Headlines

Brazilian authorities are expanding their sweeping investigation into corruption at Petróleo Brasileiro SA to include more of the state oil company’s suppliers, according to a person involved, a move likely to extend the probe into next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. Investigators in the so-called Car Wash probe have until recently been focused mainly on a bribery-and-bid-rigging scheme centered on construction companies that work with Petrobras, as the state oil company is known.

Saudi Arabia’s leadership has taken up the challenge of weaning the kingdom from its dependence on oil. Ahmed Ameen is just trying to keep his mobile-phone store open, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Ameen hired a foreign worker to operate the shop in Saudi Arabia’s capital four months ago, but the worker left the kingdom after learning that a key part of the government’s economic strategy is to replace foreign workers with Saudis. “My shop is now closed and every day I’m losing money,” said Mr. Ameen, who has a day job and can’t run it himself.

British fashion retailer Austin Reed Ltd will start winding down as no viable offer was received for the company over a five-week sale process, its joint administrators said, Reuters reported. The retailer will shut its 120 stores by the end of June, which will affect about 1,000 jobs, Austin Reed's administrators at AlixPartners Services UK LLP said in a statement on Tuesday. Five of the company's outlets inside Boundary Mills stores will be sold to AR Operations Ltd. The deal includes the transfer of 28 employees to AR Operations.

Irish consumers continue to save and shirk new loans in favour of paying down existing debt, leading to a significant change in the Irish banking market, the Irish Times reported. Figures from the Central Bank show that household lending slumped by 3.5 per cent in April, compared with the same period in 2015, as mortgage loans fell by € 176 million during the month, or by 2.3 per cent in the year. Households repaid € 1.8 billion more than was advanced in new loans.

Argenova, the Argentinian subsidiary of troubled multinational Pescanova, is working with a legal team to prepare for filing for insolvency as soon as possible, reported Faro de Vigo. However, with all executive functions taken away from president and chairman Manuel Fernandez de Sousa, and the board of directors, it is unclear who will make the decision to enter proceedings. Deloitte, proposed by Spanish regulator CNMV as administrator to oversee the group's bankruptcy, will not take over until Thursday this week.

Embattled commodity trader Noble Group announced the surprise resignation of CEO Yusuf Alireza on Monday and said it planned to sell a U.S. unit to bolster its balance sheet as it seeks to regain investor confidence, the International New York Times reported. Alireza, a former Goldman Sachs banker had steered Asia's biggest commodity trader to sell assets, cut business lines and take big writedowns as it battled weak commodity markets and the fallout from an accounting dispute. "With this transformation process now largely complete, Mr.

In good news for insolvency firms but not much else, insolvencies are rising and the number of retailers appointing external administrators is also up, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Electronics chain Dick Smith, home furnishings company Laura Ashley Australia and clothing retailer Man To Man are among retailers to have gone under recently. John Winter, chief executive of the industry body Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association, said after a quiet collapse of years, insolvency firms are now hiring staff as the end of the resources boom starts to bite.

The Philippines’ new finance secretary appointed by the hard-nosed incoming president, Rodrigo Duterte, has vowed that the new government won’t destroy the economic gains of the outgoing Aquino administration, but will work to spread them to ordinary Filipinos, The Wall Street Journal reported. “We are here to build on, not destroy, those gains,” said Carlos Dominguez, who last served as minister two decades ago. He currently owns the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City on southern Mindanao island, where his childhood friend, Mr. Duterte, is the longtime mayor. Mr.

Some 45 per cent of Japan’s households now include one person aged 65 years or more, government figures show, underlining how swiftly the country is moving towards a costly demographic inflection point, the Financial Times reported. The quickening advance towards a crossover point that will change the country’s economic landscape and the companies serving it, comes with a shrinking dependency ratio. By 2060, there will be 1.3 Japanese of working age (15-64) for every person over 65, according to a government white paper on ageing.

Signs of faltering demand in the housing market are prompting estate agents and analysts to suggest England’s house price boom may be ending, the Financial Times reported.