Headlines

Carillion has hired professional services firm EY to assist with a review of its finances, as the UK construction and support services group turns to more outside advisers in a bid to repair its balance sheet, the Financial Times reported. The FTSE 250 group said it had brought in EY “with immediate effect” to work on the strategic review it announced last week, with a focus on cutting costs and collecting more cash from contracts.

In 2014, U.K. builder Carillion Plc was riding high: it had just won a $434 million contract to build the Royal Liverpool Hospital and was attempting to snap up its struggling rival Balfour Beatty Plc for about $2.6 billion, Bloomberg News reported. Three years later, and the former Tarmac business is on life support. Carillion has lost 70 percent of its market value this week after flagging 845 million pounds ($1.09 billion) in surprise contract provisions.

Venezuela’s foreign reserves have dropped below $10bn for the first time in 15 years as chronic mismanagement, corruption and subdued oil prices continue to batter what used to be the wealthiest country in South America, the Financial Times reported. The reserves stood at $9.983bn, according to figures published on Friday from the central bank, representing a 77 per cent decrease since January 2009 when they hit a peak of $43bn. The fall comes at a time of heightened political tension.

The eurozone’s trade in goods surplus inched up in May as import and export values both grew on the back of another bumper performance in Germany, the Financial Times reported. Official trade figures from Eurostat show the bloc’s seasonally adjusted surplus in goods rose 2.1 per cent from €18.6bn to €19.7bn in May. The reading was just below an average forecast of €20bn. The eurozone’s trade balance has been in surplus since 2012 – the aftermath of the continent’s debt crisis – as governments have driven themselves to become more competitive.

The official who looks after bankrupts’ affairs is seeking to have the bankruptcy period of a Co Westmeath businessman extended over an alleged lack of cooperation and concerns about assets transfers, the Irish Times reported. The business affairs of Patrick J Daly include an investment in a property in Panama in 2006 that was lost through fraud, and which featured in a murder trial in the Central American country in which the fraudsters were convicted of murdering a local politician after he discovered what they were up to.

Emboldened by the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, the RBI is expected to push for resolution of bad loans worth around Rs. 8 lakh crore by March 2019, a move that could bring down the NPAs and improve the financial health of banks, a study by Assocham said, Firstpost reported. “So, it should be safe to assume that the non-performing assets (NPAs) mess would largely be resolved by the first quarter of financial year 2019-20,” Assocham study titled ’NPAs Resolution: Light at the end of tunnel by March 2019’ said.

Upmarket grocery chain Nosh has been placed in receivership, Companies Office records show. Damien Grant was appointed as a receiver on Friday. Before the receivership, staff were waiting to be paid wages and numerous creditors had ceased supplying the stores, The New Zealand Herald reported. Grant said it would be "very difficult" to get the stores back into trading. He was unable to provide detail on whether staff, creditors and landlords will be paid, saying he had yet to conduct a stocktake of the business.

Sears Canada Inc was granted court approval on Thursday to proceed with a sale process that would allow the retailer to consider a range of potential deals, according to court documents. A report by the court-appointed monitor FTI Consulting posted on its website on Wednesday said that more than 20 parties have signed non-disclosure agreements with Sears Canada as part of the planned sale process, Reuters reported.

Denmark's state prosecutor charged the former manager of OW Bunker's Singapore subsidiary with fraud on Thursday but cleared the Danish management of the failed marine fuel oil supplier of any criminal wrongdoing. OW Bunker filed for bankruptcy in Denmark in November 2014 after losses at its Singapore business Dynamic Oil Trading, a marked change of fortunes for a firm valued at $1 billion when it listed in March that year, Reuters reported.

South Africa will extend more support to the beleaguered state-owned power utility and is considering selling assets as part of a 14-point plan to revive an economy that’s in its second recession in almost a decade, Bloomberg News reported. The country will approach the energy regulator this month about the “hardship” Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. is dealing with, and will develop a case for “soft support” of the electricity producer until its new tariffs are finalized next year, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba told reporters in Johannesburg Thursday.