Headlines

Axis Bank, one of India’s leading private sector banking entities, has moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking to initiate insolvency proceedings against Zee Learn, a prominent provider of education services in the country, BNNBreak.com reported. The bank has filed a petition under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, aiming to commence the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) for Zee Learn.

A week after India barred lenders from investing in alternative investment funds that hold stakes in their borrowers, the market is counting the cost, Bloomberg News reported. The Reserve Bank of India said the move is designed to prevent an unstable build up of assets in the country’s financial system. But, lawyers and analysts say alternative investment fund managers could see costs ramp up and the rules will make it harder to raise cash in the future. “This is a sledge hammer to the industry,” said Vinod Joseph, partner at Economic Laws Practice, a legal firm.

Japan’s trucking industry is a crucial cog in one of the world’s largest economies, and it is the lifeblood of the Japanese culture of ultra-convenience. But it, and its drivers, are under immense strain, the New York Times reported. To improve job conditions and make the work more appealing, the government is moving to cap overtime for the first time next year, easing the punishing hours that have long defined trucking in Japan. Addressing that problem, however, will create others — potentially disrupting the nation’s entire logistics system.

British shopper numbers at stores on Boxing Day rose from a year earlier, especially in London, research data showed on Wednesday, marking a strong start to the post-Christmas bargain-hunting spree, Reuters reported. Research group MRI Software said footfall rose 4% across all UK retail destinations on Dec. 26. Known in Britain as Boxing Day, the date that traditionally launches high-street sales was in the Victorian era the time when the rich would donate leftover food and goods from Christmas Day festivities to the poor.

China's November industrial profits posted double-digit gains as overall manufacturing improved, although soft demand continued to constrain business growth expectations, emboldening calls for more macro policy support, Reuters reported. The 29.5% profit rise came on top of a 2.7% increase in October and alongside a pickup in industrial output in November, although other sectors of the world's second-largest economy still missed forecasts.

Chinese assets have had a terrible year—but China’s currency is gaining ground as an international payments option, the Wall Street Journal reported. The yuan’s status as a global currency still faces a huge obstacle in the form of China’s own capital controls. Even so, rising willingness to conduct trade in yuan could help insulate China’s economy, at least to an extent, in the event sanctions were imposed in a hypothetical future conflict with the West.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei is considering issuing a perpetual bond to pay a $16 billion lawsuit award stemming from the nationalization of state-run energy company YPF, Bloomberg News reported. Swinging between political jabs and policy intentions, Milei suggested that the government would issue the bond without a fixed maturity while charging Argentines the “Kicillof tax,” named after Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof who spearheaded efforts to nationalize YPF in 2012.

He may be headed to prison next year after pleading guilty to U.S. criminal charges in November, yet 2023 held a silver lining for former Binance Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao: His estimated wealth ballooned by almost $25 billion this year, Bloomberg News reported. Toward the end of a year when Bitcoin rebounded more than 160% following a market collapse in 2022, Zhao tops a list of crypto entrepreneurs who saw their estimated net worth surge in 2023, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Coinbase Global Inc.

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners are attempting to navigate Dubai’s red-hot housing market, which has outperformed most others around the world this year, Bloomberg News reported. Tenants, property analysts and developers are trying to predict whether the market is finally starting to turn as a slew of new properties are delivered and global economic uncertainty catches up with the emirate. So far, the boom has been underpinned by an influx of wealthy investors such as Russians seeking to shield their assets, crypto millionaires and rich Indians seeking second homes.

The Belgian National Bank chief’s term has yet to be renewed, potentially leaving the central bank without a leader early next year, Bloomberg News reported. Governor Pierre Wunsch’s mandate comes to an end Jan. 1 and “so far, the government has not announced a decision related to this mandate,” the institution’s spokesman said by e-mail on Wednesday. Wunsch, 56, has been at the central bank since 2011 and took the top job in 2019 when he was appointed for a five-year term.