Headlines

China Aoyuan Group Ltd. is standing by for a pivotal Hong Kong court decision this week on its restructuring plan, a ruling that may accelerate the end of its tussles with creditors over $6 billion of offshore debt, Bloomberg News reported. After a two-day trial over a creditor’s objection to the offshore plan offered by the defaulted developer ended earlier this week, Judge Jonathan Harris said he will deliver his decision on Thursday.

Brazil’s development bank is considering granting loans to the country’s airlines as part of a government plan aimed at alleviating financial pressures at Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Azul SA and other carriers that have caused sharp increases in fares, Bloomberg News reported. BNDES, as the bank is known, is looking for options to help the airlines come up with sufficient collateral, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

Swedish streaming service Viaplay Group AB has stepped back from the brink of bankruptcy after getting approval for a rescue plan that will leave existing shareholders holding stock that is near worthless, Bloomberg News reported. Viaplay, which owns rights to sports broadcasting in the Nordic region, Netherlands and the Baltics, will see Vivendi SE-owned Canal+ and Czech investment firm PPF Group take a combined 58.6% stake in the group as part of the recapitalization.

The Israeli securities watchdog's new chairman, Seffy Zinger, heads to the United States next week to woo U.S. investors and reassure them that it is business as usual despite Israel's three-month war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, Reuters reported. The past year was for Israeli markets, with the main Tel Aviv 125 index dropping 15% following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group which led to the war in Gaza. The index subsequently rebounded to end 2023 up 4% but still significantly lagged U.S. indices. It is now trading at pre-war levels.

Turkey's crypto asset regulations, expected to bring licensing and operating standards to trading platforms, are at the final stage, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The rules are aimed at reducing the risk of trading crypto assets as well as helping the country to be taken off an international financial crime watchdog "grey list", Simsek told the state-owned Anadolu news agency. "Crypto asset trading platforms will be licensed by the Capital Markets Board (CMB), and minimum operating standards will be required ...

Two weeks into its operations, Mexico state airline Mexicana de Aviacion’s slow ramp-up has allowed some passengers the experience of private travel, Bloomberg News reported. A report from YouTube user Jorge de Leon showed him ecstatic to fly in a completely empty plane from Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, to Mexico City’s Felipe Angeles airport, on a flight in the airline’s first week of operation. Three people had flown that route the previous day according to the crew, he noted.

The European Central Bank is set to cut interest rates at some point in 2024, Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau reaffirmed, without giving more specific guidance on how soon that could be, Bloomberg News reported. Last year’s rapid monetary-policy tightening has helped curb underlying inflation, Villeroy told representatives of France’s financial sector in a traditional New Year address. But he said officials should maintain vigilance and not commit to a specific date. “Our decisions will not be guided by a calendar, but by data,” Villeroy said Tuesday.

Commercial banks should prepare to borrow more readily from central banks to limit contagion in times of stress and discourage runs by depositors, an expert regulatory panel said on Tuesday in a report about last year's banking crisis, Reuters reported. The Group of 30 (G30), an international forum of central bankers, economists and private financiers, also said improving accounting standards, more comprehensive stress testing and better supervision, would help prevent future bank failures.

The Swiss central bank won’t pay out any dividend for 2023 after a second straight year of losses, having twice hiked interest rates to combat inflation, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Swiss National Bank’s provisional net loss of around 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.5 billion) was down to a loss on its Swiss franc positions, totaling around 8.5 billion Swiss francs, it said Tuesday. The bank conversely made a profit on its foreign-currency positions and gold holdings.

Greek industrial output rose 3.1% in November compared to the same month a year earlier, after a downwardly revised 10.2% increase in October, data from statistics service ELSTAT showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. A breakdown of index components showed manufacturing production rose 2.8% from the same month in 2022. Electricity output was up by 4.0% year-on-year, and mining production was up by 5.9%. Read more.