Headlines

A Munich-based property developer said on Friday that it had filed to open insolvency proceedings with a local court, in the latest sign of stress in Germany's real estate sector, Reuters reported. Euroboden GmbH, with 115 million euros ($126 million) in bonds outstanding and facing possible downgrades in its credit rating, said in a statement that negotiations for property sales had fallen through, hurting its finances. It also cancelled a meeting with bondholders later this month, where it had hoped to restructure its debt.

A “surge” of businesses will collapse across the country as the ATO goes after mounting legacy debt, experts have warned, The Australian reported. The ATO and other creditors currently pose the greatest ‘threat’ to cash-strapped small and medium-sized businesses, says Insolvency Australia, which has just released its latest Corporate Insolvency Index. It comes as a popular West Australian business Barretts Bakery, this week was put into administration after it owed the ATO $2 million.

Mexican payroll lender Credito Real is extending a deadline to secure a majority of investors to back a prepackaged bankruptcy filing in local courts it sees as the resolution to one of the country’s biggest corporate blow-ups, Bloomberg News reported. The non-bank lender and a group of creditors are planning to take another 30 days to recruit more bondholders in the $1.9 billion of defaulted debt to sign on to the offer originally set to expire Thursday, people familiar with the talks said, requesting anonymity since the discussions are private.

A Scottish renewables company, backed by Scottish Enterprise, has been placed into administration as a result of problems with its Canadian subsidiary, Daily Business reported. Edinburgh-based Sustainable Marine Energy (SME), developed tidal energy systems and last year its Canadian business was successful in harnessing tidal currents in the country’s Bay of Fundy, in Nova Scotia, using its innovative, floating platform.

UBS said that it would no longer rely on Swiss government assistance tied to its emergency takeover of Credit Suisse in March, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Swiss bank said that it terminated a roughly $10 billion government backstop that had limited its potential losses on some Credit Suisse assets. UBS also exited emergency liquidity lines the country’s central bank had provided to keep Credit Suisse afloat. UBS bought Credit Suisse after the latter came close to collapsing as customers pulled deposits.

The Bank of Mexico maintained its benchmark interest rate at 11.25% on Thursday, in line with analysts' forecasts, underscoring that the inflationary outlook remains "very complex" and suggesting the rate could hold steady for a while, Reuters reported. The unanimous decision by the central bank's five-member board is the third consecutive rate hold since Banxico, as the Bank of Mexico is known, halted a two-year hiking cycle in May amid easing inflation.

Chile's benchmark interest rate will likely come down to between 7.75% and 8% by the end of the year, as expected by analysts, the country's central bank chief said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Chile's central bank was one of the first in Latin America to cut interest rates during the current monetary policy cycle, slashing the rate from 11.25% to 10.25% at the end of July. However, the 100-basis-point cut is not indicative of future rate moves in Chile, central bank chief Rosanna Costa cautioned, speaking at an event.

Britain's economy eked out unexpected growth in the second quarter, laying the ground for more interest rate hikes from the Bank of England, but it remained the only big advanced economy yet to regain its pre-COVID, late-2019 level, Reuters reported. Official data on Friday showed the economy grew 0.2% in the second quarter, against the consensus for a flat reading in a Reuters poll of economists. The figures sent the pound sharply higher against the U.S. dollar and euro.

Nigeria's central bank has reported a $7.5 billion loan from U.S. banks JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs in financial statements published for the first time since 2015, sending the country's international bonds tumbling on Friday, Reuters reported. Nigeria's government has had to seek overdrafts from the central bank to plug a widening deficit amid wide-scale theft in the oil industry, and the large foreign loans could add to the central bank's burden.