Headlines

Appeal judges have approved emergency funding allowing Thames Water to access as much as £3 billion ($3.9 billion) and stave off temporary nationalization, Bloomberg News reported. The UK’s Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge to the proposed loan after a three-day hearing last week. The decision should give the beleaguered utility access to much needed funds and prevent a messy insolvency while it seeks a long term fix for its financial woes. The debt will be provided by a group of senior creditors — including Elliott Management, Silver Point and Pimco.

Germany is witnessing a significant rise in corporate bankruptcies, with 2024 marking a 22.4% increase in insolvency filings compared to the previous year, the Munich Eye reported. This surge has raised concerns among experts, with predictions of an impending wave of insolvencies in 2025 potentially surpassing those seen during the financial crisis of 2009. According to the Federal Statistical Office, February alone saw a 12.1% increase in bankruptcy filings compared to the same month in the previous year.

A liquidator is investigating whether a failed international student agency improperly transferred funds out of Australia in the weeks before its collapse, ABC.net reported. GrowPro Experience, a Spain-based company which helps arrange global study for international students, was put into administration earlier this year. Its collapse has left hundreds of students at risk of losing years of savings and the opportunity to study in overseas destinations, including Australia. Liquidation firm Taylor Insolvency has been appointed to wind up the Australian arm of the business.

Most households in England will be charged the maximum increase in council tax for the third consecutive year after local authorities confirmed their plans before the 2025-26 financial year, The Guardian reported. Nearly nine in 10 (88%) of 153 upper-tier authorities in England will impose a 4.99% increase in April, the most allowed without triggering a local referendum. If councils increasing bills by 4.5% or more this year are included in the tally, the proportion rises to more than nine in 10 (94%), according to analysis by the PA news agency.

A unit of Ola Electric Mobility Ltd. is facing insolvency petitions from two of its key vehicle registration service providers in India over unpaid dues, adding to the EV maker’s mounting troubles, Bloomberg News reported. Rosmerta Digital Services Pvt. and Rosmerta Safety Systems — suppliers of vehicle registration services and high-security registration plates respectively — have separately filed insolvency pleas against closely held Ola Electric Technologies Pvt., citing unpaid invoices.

China's property slump persisted in February, with official figures on Monday showing declines in prices, investment and sales, as government measures and promises of more stimulus did little to boost demand in the crisis-stricken sector, Reuters reported. New home prices dipped 0.1% versus a month earlier after two months of relatively steady prices, showed Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data. On a year-on-year basis, new home prices fell 4.8% versus a 5.0% drop the previous month.

Rachel Reeves has defended her fiscal rules and pledged to bring down government borrowing, as the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer faces dissent from Labour party colleagues opposed to cuts to welfare payments and government spending, Bloomberg News reported. “When we’re spending £100 billion ($130 billion) a year on servicing government debt, I don’t think anyone could seriously argue that we don’t need to get a grip of government borrowing and government debt,” Reeves said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday.

The protectionist policies of U.S. President Donald Trump are likely to deteriorate the soundness of the financial industry and expand market volatility, ChosunBiz.com reported. According to a report from the Korea Financial Research Institute on the 16th, titled "Implications of Strengthened Protectionism for the Domestic Banking Industry," a slowdown in exports due to global protectionism could lead to deteriorating performances of corporations and industries, causing the insolvency of vulnerable corporations and undermining the soundness of the financial industry.

Higher U.S. tariffs on imports are set to slow economic growth and push inflation higher around the world, with further increases threatening an even more severe downturn, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a quarterly report published Monday, the Paris-based research body cut its growth forecasts for most of the world’s largest economies over this year and next, the main exceptions being China, Argentina and Turkey. Its largest downgrades were reserved for the two economies that trade most heavily with the U.S.

Pakistan raised a tax on petroleum as the government takes steps to meet International Monetary Fund expectations before the financial agency releases the next tranche of a loan package, Bloomberg News reported. The petroleum development levy was increased by 10 rupees to 70 rupees a liter, according to a notification the Oil and Gas Regularity Authority posted on its website. The IMF said on Saturday that Pakistan is making progress toward receiving the second $1 billion installment of the $7 billion loan agreement it secured last year.