Headlines

Airline SAS AB received approval from a bankruptcy court in New York for a $1.2 billion rescue package that will see Air France-KLM and private equity firm Castlelake LP become owners in the Scandinavian flag-carrier, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022, saying it faced a significant decline in passenger demand during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as a series of pilot strikes and intense competition from low cost air carriers.

A Nova Scotia home heating fuel company that filed for bankruptcy last week has accused an accounting firm of negligence, saying it was hit with a "crippling shortfall" of nearly $10 million after being led to believe it was making money, CBC.ca reported. Maritime Fuels Ltd. declared bankruptcy last week, leaving in the lurch an unknown number of customers who had prepaid for their winter home heating fuel.

Around a quarter of Helical Plc’s portfolio will sit empty after the loss of a lease with bankrupt WeWork Inc., Bloomberg News reported. The departure of law firm Baker McKenzie from its central London office ahead of a redevelopment will also contribute to the higher vacancy rate, the London property developer said in a statement. Helical said EPRA earnings per share fell to 1.1 pence in the first half through September, down from 4.8 pence a year earlier.“While interest from potential occupiers has been encouraging, lease negotiations are taking longer to conclude,” the company said.

Chinese authorities said they recently opened criminal investigations into the money management business of Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., days after the embattled shadow banking giant revealed a shortfall of $36.4 billion in its balance sheet, Bloomberg News reported. Police in Beijing said in a statement on WeChat that they took “criminal mandatory measures” against multiple suspects, identifying one by the last name Xie. They urged investors to report cases or provide leads to the authorities, including filing complaints online.

Country Garden Holdings Co. and Sino-Ocean Group have been included on China’s draft list of 50 developers eligible for a range of financing support, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling a pivot by Beijing to help some of the nation’s most distressed builders. CIFI Holdings Group Co., another builder that has missed debt payments, was also included on the so-called white list, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

Australia’s government will introduce legislation this week to facilitate the largest overhaul of the central bank in a generation, including setting up a separate governance board and scrapping the treasurer’s power to reverse policy decisions, Bloomberg News reported. The bill is the result of an independent review of the Reserve Bank that made 51 recommendations, some of which require modifications to the RBA’s operating law.

Australia's competition watchdog said on Monday new competition laws were required in response to the rapid expansion of digital platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft in the country, Reuters reported. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in its latest report for the Digital Platform Services Inquiry raised concerns that expansion of these platforms has increased the risk of them engaging in harmful behaviour such as invasive data collection and practices that lock in customers and limit their choices.

China, Japan and South Korea agreed on Sunday to restart cooperation and pave the way for a summit in the latest move to ease tensions between the Asian neighbours, Reuters reported. Even as China and the United States seek to mend frayed ties, including a summit this month between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, Beijing is concerned that Washington and its key regional allies are strengthening their three-way partnership.

India's Jindal Power Ltd, the only company whose expression of interest to take over Go First was accepted by creditors, has decided to not follow through with a bid, three people familiar with the plans said, pushing the insolvent airline closer to liquidation. The deadline to submit takeover bids ends on Tuesday, and the sources told Reuters Jindal had decided against bidding after evaluating the airline's financial statements. While the deadline can be extended via an application to the courts, creditors are currently not inclined to do so, two banking sources said.