Headlines

Even though new insolvency administration legislature has been introduced, there's "a lot to be done" in order to avert its shortcomings, Zlata Elksniņa-Zaščirinska, head of the Foreign Investors Council in Latvia (FICIL), told Latvian Television Wednesday. The FICIL on Wednesday published an insolvency abuse report saying that even though legislature has been pushed through compliant to the requirements of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the overall situation in insolvency administration has not improved.

The receiver in Canada's latest oil and gas insolvency case will not attempt to sell the company's Alberta assets because of concerns about provincial regulations around oil well cleanup costs, according to a source close to the matter, Reuters reported. A Vancouver court appointed Ernst & Young as receiver for Terra Energy Corp last week after the company's lender Canadian Western Bank demanded full repayment of its C$15.9 million loan.

The Swiss commodities and mining company Glencore said on Wednesday that it had agreed to sell a 40 percent stake in its agriculture business to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $2.5 billion in cash. The deal is the latest move by Glencore to reduce its debt by selling assets. The company’s stock has been under pressure in recent months as analysts and investors have expressed concern about the company’s debt load and about weakness in commodities pricing.

Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned Tuesday, becoming the first major casualty of renewed global scrutiny into offshore accounts sparked by millions of documents allegedly leaked from a Panamanian law firm, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Gunnlaugsson left office amid growing popular uproar in his small island nation over his not disclosing links to an offshore company in a Caribbean tax haven. After a meeting with Mr.

Al Jaber Group missed a March repayment on its $4.5 billion restructuring, three sources aware of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, adding pressure on the Abu Dhabi-based conglomerate to quickly secure a new debt deal to save it from collapse. The family-owned group, best known as a contractor but with interests in a host of other sectors, has struggled after borrowing extensively at the end of the last decade to expand only to be caught out by a local economic slowdown.

China is cutting back on mining machinery as its economy slips. The United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern countries are no longer awash in oil money, putting luxury car brands at risk. Russia, still facing Western sanctions, cannot buy as much high-tech energy equipment, the International New York Times reported. The downshift in the emerging markets is leaving Germany vulnerable — and, by extension, Europe.

Bankruptcy protection requests in Brazil more than doubled in the first quarter from the year-earlier period, as businesses suffered from the highest borrowing costs in a decade and a steep recession dragged down revenue, credit research company Serasa Experian said on Wednesday. Companies filed 409 requests for court protection from creditors last quarter, the highest number since the country enacted a bankruptcy law in 2005, Serasa said in a report. In the first quarter of last year, 191 companies sought bankruptcy protection, Serasa said.

The Bank of England will look again at how much capital it requires banks to hold as insurance against swings in the economic cycle after the vote on Britain’s membership of the EU, the Financial Times reported. The decision is the latest sign of authorities’ nervousness about the financial stability risks posed by the vote. In March, the BoE said it was preparing to flood the market with money around the June 23 poll to protect British banks from any chance they could run out of funds.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. has moved a step closer to getting a default waived and loosening restrictions on its loan pact after offering more money to its lenders, according to people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg News reported. To win creditors over, the company is boosting the interest on its term loans by one percentage-point, with the new rate set to stay in place for at least a year, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public.

Southeast Asia’s central bankers and finance ministers pushed plans Monday to better link their economies as one of the world’s fastest-growing regions works to buffer itself from a prolonged China slowdown, uneasiness over U.S. interest rates and political drama in several countries, The Wall Street Journal reported. The region of 620 million people has been hit hard by weaker demand from China, where economists say growth will slow further as the world’s second largest economy shifts to a more sustainable growth model.