Headlines

Scandinavian airline SAS said it would file a second amended chapter 11 plan of reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday and said it had obtained the support of the unsecured creditors' committee, Reuters reported. The company said it expected about $325 million to be allocated to general unsecured creditors as part of the amended plan, consisting of up to $250 million in cash and $75 million in new equity.

Vadraj Cement, which was stuck in liquidation for more than five years under the Bombay High Court, has been shifted to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for debt resolution, giving lenders a glimmer of hope to recover more than half of their dues, the Economic Times or India reported. Last Friday, NCLT pronounced an order to admit Vadraj Cement, formerly known as ABG Cement, for corporate insolvency process. Adani Group, UltraTech Cement and JSW Cement may bid to acquire the debt-laden company, lenders said.

Bradford Council has drafted in a specialist to overhaul its finances as it tries to avoid going bust, BBC.com reported. Steven Mair became the authority's interim director of finance last month. He had previously been brought in by councils in Essex and Berkshire as they went through effective bankruptcy. A Bradford Council spokesperson said officers were pleased he would "support us at this financially challenging time". They said Mr Mair had "extensive experience of dealing with successful financial and change management projects across several local authorities".

Thousands of real-estate projects in China are set to receive funding under Beijing’s new “whitelist” financing program, as policymakers intensify efforts to rescue the property sector from a deepening liquidity crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. By the end of January, 170 cities in China’s 26 provinces had proposed their first batch of more than 3,000 favored projects to commercial banks, with a total 17.86 billion yuan ($2.48 billion) of loans already earmarked for 83 such projects, state media reported Sunday, citing official sources.

Hours before a court hearing that would decide the fate of Evergrande, its biggest bondholders faced a stark choice: split control of the sprawling property developer with more than a dozen Chinese banks or risk putting the company out of business for good, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In the end, the bondholders decided to back a wind-down of Evergrande after it tried to push through a deal that would have given Chinese banks control of most of the developer, while imposing steep losses on foreign creditors like themselves.

When Kris Lin, who owns a lighting factory in China, received this year's first order from a close overseas client, he faced a distressing choice: take it at a loss, or tell workers not to come back after the Lunar New Year, Reuters reported. "It was impossible for me to lose this order," said Lin, who plans to re-start his factory in the eastern city of Taizhou at around half its capacity after the Feb. 10-17 holiday break. "I could have lost this client forever, and it would have endangered livelihoods for so many people.

Swedish electric motorcycle company Cake has filed for bankruptcy, Tech.eu reported. Founded in 2017, the company designs and manufactures high-performance electric on and off-road motorcycles. It has released five adult motorcycles and one child’s bicycle, with a wide variety of users and applications, including commercial use for last-mile delivery and other short-haul urban transportation. It has sold about 6000 bikes. It opened a 2800-square-metre factory in Sweden in 2020 and planned an additional factory in the US.

Some of the banks backing KKR & Co.’s purchase of Telecom Italia SpA’s land line network with a €10 billion ($10.7 billion) infrastructure financing are looking to syndicate the deal this month, Bloomberg News reported. The financing was underwritten at the end of last year by 10 or more banks including BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole SA and JPMorgan Chase & Co., according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity. Some of the banks are now set to sell on the debt to buyers including infrastructure funds, the people said.

Shares of South Korean financial stocks fell after an industry watchdog said banks and other firms in the sector will face “stern measures” if they charge excessive interest rates or engage in other misconduct, Bloomberg News reported. “Starting this year, financial companies evading responsibility by disregarding customers’ profit or not recognizing the losses that they have to will face stern measures and even risk getting kicked out from the market,” Lee Bokhyun, the Financial Supervisory Service’s governor, said in a prepared statement Monday to address its 2024 agenda.

Turkey’s central bank governor resigned late on Friday after less than a year in office, marking the latest turbulence in a major world economy that has suffered a series of economic crises in recent years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Turkey has had five central bank governors in the past five years under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who pressured the bank into cutting interest rates in 2021 despite the country’s high inflation rate, triggering a currency crisis.