Headlines

Rishi Sunak has denied there is a “crisis” in local government funding despite warnings that well-run councils are on the brink of bankruptcy and local services at risk without more support, The Guardian reported. The prime minister admitted that councils faced “challenges,” in particular with inflation, which has significantly outpaced recent cash injections, at the cross-party liaison committee.

Brazil's finance ministry unveiled on Tuesday its proposal to reduce the burden of states' debt to the federal government, conditioned upon allocating resources to technical high school education, Reuters reported. The move comes after several governors have requested lower charges, arguing that the amount paid in interest is excessively high and hampers investment.

According to an official statement from Esprit, the bankruptcy of the Swiss subsidiary and the closure of the branches were “unavoidable,” Swissinfo.ch reported. “Global economic development, combined with a sharp increase in energy and logistics costs as well as negative consumer sentiment and, last but not least, the high rents for our branches, ultimately made it impossible to continue our business,” Esprit Switzerland Retail said in a statement. The Swiss Esprit subsidiary’s over-indebtedness amounted to around CHF12 million at the end of 2023.

Van Hool's bankruptcy is now unavoidable, crisis manager Marc Zwaaneveld (appointed in early 2024) said in an interview with De Standaard, Sustainable Bus reported. Production of trambuses for Paris is a high risk as well, as he specifically stated that those buses "cost too much to make.” Van Hool announced its plan to stop production of city buses (and relocating business in Macedonia) on 11th March. Later on, the company asked for protection from creditors.

SAS AB (“SAS” or the “company”) and its relevant subsidiaries undergoing voluntary chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. will imminently submit monthly operating reports to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Travel and World Tour reported. These reports, to be filed on a monthly basis, will encompass financial data spanning from November 1, 2023, to February 29, 2024.

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has adjourned the hearing of an application in cable TV distribution company Siti Networks' insolvency resolution matter to April 3, ET reported. Siti Networks is a multi-system operator (MSO) promoted by the Essel Group and offers a variety of channels, including HD services, digital cable TV, and broadband services. The report states the bench observed that various applications were pending, highlighting irregularities in the process and the change in the date of the start of the resolution process.

The Bank of Canada (BoC) on Tuesday said businesses urgently needed to boost investment to increase productivity, saying this would help insulate the economy against the threat of inflation, Reuters reported. “I'm saying that it's an emergency — it's time to break the glass," Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers told a business audience in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia.

Massive layoffs, production cuts, project delays and cancellations, Bloomberg reported. As China’s world-leading solar manufacturers grapple with excess capacity and a fierce price war, the industry looks poised to enter a period of brutal consolidation. There have been no reports of major bankruptcies yet, but Longi Green Energy Technology Co.’s warning in May that more than half the nation’s solar companies could go under no longer seems far-fetched. Previously reliant on subsidies and fickle technological trends, solar has a history of boom-and-bust cycles.

The Canadian province of Ontario on Tuesday forecast its budget deficit would more than triple in the upcoming fiscal year as economic growth stalls and it spends more on housing and roads, as well as measures to ease the cost of living, Reuters reported. Ontario, Canada's most populous province and home to Toronto, its largest city, said its deficit would widen to C$9.8 billion ($7.2 billion), or 0.9% of gross domestic product, in 2024-25, from an estimated C$3 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31.

Before China came to dominate the solar panel industry, Germany led the way, the Wall Street Journal reported. It was the world’s largest producer of solar panels, with several start-ups clustered in the former East Germany, until about a decade ago when China ramped up production and undercut just about everyone on price. Now as Germany and the rest of Europe try to reach ambitious goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the demand for solar panels has only increased. Some of the last remaining manufacturers in Germany’s solar industry are not ready to give up.