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Creditors of the two main property units in Rene Benko’s Signa conglomerate backed plans to sell off assets as part of a restructuring that’s expected to recoup about 30% of their money, Bloomberg News reported. Lenders, which include banks, insurers and sovereign wealth funds, backed the proposals for Signa Prime Selection, the flagship luxury unit, and its smaller sister Signa Development Selection at meetings in Vienna on Monday. Signa Prime owns famous properties such as the Selfridges department store in London and the KaDeWe in Berlin.

Troubled property developer China Evergrande Group says Beijing’s stock watchdog has fined it 4.2 billion yuan ($333.4 million) for allegedly falsifying its revenue, among other violations, as it conducts a deep clean of the troubled financial sector, the Associated Press reported. The company said in a release to mainland Chinese stock exchanges late Monday that its chairman, Hui Ka Yan, was fined 47 million yuan ($6.5 million) and banned from China’s markets for life.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Mumbai has admitted a corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) against over a century-old textile maker ShriVallabh Pittie (SVP) group’s affiliate Shrivallabh Pittie Industries Ltd in an application filed by the State Bank of India, the Economic Times of India reported. The lender had approached the tribunal after the company defaulted on its dues of about Rs 90 crore. The tribunal has also appointed Mukesh Verma as resolution professional.

Electric van leasing company EVCo has been put under insolvent liquidation, with debts of almost $50 million, the Straits Times reported. EVCo, also known as Strides DST, is 60 per cent owned by transport operator SMRT’s business arm Strides Holdings and 40 per cent by Dishangtie Green Technology (Hong Kong). The two-year-old firm was incorporated in March 2022 with a paid-up capital of $10 million.

The Swiss National Bank called on Tuesday for an overhaul of bank capital regulations, saying that Switzerland needed rules that recognise UBS has become a bank with even more systemic importance following its takeover of Credit Suisse, Reuters reported. In its annual report, the SNB also said it would accept some forms of credit as collateral from banks wanting to access cash in an emergency, a significant move that is designed to ensure banks do not run out of cash in a crisis. Last year, the SNB said Credit Suisse's lack of collateral accelerated the bank's collapse.

The World Bank is set to provide Egypt with over $6 billion, boosting the global bailout for the North African nation’s struggling economy to more than $50 billion in the past few weeks, Bloomberg News reported. The Washington, D.C.-based institution said Monday the financing covers the coming three years, with half aimed at government support and the remainder to buoy a private sector seen as key to medium and long-term sustainable economic growth. The announcement came a day after the European Union pledged about $8 billion in aid, loans and grants.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) ended eight years of negative interest rates and other remnants of its unorthodox policy on Tuesday, making a historic shift away from its focus on reflating growth with decades of massive monetary stimulus, Reuters reported. While the move was Japan's first interest rate hike in 17 years, it still keeps rates stuck around zero as a fragile economic recovery forces the central bank to go slow on further rises in borrowing costs, analysts say.

Canada's inflation rate surprisingly cooled in February to its slowest pace since June, and closely-watched core inflation measures eased to more than two-year lows, data showed on Tuesday, prompting investors to increase their bets for a June rate cut, Reuters reported. Annual headline inflation cooled to 2.8% last month, beating analyst expectations for a 3.1% rise, and below 2.9% increase in January. On the month, the consumer price index rose 0.3%, less than a forecast 0.6% rise, Statistics Canada said.

The Reserve Bank of Australia said Tuesday that it still can’t rule out the possibility that interest rates will need to be raised further, adding that inflation remains too high and is expected to remain elevated for some time yet, the Wall Street Journal reported. The RBA left its official cash rate on hold at 4.35% at its policy meeting. The decision was widely expected by economists. “While recent data indicate that inflation is easing, it remains high.

European stock market operator Euronext does not plan to go into cryptoasset trading without firm backing from its regulators, Chief Executive Stephane Boujnah said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Once reluctant exchanges are now moving into the crypto space as bitcoin recovers from a crash to hit all-time highs of nearly $74,000 last week, gaining more than 50% this year, as inflows into U.S. listed bitcoin funds surged.