Headlines

One of the most popular electric bicycle manufacturing companies in the Netherlands, Stella, has requested protection from its creditors as the business is struggling financially, the Financeele Dagblad reported on Tuesday, according to the NL Times. The fate of the company’s 440 employees and 50 retail outlets is now up in the air. The move to defer payments can often lead to a Dutch company declaring bankruptcy. Stella’s parent, investment firm DMEP, has said that they think it would be irresponsible to invest more money into the company.

Rachel Reeves’ big fiscal feast risks giving the Bank of England indigestion, Reuters reported. The new Labour finance minister’s decision to hike spending, taxes and borrowing in the budget will provide a short-lived boost to growth next year. But it will also reduce BoE Governor Andrew Bailey’s ability to cut rates and keep pace with his European and U.S. counterparts. Reeves’ plan to reduce economic slack but may leave Bailey without any of his own. Her budget will raise spending by 70 billion pounds a year until 2030, according to the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

French investigators raided offices of the French soccer league and private equity firm CVC Capital Partners on Tuesday as part of an investigation into possible corruption and embezzlement related to an investment deal, a judicial official said, the Associated Press reported. The searches took place amid an investigation that opened in July into charges of misappropriation of public funds, active and passive corruption of a public official and illegal taking of interest, the judicial official told the Associated Press.

Australia’s central bank held its key interest rate at a 13-year high on Tuesday, aiming to keep up the pressure on stubbornly sticky inflation while joining much of the world in waiting for the outcome of US elections, Bloomberg reported. As expected, the Reserve Bank left its cash rate at 4.35%, marking a year at that level, and restated that it isn’t “ruling anything in or out” on policy. The RBA’s board highlighted the “high level of uncertainty” about the international outlook. Underlying inflation “remains too high,” the rate-setting board said in a statement.

Japanese manufacturers were less confident about business conditions in November than in October, a Reuters monthly poll showed on Wednesday, as China's economic slowdown and a persistently high rate of inflation soured sentiment, Reuters reported. Confidence in the service sector also eased for the fifth consecutive month to its lowest since February 2023 due to rising costs and a shortage of labor, the poll showed. Both manufacturers and non-manufacturers cited a particularly volatile foreign exchange market as a concern.

Banks in the euro region have about €1.3 trillion ($1.4 billion) in outstanding loans to commercial real estate investors and credit quality is “visibly deteriorating,” European Central Bank researchers found in a study of the links between CRE and the financial system, Bloomberg reported. “Exposures are not evenly spread across banks, and a tail of smaller, specialized banks with larger exposures” may “experience stress,” according to the report. The researchers pointed to a rise in non-performing loans as evidence of the worsening creditworthiness.

Philippine inflation quickened within market expectations in October, giving the central bank room to sustain its easing cycle, Bloomberg reported. Consumer prices rose 2.3% year-on-year in October, matching median economists forecast in a Bloomberg survey and falling within the central bank’s estimate of 2% to 2.8% for the month. Food inflation accelerated as rice price gains snapped a downtrend due to base effects. While inflation ticked up after decelerating in September, average inflation for the past ten months was at 3.3%, still within the central bank’s 2%-to-4% goal.

Dutch retailer Blokker was granted a moratorium on payment on Monday morning, reports Ynse Stapert, CEO of parent company Mirage Retail Group, Retail Detail reported. Though some 400 shops remain open for now, the webshop is closed. In a press release, Blokker confirms the report of business magazine Quote, which said last Friday that the chain had applied for a moratorium. Possibly this means the end for the household chain; after all, such a procedure often leads to bankruptcy. An administrator will work with Blokker’s management to investigate whether the company can restart.

Trustees of Corporate Commercial Bank, currently in bankruptcy, announced the commencement of payments to creditors starting at 09:00 on November 5, 2024, novinite.com reported. This will involve amounts from the sixth partial account for distributing accepted receivables, totaling 30 million leva, as reported in a letter to BTA. The disbursement will take place through the branch network of Investbank AD. Creditors receiving funds will be responsible for any applicable fees and commissions, which will follow Investbank’s standard tariff for such operations.

TGI Fridays Malaysia has assured customers that the local franchise restaurants will continue operating as usual and remains unaffected by the recent chapter 11 filing by TGI Fridays Inc. in the U.S., Business Today reported. Craveat International Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Techna-X Berhad, the Master franchisee and developer for TGI Fridays Malaysia, operates under a franchise agreement with TGI Fridays Franchisor, LLC, which it said is separate from TGI Fridays Inc. and is not impacted by this restructuring in the U.S., it said in a statement today.