Headlines

Company insolvencies in England and Wales in August rose 19% year on year to the third highest level since monthly record started in January 2019, as firms grapple with rising costs and uncertain economic outlook, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The Insolvency Service, a government agency, reported 2,308 corporate insolvencies last month, up from 1,728 in July. Companies were mostly declared insolvent through creditors' voluntary liquidations, in which a firms' directors agree to wind up the business without a formal court order.

Canada's Canopy Growth said yesterday that it would seek bankruptcy protection for its sports nutrition products' segment BioSteel, in the pot producer's latest attempt to rein in costs. Canopy's shares rose 9.6% in early trade after the company said it expects to lower debt by C$95 million over the next two quarters after starting legal proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act in a Canadian court in Ontario and seeking recognition under chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Distressed Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co. faces two more tests Monday: an initial deadline to pay dollar bond interest and the end of creditor voting on its request to extend payment on a yuan note, Bloomberg News reported. Holders of that local bond due Oct. 21 have until 10 p.m. Beijing time Monday to vote on the proposal to stretch payment by three years. If they reject it, Country Garden would need to pay the 492 million yuan ($67.6 million) of outstanding principal next month, its largest near-term maturity just as it’s struggled to make smaller payments.

China’s central bank announced a policy change on Thursday that will allow the country’s banks to lend more money, but a nationwide economic slowdown has left many companies and households wary of borrowing, the New York Times reported. The move is the latest in a series of economic stimulus measures by the Chinese government as growth has failed to rebound strongly this year as many expected after nearly three years of stringent pandemic-control regulations.

China’s economy appears to have survived its near miss with a damaging bout of consumer-price deflation—for now, the Wall Street Journal reported. After a grim June and July, China’s main August economic data, released Friday, contained clear hints of improvement. The news from the critical housing sector, which is mired in a protracted slump, was less encouraging: Price falls accelerated in lower-tier cities. But growth in retail sales accelerated to 4.6% from a year earlier, from just 2.5% in July. Unemployment ticked down marginally.

A group of international bond investors is drawing up plans to sue Switzerland in the U.S. courts for expropriation over the losses they suffered after UBS agreed to take over Credit Suisse with state support, the Financial Times reported. The case is being brought together by law firm Quinn Emanuel and could be filed by the end of the year, the report said on Friday citing people familiar with the matter. In essence, the claim would be seeking compensation for the destruction of [investors'] property rights, a person with knowledge of the plans told FT.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire urged the European Central Bank not to raise interest rates again, joining a cohort of politicians reacting to Thursday’s hike in borrowing costs, Bloomberg News reported. “We are on the right track to reduce inflation,” Le Maire told Bloomberg Television on Friday in the western Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, where he attended a meeting with euro-area counterparts on Friday along with ECB President Christine Lagarde.

Canada plans to amend its competition laws to enable the regulator to act against anti-competitive mergers in the grocery sector, as the government steps up efforts to battle rising food prices, Reuters reported. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday said he had summoned the heads of Canada's top grocers to Ottawa next week to discuss their plans to control food prices. The government could impose new taxes on the grocery chains if they do not provide a convincing plan to limit the rise of food prices, Trudeau said.

Blockchain researchers say North Korea-linked hackers are likely behind a $70 million theft from crypto exchange CoinEx, Reuters reported. CoinEx, which says it is based in Hong Kong, said on Tuesday on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that wallets used to store the exchange's crypto assets had been hacked. It said on Friday it estimates its losses at $70 million, which it said is a "small portion" of its total assets.

Four years after Lebanon’s historic meltdown began, the small nation is still facing “enormous economic challenges,” with a collapsed banking sector, eroding public services, deteriorating infrastructure and worsening poverty, the International Monetary Fund warned Friday, the Associated Press reported. In a statement issued at the end of a four-day visit by an IMF delegation to the crisis-hit country, the international agency welcomed recent policy decisions by Lebanon's central bank to stop lending to the state and end the work in an exchange platform known as Sayrafa.