Headlines

India’s shadow banks are likely to see a further squeeze on their profit margins after the Reserve Bank of India signaled it will tighten liquidity requirements to bring them in line with the country’s more closely regulated commercial banks, Bloomberg News reported. Instead of providing a much-expected liquidity window to non-bank finance companies via the regular lenders, the central bank took a tougher stance on Friday by issuing draft guidelines requiring most NBFCs to set aside a liquidity buffer by investing in high-quality liquid assets, primarily sovereign bonds.

The past months have been brutal for the U.K.’s retail and consumer industries, and one bank that’s felt its fair share of the pain is HSBC Holdings Plc, which has found itself on the wrong side of several of the highest-profile failures, Bloomberg News reported. Last week, TV celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s casual-dining chain was placed into protection from creditors. That left Europe’s largest bank sitting on about 30 million pounds ($38 million) of potential losses, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Seadrill Ltd. plunged to the lowest since it emerged from bankruptcy less than year ago after Carnegie Investment Bank AB recommended selling the shares and slashed the price target by 88% amid mounting recovery concerns, Bloomberg News reported. The offshore rig market recovery is “not happening fast enough” for Seadrill, Carnegie said in a note to clients on Monday. The investment bank cut its recommendation from a buy and lowered the target price to 25 kroner from 210 kroner.

Brazil’s civil aviation regulator ANAC said on Friday it had suspended all flights and operations of carrier Avianca Brasil in the country as a precautionary measure, following the company’s filing for bankruptcy late last year, Reuters reported. “All the flights are suspended until the company proves it has the capacity to maintain operations safely,” ANAC said in a statement. Avianca Brasil has filed for bankruptcy protection and lost most of its fleet after lessors obtained favorable court decisions to take aircraft back for lack of payments.

The Federal Government has agreed to write off the loan given to the state government for the rural water supply project on 2001 onward, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today. He said the loan was based on the balance that had not been settled on December 31, 2018 with the total amount of RM3.8 billion, which was subject to the state government to finalise the restructuring of water supply by December 31, 2019 at the latest, Malay Mail reported.

A High Court judge has reserved judgment in a personal insolvency application by musician Frank McNamara and his barrister wife Theresa Lowe, the Irish Examiner reported. Mr Justice Denis McDonald said he won't give his decision before July as he has "to make sense" of the personal insolvency legislation which had been "drafted in an unhelpful way". It followed the second day of legal submissions in the case in which the couple seek court approval for an arrangement to assist them in dealing with debts of €3.7m.

The number of Edmontonians who filed for bankruptcy in 2018 reached its highest point in the last nine years, according to the federal Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, the Edmonton Journal reported. Edmonton’s 2018 consumer insolvency rate for residents over 18 tallied 4.4 per 1,000 people, show annual statistics released May 24.

China is ducking a bankruptcy test. Baoshang Bank, linked to missing billionaire Xiao Jianhua, has been brought under state control, Reuters reported. Despite threats, Beijing remains wary of allowing even disgraced local lenders to fail. Interest in Baoshang, based in Inner Mongolia, comes thanks to its colourful history. Its biggest stakeholder - and a major borrower - was Tomorrow Holdings, run by Xiao until he vanished in 2017 from a Hong Kong hotel. The insurance conglomerate’s assets are now being sold off piecemeal.

The Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has dismissed ICICI Bank's application seeking insolvency proceedings against Hyderabad Ring Road Projects Pvt Ltd on the ground of duplicacy as proceedings are already underway against Era Infra Engineering, of which the former firm is a special purpose vehicle (SPV), Business Standard reported. The two-judge bench headed by NCLT President M.M. Kumar dismissed the petition, saying "on account of duplicacy of the claims the petition cannot be entertained".

In a related story, the Financial Times reported that manufacturing in the eurozone contracted in May, with an influential gauge indicating that activity remains weak as producers grapple with the intensifying US-China trade war and a slowing global economy. The single currency area is struggling to recover from the slowdown that began almost a year ago, according to the closely watched eurozone manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, which remained below the crucial 50 level in May.