Headlines

The rate of companies being liquidated has fallen to its lowest level since records started in 1984, Insolvency Service figures show, The Guardian reported. In the 12 months to September, one in 186 active companies, or 0.54%, went into liquidation in England and Wales, in a continuation of a downward trend since 2011. Experts welcomed the business insolvency figures as another sign that the economy is “firmly in recovery mode” but they also warned that firms will face growing pains as economic improvement continues and interest rates start to climb.

Six specialist judges appointed to speed up thousands of insolvency actions - earning salaries of €140,623 a year - are "frustrated" because they have so little work to do, Independent.ie reported. The dedicated cadre of judges were appointed in July 2013 to deal with an anticipated avalanche of debt cases, following what former Justice Minister Alan Shatter described as a "seismic shift" brought in by the 2012 Personal Insolvency Act.

Multiple major client losses have forced Sumo Visual Group, one of Australia’s biggest retail signage printers, into administration, only six months after making a big kit investment, ProPrint reported. The $30m-a-year 60-staff company with operations in Melbourne and Sydney entered voluntary administration on Tuesday under PPB Advisory. Sources close to the company say a big retail client recently jumped ship to a competitor while another switched out the vast majority of its work, and resulting cashflow issues led to the printer’s predicament.

Italy’s Treasury has not ruled out extending repayment deadlines on hundreds of millions of euros in state aid to help troubled lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena as it struggles to raise fresh capital, according to sources, the Irish Times reported. Officials said Monte dei Paschi chairman Alessandro Profumo and chief executive Fabrizio Viola had held meetings in the economy ministry today to seek options for the bank, after it failed European Central Bank stress tests.

Chaori Solar’s default on its Rmb1.09 billion ($195 million) bond may not lead to an acceptable template for resolving similar issues, Finance Asia reported. The Shenzhen-listed solar company, which in March became the first Chinese company to default on its onshore corporate bonds, is likely to see the bond bailed out by state-owned enterprises.

For Europe’s major airlines, the world is increasingly becoming one of haves and have-nots: those that have sustainable business models and those struggling to achieve them, The Wall Street Journal reported. For airlines on the back foot, the situation may get worse before it gets better as economic indicators in the eurozone countries decline. That is amplifying the challenge facing carriers such as Air France-KLM SA, the region’s largest by traffic, and rival Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Dubai, one of seven principalities that make up the United Arab Emirates, has only minimal oil reserves. Instead, the city-state has positioned itself as the hinge connecting Asia to the rest of the world, the gateway city for the fast-growing frontier markets of Africa and a safe haven for investors shunning an arc of conflict that stretches from Libya to Afghanistan, Bloomberg News reported.

While multinationals have been bleating about tumbling sales in China, official retail data from the world’s second-biggest economy tells a more robust story. What gives? The correct read on Chinese shoppers’ propensity to buy is key both for the companies who are increasingly dependent upon the market and for the country itself: consumption, billed as a new growth engine, is required to offset the slowdown in investment.

U.S. Steel is indefinitely idling its coke-making operations in Hamilton as it restructures the company and looks for a potential buyer — part of what a union head calls a piece-by-piece dismantling of the plant, CBC.ca reported. The company is “hot idling” the coke battery, which means it won’t be used after Nov. 1 but will remain prepped for future use. About 100 workers are affected, said Rolf Gerstenberger, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1005. Some will be reassigned to other duties, while others may be laid off.

Italy and France backed away from a clash with the European Commission over their 2015 budgets on Monday by pledging extra measures to cut their deficits, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move comes after the commission, the European Union’s executive arm, warned Rome and Paris last week that their budget plans would violate its fiscal rules.