Headlines

China Aoyuan Group Ltd. filed for chapter 15 protection in New York on Wednesday, a move by the defaulted property developer to seek U.S. court recognition for its offshore debt restructuring and ward off litigation, Bloomberg News reported. The Guangzhou-based developer, which had about $6 billion of total offshore interest-bearing liabilities as of the end of 2022, is undergoing restructuring in Hong Kong, Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands after deciding last year to forgo paying debt.

A Czech court declared an overall moratorium on the debts of Liberty Ostrava on Thursday, a court document showed, as the country's main steelmaker idled production and prepared a recovery plan after its energy supplier cut it off, Reuters reported. Liberty's on-site supplier of energy including heat, pressurised air and electricity, Tameh, was expected to finish cutting off deliveries on Thursday after falling into insolvency itself when the steelmaker missed payments. Most of Liberty's 6,000 employees are to be sent home until January, the company has said.

Digital freight forwarding platform, Instafreight, has filed for insolvency in mid-December at the Berlin-Charlottenburg district court, BNNBreaking.com reported. The startup, founded in 2016 by Philipp Ortwein and Gion-Otto Presser-Velder, had successfully raised over 70 million euros in capital over its operational years. Still, the company ran into a financial cul-de-sac due to over-indebtedness, an ironic situation considering it did not face any liquidity issues.

A trade association is urging business owners to seek help sooner rather than later if they are facing financial problems, the Bournemouth Daily Echo reported. R3, the trade body for restructuring and insolvency professionals in Dorset, has said that corporate insolvencies have ‘shot up’ by more than a fifth compared to last year. Newly published figures for England and Wales show a rise from 2,032 insolvencies in November 2022 to 2,466 for November of this year.

Britain and Switzerland signed a wide-ranging financial services deal on Thursday granting reciprocal market access for their banks, insurers, asset managers and stock exchanges to boost trade and cut compliance costs, Reuters reported. After two years of talks which began after Britain left the European Union, the deal - which will require British and Swiss parliamentary approval - is based on mutual recognition of rules and supervisors, easing regulatory burdens.

The wave of attacks against merchant ships in the Red Sea is forcing companies to send ships on longer routes and threatens to hurt an already wobbly global economy, the New York Times reported. The Houthis, an armed group backed by Iran that controls much of northern Yemen, have been using drones and missiles to target ships since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. That has forced some shipping giants and oil companies to avoid the Suez Canal, a development that could hamper global trade and push up the cost of imported goods.

Prosecutors in Germany said on Wednesday they would move to confiscate more than 720 million euros ($790 million) from the Frankfurt bank account of a Russian financial institution, marking the country's first such attempt, Reuters reported. German authorities have previously moved to freeze Russian assets in response to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but have stopped short of attempts to confiscate money.

Canada's federal government will give C$471 million ($354 million) to Toronto, the country's largest city, to help it build more housing and alleviate a shelter crisis, the Globe and Mail reported. The newspaper said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose popularity has slumped in recent months amid complaints about housing, would make the announcement in Toronto. The money will come from a special C$4 billion fund which pays cities that agree to loosen zoning rules that protect neighborhoods dominated by single-family homes.

Turkey's central bank lifted its key interest rate by 250 basis points to 42.5% on Thursday as expected as it faces down years of soaring inflation, but promised to end the aggressive tightening cycle as soon as possible, Reuters reported. Some analysts said one more rate hike was on the cards after seven straight months of tightening. The central bank has lifted its one-week repo rate by 3,400 basis points since June, when President Tayyip Erdogan appointed former Wall Street banker Hafize Gaye Erkan as its governor to conduct a sharp pivot toward more orthodox policies.