Headlines

If the U.K. Supreme Court rules against her, Prime Minister Theresa May plans to rush a short bill through Parliament to trigger Brexit by her self-imposed March 31 deadline, Bloomberg News reported. The court’s 11 judges are due to give their verdict on a government appeal against a High Court decision that May should seek the approval of lawmakers before formally starting Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. The ruling will be announced at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday in London in a session expected to last five minutes.

Emirates, the world's biggest long-haul airline, said on Monday it was in the process of only a "modest restructuring," two months after it reported a 75 percent decline in half-year profits due to slower growth and increased competition, Reuters reported. Gulf carriers who spent years rapidly expanding into markets from South America to Africa are under pressure to adapt to weaker markets, overcapacity and a stronger dollar.

The monetary easing and strong property market that buoyed China’s economic growth last year are petering out, leaving policy makers with fewer tools to keep the economy humming steadily in an important political year, The Wall Street Journal reported. Pushed ahead by a torrent of credit and fiscal spending, the world’s second-largest economy clocked 6.7% growth for 2016, according to government data released Friday.

Having left us fumbling around in the dark for months, British prime minister Theresa May finally flicked the light switch this week and revealed some of the UK’s strategy and the post-Brexit landscape that’s likely to unfold, the Irish Times reported. In a landmark speech that won her much acclaim from Brexiteers and the British media, May – “the new iron lady”, as the Daily Mail beamed – declared London’s intention to leave the single market and walk away from talks in the event Britain is offered a bad deal.

Bus Éireann will seek the intervention of the Labour Court if trade unions do not agree to take part in talks on its survival plan for the company. However, a spokeswoman for the company said any such process must take place over a period of weeks, not months. The company said its losses were accelerating, the Irish Times reported. A number of unions have said they will not accept an invitation by the company to attend talks next week to discuss radical proposals, including redundancies and cuts to premium payments and allowances as well as out-sourcing.

HSBC has agreed to stump up £4 million (€4.6m ) to pay back customers subjected to “unreasonable” debt collection practices following a regulatory probe, the Irish Times reported. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Friday that the bank has voluntarily agreed to set up a redress scheme for customers who were left out of pocket after paying unreasonable debt collection charges imposed by HFC Bank (HFC) and John Lewis Financial Services Limited (JLFS), both part of HSBC.

New analysis from KPMG reveals that 2016 saw the reversal of a six year downward trend in levels of insolvency for British businesses, following an uptick in companies entering into administration in the second half of the year. The numbers, taken from notices in the London Gazette, show that 1,174 companies, or groups of companies, entered into administration across the UK during 2016, compared with the 15-year low of 1,111 in the previous year. The picture in the Midlands shows a similar trend, with insolvencies in the region increasing in the year from 163 to 169.

The receivers of Pumpkin Patch will have all stores closed by mid-February after they couldn't entice a buyer for the failed children's wear chain, which traded through the traditionally busy holiday period, The New Zealand Herald reported. Sixty-eight stores employing 560 people will close by Jan. 31, and the remaining 56 stores across New Zealand and Australia will shut as and when stock is sold, through the middle of next month, receiver Neale Jackson of KordaMentha said in a statement. Pumpkin Patch staff at head office will lose their jobs over the coming weeks.

Another blow to national pride: on January 13th DBRS, a Canadian rating agency, downgraded Italy’s sovereign debt, stripping the country of its last A rating. Government bond-yields rose; so will the cost of funding for Italian banks. Erik Nielsen, chief economist of UniCredit, Italy’s biggest lender, calls the extra €5bn ($5.3bn) or so banks will have to put up as collateral for their loans from the European Central Bank (ECB) “immaterial”, The Economist reported. Still, it is a burden they could do without.

Irish financier Paul Coulson’s Ardagh Group unveiled plans to refinance almost $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion) of debt due in two years’ time as the glass and metal containers manufacturer lays the ground for an initial public offering in the coming months, the Irish Times reported. The company said on Thursday it was launching the sale of $1 billion of senior bonds that will mature in 2025.