Headlines

The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has cautioned homebuyers against buying any properties in a total 314 projects registered with the authority that are undergoing proceedings at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) of 2016, the Economic Times of India reported. Various banks, financial institutions, and other entities extending line of credit to the real estate sector have initiated the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against these companies.

China’s central bank is moving ahead with a 500-billion-yuan swap facility to let securities, fund and insurance firms get liquid assets for their stock purchases, the Wall Street Journal reported. The establishment of the roughly $70.60 billion facility is part of a broader stimulus package introduced late last month by People’s Bank of China Gov. Pan Gongsheng to revive the country’s struggling economy.

Qoo10 CEO Ku Young-bae attended a court hearing held on Thursday to determine whether to issue an arrest warrant on fraud and embezzlement charges related to his e-commerce group's large-scale payment delays to vendors, the Korea Times reported. Ku appeared at the Seoul Central District Court for his hearing, which will be shortly followed by arrest warrant hearings for Ryu Kwang-jin and Ryu Hwa-hyun, CEOs of Qoo10's e-commerce subsidiaries TMON and WeMakePrice, over the massive insolvency incident.

Prosecutors of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) have been investigating for around a year possible frauds and the activity of an organised criminal group related to real estate developer Nordis, G4media.ro announced, quoting sources familiar with the investigations, Romania-Insider.com reported. However, no individual was indicted despite more than ten complaints filed against those behind Nordis since the beginning of the year, according to PressHub.

Argentina's triple-digit inflation, the world's highest, is starting to slow but this offers little relief for residents whose salaries have stayed the same while costs of basic goods sky-rocketed and the government slashed state subsidies, Reuters reported. "We're losing track of what's expensive and what's cheap," said university professor Daniel Vazquez while shopping in Buenos Aires. "Prices keep going up and the only thing that isn't going up is salaries." "The gap is very, very big," he said.

Fiscal imbalances could threaten Latin America’s success in taming inflation, as governments across the region boost growth through more public spending, according to the World Bank, Bloomberg News reported. Latin America is “having a hard time” defending macroeconomic discipline as governments miss or loosen their fiscal rules, William Maloney, chief economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at the bank, said during an interview. As countries across the region increase minimum wages to boost consumption, they are jeopardizing gains in taming historically elevated inflation rates.

Israel’s central bank left interest rates unchanged even as it lowered economic-growth forecasts, with the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon causing inflationary pressures and preventing the country from joining a global easing cycle, Bloomberg News reported. The bank kept its benchmark rate at 4.5% on Wednesday, in line with the estimates of all economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It was the monetary committee’s sixth straight hold.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has initiated insolvency proceedings against Syska LED Lights, admitting the plea filed by its operational creditor -- Sunstar Industries, the Economic Times of India reported. Syska LED Lights, part of Pune-based SSK Group, operates in segments such as LED lights, personal care appliances, mobile accessories, home appliances, and smart watches.

A software company controlled by Indian entrepreneur Byju Raveendran drained cash from U.S. affiliates in violation of US bankruptcy rules, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Delaware, Bloomberg News reported. Money that should be used to repay creditors was instead siphoned off to Whitehat Education Technology, a court-approved trustee for the affiliates said in court papers. The trustee, bankruptcy attorney Claudia Springer, sued to get back nearly $700,000 that was moved from entities under her control.

Sweden’s National Debt Office has ruled out activating $1.5 billion in credit guarantees for Northvolt AB that were tied to a now-halted expansion of the battery manufacturer’s main factory, Bloomberg News reported. Northvolt suspended the build-out at its plant in northern Sweden last month as it sought to streamline operations and contend with a cash crunch. The troubled electric-vehicle supplier never drew the guaranteed funds, and this week put the unit managing the project at Skelleftea, near the Arctic Circle, into bankruptcy.