Headlines

India’s bankruptcy law faces a vital test as creditor banks vote on a winning bid for the first financial company to go through insolvency resolution, a process pitting US distressed-debt fund Oaktree Capital against India’s Piramal Group, the Financial Times reported. Real estate lender Dewan Housing Finance Corporation, known as DHFL, was the first financial group forced into insolvency in November 2019 after defaulting on about $12bn in debt.

China's first regulation on individual bankruptcy, adopted in August in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, will play a big role in stimulating the country's market vitality, maintaining its social stability and helping it improve its credit system, a high-placed bankruptcy court official in the city said, China Daily reported. The regulation takes effect on March 1.

The number of bankruptcies in the hotel industry in Japan in 2020 jumped 57.3% from the previous year to 118, according to Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd, the Japan Times reported. The annual total surpassed 100 for the first time since 2013, mainly due to the impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic, the credit research firm said Tuesday. Liabilities left by collapsed hotel operators totaled ¥58 billion, with failures of midsize or larger firms increasing.

A unit of the main conglomerate controlled by Dubai’s ruler is facing off against creditors including Mashreqbank PSC after telling them it won’t fully repay a loan that was restructured in 2013, Bloomberg News reported. The $1.2 billion syndicated facility is linked to Dubai Holding Investments Group LLC’s acquisition in 2007 of a 10% stake in U.S. hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, since renamed Sculptor Capital Management.

A former leader of Italy yanked his party’s ministers on Wednesday from Premier Giuseppe Conte’s government, triggering a political crisis in the middle of a pandemic that could lead to a revamped Cabinet, a different coalition leader or the early election eagerly sought by right-wing opposition parties, the Associated Press reported. Matteo Renzi, who served as premier from Feb. 2014 to Dec.

An investment spree billed as an income generator to protect frontline services in a cash-strapped London borough has provided a cautionary tale about the perils of over-reach as local authorities across Britain face mounting financial and social pressures, the Financial Times reported. Twice in the past two months, the Labour-run council in Croydon, on London’s southern fringes, has issued a Section 114 notice — announcing de facto bankruptcy — after failing to fulfil a legal duty to balance its books.

A report recently by La Vanguardia says that La Liga giants Barcelona are in debt to the tune of €420m (£375), which must be paid by the end of this year or they could face insolvency, with the report describing the club as having let things spiral out of control, according to EuroWeeklyNews.com. Apparently, there is a straight €480m (£428m) long term debt, repayable over one year, and then another debt of €420m (£375m) in the short term, making a total debt of almost €900m (£803m) at the club.

Bonds issued by French supermarket group Carrefour SA took a pounding on Wednesday as a takeover approach from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. sparked concerns that a deal would swell the combined company’s debt burden, Bloomberg News reported. A 1 billion euro ($1.2 billion) note maturing in 2027 was indicated 1.1 cents lower at 115.4 cents, marking the biggest one-day price drop since issuance last March, based on data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s the worst-performing bond in the euro high-grade market Wednesday, followed by other bonds issued by the French grocer.

EU antitrust regulators have cleared the London Stock Exchange’s $27 billion acquisition of data company Refinitiv, subject to a number of conditions including the sale of its Borsa Italiana operations, Reuters reported. The European Commission, which oversees competition policy in the 27-nation European Union, said on Wednesday that the purchase had been approved after its investigation found a number of concerns.

Thousands of American tourists descended on Mexico’s glittering Caribbean beaches at the close of 2020 and start of this year. Quintana Roo state, the country’s tourism crown jewel, home to Cancun, the Riviera Maya and Tulum, received 961,000 tourists during that stretch — nearly half from the U.S. — down only 25 percent from the previous year, the Associated Press reported.