Headlines

Bron, the finance and production company that backed films including Joker, Licorice Pizza, Bombshell and Judas and the Black Messiah, has filed for bankruptcy, its co-founder Aaron J. Gilbert said Wednesday, Deadline reported. In a letter to “friends, partners, team members and backers,” Gilbert wrote today that Bron — the parent company of Bron Studios and Bron Digital — had filed for creditor protection with the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Canada, where it is based, concurrent with chapter 15 in the U.S.

Perativ Holdings Ltd., a leading Canadian operator of ATMs, has filed for creditor protection after several years of operating losses, citing a pandemic-related decline in consumers’ use of cash, as well as two major thefts, the Globe and Mail reported. The company supplies banks with ATM management software and operates more than 7,000 “white label” ATMs. Such ATMs aren’t owned by banks, and are often located in small businesses that offer cash discounts or don’t accept credit payments.

A millionaire 'magic circle' lawyer who sailed the seas on a £17 million superyacht is facing bankruptcy after failing to hand a £19 million investment fund back to a Saudi princess, the Daily Mail reported. Former lawyer Ronald Gibbs has been locked in a court fight with the Saudi Royal Family after he agreed to set up and manage the multi-million-pound investment fund for Princess Deema Bint Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in 2011.

Troubled governments that devalue their currencies tend to benefit from the decision, underscoring the tool’s usefulness in the face of crisis, according to the Institute of International Finance, Bloomberg reported. There’s been a pivot toward economic growth in countries just three years after authorities opt for major currency devaluations, economists Robin Brooks and Jonathan Fortun found in an analysis of the 51 largest and most-persistent episodes since 1990.

Aircraft manufacturers are stabilising production runs but problems will likely persist in the supply chain as they ramp up deliveries in the next two years, the head of the world's third-largest aircraft lessor said on Thursday, Reuters reported. A rapid post-pandemic recovery in air travel has left planemakers and smaller suppliers struggling to keep up with demand amid rising costs, parts shortages and a scarcity of skilled labour.

Finance State Minister Shehan Semasinghe told Parliament yesterday that Sri Lanka could exit bankruptcy by September, the Daily News reported. He also mentioned that with the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Act, Sri Lanka will be transformed into a corruption-free country. The State Minister said this during the debate on the Central Bank Bill. Semasinghe also said that Sri Lanka has received GSP tax relief for another four years. That’s a big victory. International confidence has been confirmed about the economic stability of the country.

IDBI Bank on Thursday moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) challenging a National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order of 19 May, which had rejected the bank's plea to initiate insolvency proceedings against Zee Entertainment Enterprises, said a counsel aware of the matter, Live Mint reported. The insolvency application was filed before the dedicated bankruptcy tribunal to recover dues of ₹149.60 crore from Zee Entertainment. The case has been filed with the court registrar, but is yet to be listed for hearing.

South Korea's producer prices fell in June on an annual basis for the first time in 31 months, central bank data showed on Friday, dragged down by petroleum and agricultural products, Reuters reported. The producer price index was 0.2% lower in June than the same month the year before, after a rise of 0.5% in May, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The index showed annual increases every month from December 2020 and during the streak it once hit a 14-year high of 10%. Officials at the BOK remain cautious about whether the annual declines will continue.

A tentative rebound in the South Korean won may get an additional tailwind in the second half of the year thanks to the global boom in artificial intelligence, Bloomberg reported. That’s expected to boost exports of Korean semiconductors, which in turn will help improve the country’s terms of trade. Analysts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., HSBC Holdings Plc and Nomura Holdings Inc. have touted a turn in the chip cycle as a plus for the won in recent research with the latter specifically mentioning the secular AI investment theme in a note last month.

Consumer prices in Britain rose 7.9 percent in June from a year ago, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday, the slowest pace of inflation in more than a year, the New York Times reported. The slowdown, which was greater than economists had expected, will bring some relief to the government following months of inflation repeatedly turning out higher than forecast. The annual rate of price growth slowed from 8.7 percent in May. The decline was driven by a large drop in the price of motor fuels. Food prices rose 17.3 percent in June from the year before.