit said late Monday in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. Esprit said that its Europe retail business operations were under stress because of high energy and logistics costs and weak consumer sentiment. Late last month, the fashion retailer’s Swiss unit had filed for insolvency.

The National Company Law Tribunal on Monday extended the timeline for Go First's corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) beyond the April 4 deadline by 60 days, the Economic Times of India reported. Seeking the extension, the counsel for resolution professional (RP) informed the tribunal that the CIRP was in the final stage, with the committee of creditors (COC) deliberating over two resolution plans received by the grounded airline.

A group of creditors of Thames Water’s operating company have picked advisers for potential restructuring talks, Bloomberg News reported. The investors chose Jefferies Financial Group Inc. as a financial adviser and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP for legal representation, said people familiar with the matter, who spoke to Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity. The creditors own private and public bonds from Thames Water Utilities Ltd. The moves comes as parent company Kemble Water Finance Ltd.

Atos said that it reached an agreement in principle with a group of banks, bondholders and the French State for much-needed liquidity until the troubled French IT company strikes a definitive agreement with creditors to trim its debt pile and restore profitability, the Wall Street Journal reported. The group said yesterday that it would receive 450 million euros ($488.8 million) in financing to keep operations going while it aims to strike a deal with creditors on a new capital structure by July.

A consortium including Hudson's Bay Company CEO Richard Baker's investment firm NRDC Corp is set to take over German department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. Galeria, Germany's most prominent retailer, earlier this year filed for insolvency following the collapse of its parent Signa, the Austria-based property empire that has become the biggest casualty so far in Europe's real-estate crisis. Baker's Hudson's Bay Company had owned Galeria Kaufhof for several years before a sale to Signa and the chain's merger with Karstadt.

Office landlords, battered by a global crash, have been clinging to the hope that new buildings with strong green credentials will still demand top rents and prices. Dublin is emerging as a cautionary tale that such optimism may not hold up, Bloomberg News reported. In the city’s North Docks district, new buildings are falling into bankruptcy protection after US tech firms scaled back the amount of new space they leased and borrowing costs rose.

The Swiss National Bank sees no need for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to be issued to the general public, Chairman Thomas Jordan said on Monday, Reuters reported. "Consumers and businesses already have access to a wide range of efficient and innovative payment instruments offered by the private sector," Jordan told an event in Zurich, in remarks that addressed a product known as a retail CBDC.

The socialist government of Venezuela is discussing compensation with at least two Colombian companies whose assets were seized under late President Hugo Chávez, Bloomberg News reported. Colombia’s largest cement maker, Cementos Argos SA, is in talks involving the possible takeover of a state-owned cement plant near Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, according to German Umaña, Colombia’s minister of commerce, trade and tourism. An expropriated subsidiary of Cali-based sugar exporter Comercializadora Internacional de Azúcares y Mieles, Ciamsa, is also in negotiations for compensation, Umaña said.