Headlines

JKN Global Group Pcl, a Thai media company that owns the Miss Universe beauty-pageant brand, has petitioned for debt rehabilitation as it seeks to solve a liquidity crunch, Bloomberg News reported. JKN submitted the business rehabilitation request with Thailand’s Central Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday, it said in an exchange filing. The company petitioned to adjust interest rates on existing debt and extend its debt repayment period, and proposed itself as a planner for the process.

China slipped back into deflation in October after a brief reprieve, highlighting how hard it is for Beijing to reinvigorate domestic demand in the world’s second-largest economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. In contrast to the U.S. and many advanced economies where taming inflation remains a high priority for central banks, China has struggled to revive inflation through most parts of the year—the latest evidence that a string of stimulus measures so far have failed to boost consumer confidence in the midst of a drawn-out property downturn.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. said that it doesn’t hold any shares in Country Garden Holdings Co. and has no plans to acquire the distressed Chinese developer, refuting a report that sent the insurance giant’s stock tumbling on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. The insurer said in a Shanghai Stock Exchange filing that it hasn’t received any suggestions or requests from any government agency to take over Country Garden, responding to a Reuters report that China’s State Council instructed the government of Guangdong province to ask Ping An to take a controlling stake in the developer.

The list of business executives and political figures who have gone missing in China keeps growing, the Wall Street Journal reported. Top executives at a video-streaming platform and a pharmaceutical company were the latest to disappear, as an intensifying clampdown by Beijing on alleged corruption and malfeasance shakes business confidence in China, among local and foreign firms alike. Chen Shaojie, chief executive of livestreaming firm DouYu, has been unreachable since October, a person familiar with the matter said.

Banks in Austria had 2.2 billion euros ($2.35 billion) in exposure in mid-2023 to indebted property and retail giant Signa Group, owner of New York's Chrysler Building and Britain's Selfridges store, Reuters reported. Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) (RBIV.VI) and UniCredit's (CRDI.MI) Bank Austria accounted for two-thirds of this, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The exposures, which have not been previously reported, shed some light on the financial links of Signa, which has been a major player in Europe's property industry for more than two decades.

Switzerland wanted its big banks to be fortresses. In practice, the country’s “too big to fail” banking laws made a sand castle of Credit Suisse, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Swiss rules in question have become an object lesson in the difficulties of designing financial regulation. Created to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis bailouts, Switzerland’s customized version of international capital requirements laid the groundwork for the biggest bank rescue since.

As Canada's economy enters a period of sluggish growth, the big banks are looking to fortify their balance sheets against rising bad debts, but instead of tapping shareholders for funds, the lenders are expected to sell non-core assets and cap dividends, fund managers and analysts said, Reuters reported. With the economy slowing and adding fewer jobs, banks are anticipating more consumers could default on credit-card payments and mortgages, hurting profits.

The Bank of Japan may end its negative interest rate policy as early as January, and keep raising short-term borrowing costs if the economy can weather risks from overseas uncertainties, said former central bank executive Eiji Maeda, Reuters reported. The BOJ last month revised up its price estimates to project inflation to hit 1.9% in both fiscal 2024 and 2025, as measured by an index that strips away the effects of volatile fresh food and fuel costs.

The European Union’s executive arm recommended on Wednesday that the bloc open membership talks with Ukraine, an encouraging step for the government in Kyiv in what remains a long and arduous joining process, the New York Times reported. The recommendation comes with the caveat that Ukraine must take steps to address corruption, protect minorities and limit the power of oligarchs. “Ukraine continues to face tremendous hardship and tragedy provoked by Russia’s war of aggression,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the body’s executive branch.

Signa Holding GmbH replaced founder Rene Benko with a restructuring expert as a financial crunch threatens the troubled €23 billion ($25 billion) real estate group that co-owns New York’s Chrysler Building and the Selfridges department store in London, Bloomberg News reported. As concerns mount that a messy collapse could reverberate across European property markets, investors in the Innsbruck-based company agreed on Wednesday to name German auditor Arndt Geiwitz chairman of the advisory board and shareholder committee.