Headlines

South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping Co. is taking further legal action in countries beyond the U.S. for protection of its assets as it works to get a frozen supply chain moving again, with more than half its vessels stranded in ports world-wide and at sea, The Wall Street Journal reported. Hanjin plans to file for court protection in about 10 countries, including Canada, Germany and the U.K., this week and later expand that to 43 jurisdictions to protect its ships and other assets from being seized by creditors, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission said Monday.

Hyundai Merchant Marine Co Ltd is in talks with South Korean firms such as home appliance makers Samsung and LG to carry their cargo, the chairman of South Korea's Financial Services Commission told reporters on Monday. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc have been customers of Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd , a Hanjin spokeswoman previously told Reuters. Shares in Hanjin Shipping slumped by the daily limit of 30 percent in resumed trade on Monday as the South Korean shipping firm struggles to contain the fallout of its collapse.

China’s banks, which dialed down fundraising efforts this year even as bad debts swelled, are making up for lost time, Bloomberg News reported. Both lenders and the companies set up to acquire their delinquent assets are bolstering their finances. China Citic Bank Corp. last month announced plans to raise as much as 40 billion yuan ($6 billion), while Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., Industrial Bank Co. and China Zheshang Bank Co. are also boosting capital. China Cinda Asset Management Co. and China Huarong Asset Management Co. are poised to tap investors.

Ireland should set targets for government debt that are lower than those required by the European Union, and based on measures that more accurately reflect the true size of its economy, the head of the country’s central bank said. In a letter to Minister of Finance Michael Noonan ahead of the publication of his budget for 2017 later this year and made public Monday, Philip Lane also warned against assuming a recent surge in tax revenue from U.S. companies based in Ireland would be sustained.

The bell tolls for the Nigerian economy as the government and its private sector battle a humongous recession considered the worst in 29 years threatens to wipe off millions of jobs in critical sectors, Nigeria Today reported. As at last weekend, the omnious economic headwind had taken its first casualties in the aviation industry when two prominent indigenous airlines, Aero Contractors and First Nation, announced the suspension of scheduled flight operations, thus throwing over 2500 Nigerians into the labour market.

South Korean container shipper Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd said on Friday its membership in the CKYHE shipping alliance has been suspended, adding to the troubles of the country's top shipping firm, Reuters reported. The firm was notified of the suspension late on Thursday, a Hanjin Shipping spokeswoman said. The alliance includes China COSCO, Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp and Evergreen Marine Corp Taiwan Ltd. Hanjin filed for court receivership on Wednesday after creditor banks decided to end financial support.

In a related story, Reuters reported that Hyundai Merchant Marine Co Ltd said on Thursday it will deploy vessels on routes that bankrupt Hanjin Shipping used to use from South Korea to the United States and Europe, it said in a statement on Thursday. Hyundai Merchant Marine said it will start on Sept. 8 deploying four ships capable of carrying 4,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) each, on the route between Busan, South Korea, and Los Angeles.

Finnish metal component maker Componenta is seeking debt restructuring after failing to get funding to cover mounting losses in its Netherlands subsidiary, it said on Thursday. Componenta, which makes cast components for vehicle and machine manufacturers, said it was filing for restructuring for the Finnish parent company and Swedish subsidiaries and the Dutch subsidiary was filing for bankruptcy. Its subsidiary in Turkey, Componenta Dokumculuk Ticaret , will continue operations after securing local financing.

Like Alexander the Great whose sword cut the Gordian knot, Margrethe Vestager has sliced through what until now has appeared to be an intractable problem: multinational companies earning billions of dollars in Europe and paying tiny sums in taxes to European governments, The Wall Street Journal reported. The European Union’s competition chief ordered Ireland to recoup $14.5 billion in taxes from Apple Inc., a sum that is so large that it will light a fire under multinationals’ tax planning.

The cost of insuring Russian debt using credit-default swaps fell to a three-week low as tensions with Ukraine eased, offering relief from mounting political risk that had weighed on assets last month, Bloomberg News reported. Investors welcomed the diminished political strife and signs Russia is seeking to end its isolation under U.S. and European sanctions over Ukraine, said Piotr Matys, a currency strategist at Rabobank in London.