Headlines

The number of companies filing for bankruptcy in Finland rose to the highest in 26 years last month as the slowdown in the Nordic economy puts a damper on business activity, Bloomberg News reported. Finland recorded the highest number of July bankruptcies since 1997, with 224 companies becoming insolvent, Statistics Finland said on Monday. Construction industry and other service businesses had the most failed companies, it said.

London-based digital-first healthcare platform Babylon Health has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in the United States for two subsidiaries — Babylon Healthcare and Babylon Inc. — as it shuts down core U.S. operations, according to documents filed on Aug. 9 in a Delaware bankruptcy court, Becker's Hospital Review reported. The filing comes shortly after a planned combination Babylon's core operating subsidiaries with MindMaze, digital neurotherapy company, collapsed.

DP Eurasia will file for bankruptcy for its Russian business and exit the country, the operator of the Domino's Pizza brand in Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia said on Monday, Reuters reported. In December, the company said it was considering options for its Russian operations, including a divestment, like other Western firms which have exited Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine. Some have managed to negotiate swift exits, often selling at huge discounts or handing the keys to local management.

China cut its one-year benchmark lending rate on Monday as authorities seek to ramp up efforts to stimulate credit demand, but surprised markets by keeping the five-year rate unchanged amid broader concerns about a rapidly weakening currency, Reuters reported. The recovery in the world's second-largest economy has lost steam due to a worsening property slump, weak consumer spending and tumbling credit growth, adding to the case for authorities to release more policy stimulus.

A model Chinese real estate developer in a sector replete with risk takers is teetering on the edge of default. Short of cash, one of China’s biggest asset managers has missed payments to investors. And billions of dollars have flowed out of the country’s stock markets. In China, August has been a dizzying ride, the New York Times reported. What started three years ago as a crackdown on risky business behavior by home builders, and then an ensuing housing slowdown, has spiraled rapidly this month.

China’s central bank and financial regulators met with bank executives and told lenders again to boost loans to support a recovery, adding to signs of heightened concern from policymakers about the deteriorating economic outlook, Bloomberg News reported. Authorities also urged for adjustments and an optimization of policies for home mortgages at the meeting on Friday, according to a statement from the People’s Bank of China on Sunday, without elaborating on the housing initiatives. Executives from China Life Insurance Co.

Less than a year after a debt crisis shook South Korea, concern is growing that souring lending at credit unions risks bringing back distress, Bloomberg News reported. A branch of one of Korea’s biggest such lenders, MG Community Credit Cooperatives, was shut last month when it reported a 60 billion won ($45 million) loss on real estate-related loans. That triggered deposit outflows at the group of lenders on concerns over rising default rates.

Malaysia may pursue lawsuits against Goldman Sachs over the U.S. investment bank's role in the multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at state fund 1MDB, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in an interview with CNBC, Reuters reported. Goldman settled with Malaysia in 2020 by agreeing to pay $2.5 billion in cash and guaranteeing the return of $1.4 billion in assets to the country in exchange for dropping all criminal charges against the bank. But Anwar, who came to power in late 2022, said earlier this year that Malaysia was re-evaluating the deal as the settlement sum was small.

The founder of SBB once said the property company could withstand interest rates of 10%. In reality, less dramatic increases have turned the stock into a bonanza for short sellers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Swedish landlord was set up in 2016 and borrowed heavily over the next few years to pay for its growing property empire. SBB was “hooked on the crack of cheap debt,” according to Viceroy Research founder Fraser Perring, whose hedge fund published a critical report about the company last year and questioned whether it was valuing its assets properly.

As the lira was approaching a decade of continuous losses, Turkish policymakers hit on an idea that promised a quick fix, and it helped stave off another currency crisis. But nearly two years on, a government-backed savings program — which protects lira deposits from depreciation against hard currencies — has become too big to unwind and too dangerous to live without., Bloomberg News reported.