Headlines

Europe's biggest debt collector, said on Friday that it will file for voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States as it seeks to restructure its own finances, Reuters reported. The company has struggled as the pandemic, an energy crisis and two-decade-high interest rates failed to unleash a wave of loan defaults, with concerns mounting over Intrum's net debt, which reached 49.4 billion Swedish crowns ($4.69 billion) at the end of June.

Scottish company insolvencies have declined by 16% since last year, but experts say overall volumes will remain high for some time to come, Scottish Financial News reported. There were a total of 73 company insolvencies registered in Scotland in September 2024, comprised of 48 CVLs, 18 compulsory liquidations and seven administrations. There were no CVAs or receivership appointments. Historically, compulsory liquidations were the most common type of company insolvency in Scotland. However, since April 2020, numbers of CVLs have remained higher than numbers of compulsory liquidations.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal has closed the insolvency proceedings against Jaypee Healthcare after the financial creditors' dues were settled by Max Healthcare, the Economic Times of India reported. The appellate tribunal's direction to close the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against Jaypee Healthcare Ltd (JHL) came after the financial creditor submitted that they had received the amount of Rs 1,035.29 crore as part of the settlement and no claim had survived.

Northvolt AB is closing in on an about $300 million rescue package that includes debt and equity, buying time for the cash-strapped Swedish battery maker to stabilize production and line up longer-term financing, Bloomberg News reported. A combination of shareholders, lenders and customers are participating in the bridge funding, and the instruments vary among these groups. Discussions are in the final stages, though there remains some risk they can still fall apart.

Three U.S. education-software companies that bankrupt Indian tech-firm Byju’s bought for $820 million just a few years ago will be put up for sale in order to repay lenders, a court-appointed trustee said, Bloomberg News reported. It is unclear how much the units are worth and if all three — Neuron Fuel Inc., Epic! Creations Inc. and Tangible Play Inc. — will attract offers, the trustee, Claudia Springer, said in an interview.

Japan’s consumer-price inflation slowed in September due mainly to the impact of the government’s energy subsidies, possibly giving the Bank of Japan more time to think about the timing of its next move, the Wall Street Journal reported. Overall consumer prices rose 2.5% in September from a year earlier, compared with 3.0% growth in August, government data showed Friday. The pace of inflation slowed for the first time in five months as the government reintroduced its program to cut household utility bills.

China’s economy slowed in the third quarter, a deceleration that highlights the urgency of Beijing’s recent pivot toward greater support for growth after months of hesitancy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Investors’ initial euphoria over Beijing’s weekslong barrage of stimulus measures and messages of reassurance has faded, however, as doubts have crept in over just how effective any planned stimulus will be at revving up the ailing economy and bringing a festering property crisis to a close.

The United States will use restrictive tools like tariffs to push back against China's practice of making far more goods than it needs in order to dominate global markets, White House official Daleep Singh said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, said the Asian giant has amassed growing market power that it uses for economic and geopolitical leverage, and Washington viewed the costs as unacceptable. "So that's the problem, and it's not abstract.

India’s central bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said an interest rate cut at this stage would be “very, very risky” and he’s in no hurry to join the wave of easing by global policymakers, Bloomberg News reported. While inflation is expected to moderate, there are “significant risks” to the outlook, Das told Bloomberg News Deputy Editor-in-Chief Reto Gregori at the India Credit Forum in Mumbai on Friday. Inflation and growth dynamics are well balanced, he said, but policymakers need to remain vigilant about price pressures.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is considering raising taxes levied on entrepreneurs when they sell their businesses, as part of her push to raise as much as £40 billion ($52 billion) to balance Britain’s budget, Bloomberg News reported. Britain’s finance minister is looking at cutting a capital gains tax easement known as business asset disposal relief in her spending plan on Oct. 30. The policy allows entrepreneurs to pay a reduced tax of 10% on profits they make from the sale of their companies, rather than the standard 20% levy for higher-rate taxpayers.