Headlines

Finland has experienced an unprecedented number of business bankruptcies in the 48th week of 2023, with 85 companies being declared insolvent. This figure is the highest weekly total since Finland's Asiakastieto Oy began its weekly bankruptcy tracking in 2019, the Helsinki Times reported. According to Jaakko Nors, a product owner at Asiakastieto who specializes in bankruptcy data, by the end of this year, over 2,700 companies are projected to have filed for bankruptcy.

Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA plans to restructure its balance sheet yet again as it buckles under a heavy debt load and the high costs of operating an airline in Brazil, Bloomberg News reported. Gol hired Seabury Capital to help review its debt and other financial obligations, and free up cash by renegotiating its deals with lessors, the company said in a filing Friday. The move triggered a downgrade to CCC- from CCC+ by S&P Global Ratings, which warned of room for a further cut amid refinancing risks.

An insolvency filing by Signa Holding shines some light on the complex dealings of the umbrella organization of Rene Benko’s property and retail empire. The court application, seen by Bloomberg, includes a preliminary list of creditors, offering a glimpse of an operation that lured high-profile investors as it lapped up trophy assets like New York’s Chrysler Building, Selfridges department store in London and Berlin’s KaDeWe.

China Evergrande Group said on Tuesday it received notices from court of Guangdong Province over a claim by a unit of Evergrande Property Services for the recovery of about 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in deposit certificate pledge guarantees, Reuters reported. The proceedings brought by unit Jinbi Property Management Company are related to the enforcement of Evergrande Property Services' deposit pledge of about 13.4 billion yuan. The embattled property developer said the notices regarding the claim also includes an estimated interest of 152.1 million yuan.

Germany's coalition partners intensified efforts on Wednesday to find a way to plug a 17-billion-euro ($18.3 billion) hole in next year's budget after failing to resolve the crisis overnight, increasing uncertainty about financial plans in Europe's biggest economy, Reuters reported. The failure of talks between coalition leaders before Wednesday means it is unlikely parliament will approve a 2024 budget by the end of the year, leaving in limbo spending plans from climate projects to benefits and for local authorities.

The Bank of Canada (BoC) on Wednesday held its key overnight rate at 5% and left the door open to another hike, saying it was still concerned about inflation while acknowledging an economic slowdown and a general easing of prices, Reuters reported. The central bank raised rates by a quarter point in both June and July to a 22-year high and has left them on hold in the three policy-setting meetings since. Inflation slowed to 3.1% in October, down from a peak of more than 8% last year, but it has remained above the bank's 2% target for 31 months.

Kenya’s central bank unexpectedly raised its benchmark interest rate for the second time since Governor Kamau Thugge took office in June, citing the need to support the country’s battered shilling, Bloomberg News reported. The monetary policy committee increased the rate by 200 basis points to 12.5%, the largest increase since 2011. The news was announced by Thugge in an emailed statement Tuesday from the capital, Nairobi. Only one of the seven economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast an increase.

Britain's data protection watchdog warned companies to consider people's privacy rights whenever they use artificial intelligence (AI), or face not just fines but losing the public's trust in the technology, Reuters reported. The country's Information Commissioner, John Edwards, said at a speech on Wednesday that companies must protect their customer's personal information in all circumstances when they are using AI. "You cannot expect to utilise AI in your products or services without considering privacy, data protection and how you will safeguard people’s rights," Edwards said.

Brazil's government aims to extend the deadline for its broad consumer debt renegotiation program "Desenrola" by an additional three months, said a top Economy Ministry official on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The original closing date was set for the end of this year. As a campaign promise of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the government launched the program to ease the financial burden on families, strained by the pandemic and high borrowing costs following a previous inflation surge.

The co-founder of Hong Kong-registered virtual currency exchange Bitzlato, a Russian national who U.S. authorities accuse of processing about $700 million in illicit funds, is expected to enter a guilty plea in a U.S. court on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Federal court records in Brooklyn showed Anatoly Legkodymov, Bitzlato's majority owner and co-founder, was set to appear before U.S. District Judge Eric Vitaliano at 2:30 p.m. EST (1930 GMT) for a "criminal cause for pleading," which usually indicates a defendant will plead guilty. Legkodymov, who U.S.