Headlines

Unigel Participacoes SA is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection in Brazil after talks with creditors stalled, Bloomberg News reported. The chemical producer was granted a 60-day protection from creditors by a court on Dec. 14, but a mediation process didn’t result in an agreement. Local bondholders declared the early maturity of some notes last year, triggering an acceleration of the troubled fertilizer maker’s debt and prompting the company to seek protection in court.

A new report has called for a radical global effort this year to help vulnerable countries fend off financial meltdown and climate change, including widespread debt relief and even a China-led version of the Brady Bond plan, Reuters reported. The report by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center warned that 62 developing economies, including most of Africa and Oceania, are already in a full-blown debt crisis or in immediate need of restructurings.

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has admitted listed infrastructure development company SKIL Infrastructure Ltd under the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) following an application filed by its financial creditor, Amluckie Investment Company Ltd., the Economic Times of India reported. The tribunal has also appointed Purusottam Behera as its resolution professional.

Jaicorp’s vice chairman Virendra Jain and his son Ankit Jain have emerged the highest bidders for Chennai-based steel maker Kamachi Industries, a sick unit being liquidated after a failed insolvency resolution process, the Economic Times of India reported. The father-son duo offered to acquire the company as a going concern. Their bid of Rs. 487 crore has been made under a National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)-monitored process initiated by State Bank of India in February 2020. Kamachi Industries defaulted on Rs 2,200 crore of loans granted by a consortium of five public sector banks.

In an attempt to bring harmony and reduce delays, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has now allowed the appointment of the same insolvency professional (IP) in the resolution or liquidation process of the corporate debtor (CD) and its personal guarantor (PG), the Financial Express reported. “Removal of this restriction will allow the appointment of the same IP in both the corporate process as well as the insolvency and bankruptcy proceeding of the PGs to the CDs for better harmonisation and effective coordination of both the processes,” the IBBI said on Saturday.

China's securities regulator said on Tuesday it would suspend brokerages from borrowing shares for lending and cap the size of the so-called securities re-lending business, as part of further efforts to curb short-selling, Reuters reported. The watchdog will also ban securities lending to investors who sell stocks on the same day of purchase, and vowed to crack down on illegal arbitrage using short-selling.

Three South Korean financial firms set aside almost $560 million combined to cover potential losses amid wider regulator concerns about real estate exposure as valuations continue to fall, Bloomberg News reported. Woori Financial Group Inc. booked a provision of 525 billion won ($396 million) in the fourth quarter after a “comprehensive examination on vulnerable areas” such as property, Vice President Sung-Wook Lee said on a call with analysts.

Retail sales growth in the U.K. slowed in January mainly due to easing inflation and weak consumer demand, with cost-of-living pressures entering their third year, according to British Retail Consortium data, the Wall Street Journal reported. Total retail sales for the four weeks to Jan. 27 increased by 1.2% on month compared with 1.7% growth the prior month and the three-month average of 1.9%, the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor said Tuesday. Growth stood at 4.2% in January last year.

Outstanding loans in Brazil grew by 7.9% in 2023, a sharp deceleration from the previous year when the expansion had been 14.5%, central bank data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The credit stock saw a 1.4% increase in December from the previous month, with the volume of financing concluding the year at 5.8 trillion reais ($1.16 trillion). The slowdown in outstanding loans last year was driven by high borrowing costs.

Europe's green energy transition is stuck between a rock and a hard place. A flood of cheap Chinese solar panel imports is driving record solar energy installations. But those same imports are crushing Europe's few local solar manufacturers, Reuters reported. Governments and industry are split over how to respond. Europe just had a bumper year for green energy. European Union countries installed record levels of solar capacity, 40% more than in 2022. The vast majority of those panels and parts came from China – in some cases, 95%, International Energy Agency data show.