Headlines

The German unit of bankrupt Dutch engineering services company Imtech is expected to be sold in November, according to Imtech Germany's insolvency administrator, Reuters reported. "The aim is to sign the sales contract for the whole unit or major parts shortly after ordinary insolvency proceedings have been opened in early November," Peter-Alexander Borchardt said. Imtech Germany filed for insolvency on Aug. 6, and the parent company followed suit a week later, capping a long slide that began in 2013 after accounting irregularities were uncovered at its Polish and German operations.

Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, pledged on Thursday to intervene by increasing economic stimulus spending if the turmoil in the global economy continues, the International New York Times reported. But the central bank will not act until it has more information about the effect of a slowdown in emerging markets and other risks, Mr. Draghi said at a news conference. Also on Thursday, the central bank cut its previous growth forecasts for the eurozone economies because of the global turbulence.

The European Union's executive will propose "radical" changes to make listing on stock markets cheaper, consider pan-EU pension products, and streamline the bloc's patchwork of insolvency rules, an EU document showed on Thursday. The European Commission's financial services chief Jonathan Hill is planning a "capital markets union" or CMU to aid markets to raise more funds for economic growth. The document, written by Hill's officials, sets out elements that are set to be included in his CMU "action plan", due to be published on Sept. 30.

After a summer of turmoil in the stock and foreign exchange markets, China’s financial and business communities are on edge, the Financial Times reported. Capital outflows and a slowing economy are adding to the unease. The US Federal Reserve’s impending interest rate rise adds another headwind for investors and companies to contend with. The People’s Bank of China’s decision in mid-August to let the renminbi depreciate caught the market by surprise, but among the most plausible theories to explain the move is that it was designed to pre-empt the Fed’s move.

August was the worst month for British retail sales since the global financial crisis of 2008, according to a survey published on Friday. Accountancy firm BDO said its monthly high street sales tracker (HSST) showed a 4.3 percent year-on-year fall in August sales -- the biggest drop since November 2008 and the sixth monthly dip this year.

Pascan Aviation (P6, Québec) has filed for creditor protection under Canada's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). Similar to a US Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, the move will allow the distressed carrier to continue operating while restructuring its business, ch-aviation reported. A Superior Court of Quebec docket indicates Pascan's creditors - Business Development Bank of Canada and Investissement Quebec - are providing a total of USD1 million to support the Pascan Companies' recovery plan.

Loss-making Fortitude Valley-based energy and mining contractor WDS has gone into receivership, The Australian reported. The appointment by WDS’s major secured creditor, GE Commercial, of Quentin Olde and John Park from FTI Consulting as receivers and managers raises job fears for a workforce of 730. The appointment follows WDS requesting a trading halt on August 25 on the basis that it had a contractual issue with one of its customers, the management company for the Vale-led Eagle Downs coal project in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.

China will loan Venezuela $5bn to boost oil output, the Venezuelan president said in a televised broadcast from Beijing, in a show of continued support for the troubled Latin American economy from one of its main creditors, the Financial Times reported. China has lent $50bn to Venezuela in oil-backed loans secured under former president Hugo Chávez but has become much less enthusiastic about adding to its exposure as the Venezuelan economy has worsened. Venezuela is the eighth-largest oil supplier to China, primarily of heavy crude that trades at lower than benchmark prices.

For most countries, the economic slowdown in China and the accompanying slump in commodity prices represent something between nuisance and pothole. For Russia, they are a catastrophe, The Wall Street Journal reported. Russia’s currency and economy, already squeezed by Western sanctions, have been sent into virtual free fall by slumping oil prices. The International Monetary Fund predicted in July that Russia’s economy would shrink 3.4% this year, the most of any major emerging market. That now looks optimistic.

During a previous stint in government, Brazilian finance minister Joaquim Levy won the nickname “Edward Scissorhands” after the 1990s film because of his ability to cut public spending, the Financial Times reported. Ever since President Dilma Rousseff brought him back to Brasília in January to play the role of the government’s economic bad cop, Mr Levy has delivered a blunt warning: either Brazil gets its fiscal house in order or it will see its debt relegated to junk status. “The money is gone,” the former banker said in May, referring to recent years of free-spending.