Headlines

Japan needs to quickly lower its corporate tax rate to less than 30 percent to boost the nation’s competitiveness in the global market, Deputy Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said, according to Bloomberg News today. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to experiment with reforms in the labor market, health care and agriculture and other areas in the zones -- a central plank of his growth strategy. Japan will lower its tax on corporate profits to 35.6 percent from 38 percent in April when a temporary levy to fund reconstruction of regions devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami ends.

The U.K. government is considering rule changes that would make it easier for new banks and alternative finance providers to provide funding to small and medium-sized companies, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The proposed regulations would help new entrants to the funding market check the creditworthiness of smaller companies, the Treasury said on Dec. 24. Interested parties have been asked to submit their views during a consultation period that runs until Feb. 17, with the government aiming to submit legislation in the next session of Parliament.

Turkey’s legal morass thickened after a prosecutor said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is obstructing a graft probe by preventing detentions, disobeying court orders and allowing suspects to flee, Bloomberg News reported today. Istanbul Prosecutor Muammer Akkas said yesterday that the investigation he was leading into businessmen and officials for involvement in bribery, rigging tenders, and fraud was stripped from him. Erdogan has said that the probe is a smear campaign orchestrated by his opponents.

The decision by India’s top investigating agency to probe a third billionaire-led mining deal in six months puts at risk government efforts to revive $160 billion of stalled projects, Bloomberg News reported today. The Central Bureau of Investigation said on Dec. 23 it started probing Anil Agarwal, who runs the country’s biggest aluminum and copper producer. It alleged irregularities in his 2002 purchase of the state’s 26 percent stake in Hindustan Zinc Ltd., a producer of zinc used in making metals and chemicals.

OSX Brasil SA will take a 7.0 percent stake in sister company Óleo e Gás Participações SA after agreeing to convert $1.5 billion of debt into stock, a step key to help the ailing oil producer exit bankruptcy, Reuters reported today. The debt stems from the termination of several contracts to lease oil production ships to Óleo e Gás, which filed for court protection on Oct. 30 and was formerly known as OGX Petróleo e Gás Participações SA, OSX said in a securities filing late on Wednesday. Both companies are controlled by tycoon Eike Batista's Grupo EBX.

The number of Irish people adjudicated bankrupts in Ireland and the UK almost doubled this year, the Independent reported today. The number of insolvencies are expected to surge this year despite the introduction of personal insolvency laws that allow borrowers to have debts written down subject to strict income guidelines. A total of 157 Irish citizens were bankrupted in Britain this year compared to 106 last year, an increase of 48 percent.

Russia has made its first payment of $3 billion for Ukraine's newly issued eurobonds, as part of Moscow's bailout package for its struggling neighbor, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday, Interfax reported yesterday. The payment was first announced by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov on Monday. Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych last month unexpectedly refused to sign a landmark association agreement with the European Union that would have removed significant trade barriers.

Japan’s banking regulator will seek to introduce penalties for manipulation of financial benchmarks, joining market watchdogs around the globe in pushing for broader authority and tougher supervision, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The Financial Services Agency should get formal authority to supervise organizations that set benchmarks such as the Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate (Tibor) and to conduct investigations, an advisory committee to the regulator said in a statement on Tuesday. The FSA plans to submit a bill including the changes to parliament next year.

Segro Plc. announced that on Monday that it completed the disposal of the Neckermann site in Frankfurt for 46 million euros, RTTNews.com reported on Tuesday. In July, Segro had said that it exchanged contracts for the Neckermann site sale in Frankfurt for 46.0 million euros in cash to a consortium of private investors. The site was a 309,000 sq m bespoke office and distribution facility formerly occupied by Neckermann, the mail order company, which filed for insolvency in July 2012 and fully vacated the site in January 2013.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suffered the worst blow in his decade in power when an old friend quit the cabinet and called for his resignation, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The public chastisement came after the premier pushed Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, who has served alongside Erdogan since the 1990s, and two other ministers to resign Wednesday. Each has a son who has been implicated in the graft investigation.