Headlines

A city council has warned it is being forced into “tough” decisions to avoid following others into effective bankruptcy, BBC.com reported. Although Newcastle City is not at imminent risk of going under, proposals to cut spending by another £15m over the next year have been signed off by the Labour-run authority's cabinet.

Russia failed to overturn a ruling in the Netherlands that ordered Moscow to pay around $50 billion in the bankruptcy case of Yukos Oil Co., once the largest Russian oil and gas company, Bloomberg News reported. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal dismissed Russia’s latest legal challenge in a saga that has dragged on for nearly two decades. The latest verdict is unlikely to result in an immediate payment to the former shareholders of Yukos. Russia has previously said it isn’t bound to pay the largest arbitration payout ever.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) at Kolkata on Tuesday, February 20, allowed insolvency proceedings against a 104-year-old company for failure to clear dues of over Rs 4 crore, according to a report on barandbench.com. The case involves the Ahmedabad-based private construction firm Chevrox Construction Pvt. Ltd against state-owned Bridge and Roof Co (India) Ltd. Bridge and Roof is a public sector enterprise (PSU) under the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and comes under the administrative control of the Ministry of Heavy Industries.

Serbia's state bankruptcy supervision agency announced on Tuesday the sale of bankrupt Belgrade-based company Danube Riverside, including its assets such as the historic Hotel Jugoslavija, with a starting price of 3.18 billion dinars ($27.7 million/25.6 million euro), SeeNews.com reported. Apart from Hotel Jugoslavija, Danube Riverside assets include 45,613 square metres of land which it owns jointly with local financial firm MV Investment, the agency said in a tender invitation.

Canada's annual inflation rate slowed significantly more than expected to 2.9% in January and core price measures also eased, data showed on Tuesday, bringing forward bets for an early interest rate cut, Reuters reported. It was the first time in seven months that headline inflation has dipped below 3%. That prompted money markets to hike bets for a rate cut in April to 58% from 33% before the figures were published. The Bank of Canada's next policy announcement is March 6. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast inflation to tick down to 3.3% from 3.4% in December.

Private credit funds for professional investors are facing their first set of stricter rules under a European Union proposal slated for approval this week, as their growth has fueled questions about potential risks, Bloomberg News reported. EU governments are set to sign off on a regulatory update for managers of alternative investments such as direct lenders. It includes caps on leverage — the use of borrowed money to juice returns — for private credit funds and other restrictions that the industry warns will be onerous.

Turkey put an $8.5 billion sukuk deal with the United Arab Emirates on hold as it looks to explore cheaper options in the global bond markets, Bloomberg News reported. Ankara views the yield demanded by Abu Dhabi Development Holding Co PJSC, the fund owned by the United Arab Emirates, as unfavorable. Investor expectations of interest-rate cuts by major central banks later this year are fueling appetite for emerging-market debt, a shift in sentiment that Turkish corporates and the government are eager to capitalize on.

Two of the most high-ranking executives of Oscar Properties Holding AB are leaving the beleaguered Swedish property developer as it struggles for survival amid a dramatic financing crunch in the Swedish real estate sector, Bloomberg News reported. Chief Executive Officer Carl Janglin and Chief Financial Officer Magnus Thimgren said Monday they will leave their respective positions after less than a year. Janglin will remain with Oscar Properties until a successor is in place. Oscar Properties has been hit with two separate bankruptcy claims from creditors in recent weeks.

China’s economic malaise has pushed policymakers and state-owned banks to attempt an escalating series of remedies. Their latest attempt: A surprisingly aggressive cut to a key lending rate, the Wall Street Journal reported. The People’s Bank of China said Tuesday that China’s major banks reduced the five-year loan prime rate, a benchmark for home loans, to a new low of 3.95%, from 4.2% previously. It was the largest cut since the rate was introduced five years ago, and a much bigger reduction than economists had expected.

Bolivia's government set out on Tuesday a package of measures to spur investment and exports as it seeks to reverse a worsening dollar scarcity that has left shelves empty and workers unpaid, Reuters reported. The government of President Luis Arce said its plan, agreed with businesses, would aim to cut red tape for exports, increase investment in grains production, make diesel imports easier, and allow bigger trucks on the roads.