Headlines

Uttar Pradesh government’s rehabilitation package for developers of housing projects undergoing insolvency proceedings has been extended by two weeks, the Economic Times of India reported. Builders can opt for the package if they choose to withdraw their cases with National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) or in different courts, Noida Authority notified on Thursday. The rehabilitation package was introduced by the state government in December last year. It gave several concessions to developers including a two year interest waiver and penalties imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sri Lankan officials and global investors are expected to hold a second round of direct talks this week to agree on the restructuring of $12 billion in defaulted bonds, Bloomberg News reported. A group of bondholders, known as the steering committee, will continue to negotiate on the government’s new proposal in this round of the talks. The bondholders went “restricted,” meaning the conversations with the government are covered by temporary trading limitations because the topics under discussion may be market sensitive.

Ghana reached an agreement in principle with private creditors to restructure about $13 billion of debt, a key milestone in the West African country’s efforts to overhaul its loans. The nation’s bonds rallied, Bloomberg News reported. Under terms of an accord announced on Monday, investors accepted nominal losses of 37% on their holdings, according to a statement issued by the advisers to an international creditor committee and the government..

Bank of Japan board members discussed the case for an interest rate hike as upside risks to inflation become “more noticeable,” according to a summary of opinions from the June policy meeting, Bloomberg News reported. “It is necessary for the bank to continue to closely monitor relevant data in preparation for the next monetary policy meeting,” one of nine board members said, according to the summary released Monday in Tokyo.

As Credit Suisse spiraled toward insolvency early last year, a group of Swiss bankers, technocrats and regional officials were already busy laying the groundwork for a new type of financial infrastructure, Bloomberg News reported. Nine months after the Swiss bank was rescued by crosstown rival UBS Group AG in March 2023, the Zurich and Basel cantons issued the first so-called tokenized bonds settled in Switzerland’s experimental digital currency. The Lugano city government followed suit shortly after.

Ship backups that plagued seaports during the Covid pandemic are making a comeback, as vessel diversions because of attacks in the Red Sea trigger gridlock and soaring costs at the start of the peak shipping season, the Wall Street Journal reported. Flotillas of containerships and bulk carriers are growing off the coasts of Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and China while ports in Spain and other parts of Europe look to dig out from container piles.

With billions of dollars in trade at stake, China and the European Union have agreed to engage in talks to try to resolve an escalating dispute over tariffs, the New York Times reported. China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, and Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Union trade commissioner, will hold discussions on the European Union’s plan for tariffs on electric cars from China, the Chinese commerce ministry said late Saturday.

The Czech Republic's biggest steelworks Liberty Ostrava, part of Indian-British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta's business empire, was sent into bankruptcy by a court on Friday, AFP reported. Liberty Steel Group, part of Gupta's GFG Alliance, said earlier this month it had put its operations in the eastern Czech steel hub of Ostrava up for sale, citing "very demanding" conditions on the crisis-hit steel market. Liberty Ostrava has said its overdue debt had exceeded five billion koruna ($214 million) as it asked to be declared insolvent.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland said that it saw an increase in demand for its services last year with applications for insolvency solutions, other than bankruptcy, increasing by 20% compared to 2022, RTE.ie reported. In its annual report released Friday, the ISI said 72 people were adjudicated bankrupt in 2023, down from 105 in 2022. 99 people also exited bankruptcy last year. More than 1,560 new insolvency applications were made last year, while the ISE website reported a total of 87,791 visits.

China is pushing for Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. to lower their bank card transaction fees in the country, a person familiar with the matter said, as part of an effort to facilitate payments for foreign visitors, Bloomberg News reported. The Payment & Clearing Association of China is negotiating with global card issuers including Visa and Mastercard on lowering fees local merchants are charged on foreign card transactions. The association proposed trimming the fee to 1.5% from 2-3%, the person said. The negotiations are ongoing and the fee cut details could change.