Headlines

The collapse of the Signa retail and real estate group is so dire that even companies hired to liquidate an insolvent unit will have to stand in line to recoup their money, Bloomberg News reported. The bankruptcy administrator for Signa Real Estate Management GmbH said assets were insufficient to pay for the clean-up, triggering a special clause under Austrian insolvency law, according to a notice to the Vienna Commercial Court.

China has ousted the head of its securities watchdog, the official Xinhua news agency said, replacing him with a veteran regulator with a reputation for tough action as policymakers struggle to stabilise the country's stock markets, Reuters reported. The cabinet has replaced Yi Huiman as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) with Wu Qing, who has led the Shanghai Stock Exchange and served as a key deputy in Shanghai's municipal government, Xinhua said on Wednesday.

Distressed Chinese developer Guangzhou R&F Properties plans to sell a property project in London by asking to receive some of its dollar bonds and just HK$1 (S$0.17) of cash, the Business Times reported. The defaulted builder signed a letter of intent to sell the holding company of Market Towers at 1 Nine Elms Lane, according to a filing late Tuesday (Feb 6) in Hong Kong. The mixed-used development is valued at £1.34 billion (S$2.27 billion) and includes 437 residential units and a hotel, it said.

Tech-stock valuations in the U.S. are beginning to look rich again. One likely consequence is the U.S. tech frenzy starting to spread to certain emerging markets, the Wall Street Journal reported. It is probably a good thing, then, that global investors are getting a timely reminder of what can happen when they rush into what looks like the next big thing without doing their homework.

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said monetary policy can’t solve housing shortages that are driving up costs, suggesting that policymakers may consider looking beyond shelter inflation as they weigh how long to keep interest rates at current levels, Bloomberg News reported. In his first speech since holding the policy rate at 5% for a fourth consecutive meeting, Macklem said high shelter inflation — now the biggest contributor to above-target price gains — partly reflects the impact of rate increases on mortgage interest costs.

SBB said on Tuesday that one of its creditors had started legal proceedings against the Swedish property group for debt recovery, citing a breach of a bond clause, Reuters reported. Although the company did not disclose the name of the bondholder, it said the combined debt owned by the party represented 46 million euros ($49.43 million). Reuters reported in November that U.S. hedge fund Fir Tree Partners was accelerating its notes and starting proceedings against SBB for debt recovery, the first such official demand faced by the landlord.

Britain’s biggest homebuilder Barratt Developments agreed on Wednesday to purchase rival Redrow for £2.52 billion ($3.18 billion) as signs emerged of a recovery in the U.K. housing market, MarketWatch.com reported. Adding Redrow’s high-end homes to Barratt’s portfolio would give “customers a wider range of home types and price points,” while also delivering cost synergies of up to £90 million from “procurement savings and a rationalization of divisional and central functions,” said the FTSE 100 member.

Sweden's central bank could cut rates as early as the first half of this year, but there are risks that inflation might prove stubborn, delaying policy easing, the minutes of the central bank's most recent meeting, published on Wednesday, showed, Reuters reported. The Riksbank kept its key interest rate unchanged at 4.00% on Feb. 1, but said it could start loosening policy much earlier than its previous forecast.

New Zealand’s unemployment rate rose to 4.0% in the fourth quarter of last year from 3.9% in the third quarter, further confirming that a slowdown in the economy continues to play out, the Wall Street Journal reported. The unemployment rate rose 0.6 percentage points through 2023, up from 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2022, Stats NZ said on Wednesday. “Unemployment rates have returned to 2019 levels, following recent historic lows,” Becky Collett, work and wellbeing statistics senior manager at Stats NZ, said.

Telecom Italia SpA is planning to reject Italy’s bid of up to €750 million ($805 million) for its submarine cable unit Telecom Italia Sparkle SpA dragging on the sale of a strategic asset for the government, Bloomberg News reported. The company’s board is expected to ask Italy’s Finance Ministry for better terms for the entire unit at a meeting Wednesday. Giorgia Meloni’s government is trying to take over what it views as a particularly strategic asset beyond Italy. Sparkle operates over 600,000 kilometers (373,000 miles) of cables connecting countries including Israel and the US.