Headlines

The holding company of Thames Water Ltd. defaulted on some of its debt after failing to make an interest payment, in the latest sign of the deepening crisis at the UK’s largest water utility, Bloomberg News reported. Kemble Water Finance Limited has sent a formal notice of default to the holders of its £400 million ($505 million) bonds due May 2026 as it didn’t pay interest due Tuesday, according to a statement. The parent company now needs to start talks with creditors to avoid a messy restructuring that could wipe out Thames Water shareholders.

A London law firm has lodged a bid to wind up non-league Southend United, BBC.com reported. Stewarts Law's winding-up petition has been published on an official public record. A judge in the Insolvency and Companies Court in London is due consider its claim on 17 April. Stewarts' petition has appeared on The Gazette website - an official public record. A notice says the law firm has taken action under the 1986 Insolvency Act and is "claiming to be a creditor" of Southend United Football Club Ltd.

India’s central bank kept its policy rate unchanged as the country’s economic growth remains strong and inflation eases, the Wall Street Journal reported. Reserve Bank of India Gov. Shaktikanta Das said on Friday that the monetary-policy committee decided to hold its policy repo rate steady at 6.50%. The country’s gross domestic product increased 8.4% from a year earlier for the quarter ended in December, picking up from the 8.1% expansion seen in the previous quarter. Growth was fueled by a government push to pave roads, expand railroads and upgrade the power grid.

Canada’s labor market unexpectedly lost jobs and the unemployment rate jumped to the highest level in more than two years, signaling greater slack in the economy that will test the central bank’s patient stance on rate cuts, Bloomberg News reported. The country shed 2,200 jobs in March and the unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 6.1%, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa. The figures missed expectations for a gain of 25,000 positions and a jobless rate of 5.9%, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Zimbabwe, in its latest bid to end the serial slide of the local dollar, has replaced it with a new unit called the ZiG backed by a basket of foreign currency and gold, Bloomberg News reported. Central Bank Governor John Mushayavanhu told a press conference in Harare, the capital, on Friday, that the ZiG — short for Zimbabwe Gold — would be launched on April 8 at an introductory level of 13.56 per dollar and a new interest rate set at 20%. That compares with the 130% on the old unit, which was the highest central bank rate in the world.

Venezuela's consumer price growth hit in March hit 1.2%, maintaining the same pace as February, the country's central bank said on Thursday, Reuters reported. March's inflation is the lowest since August 2022. The country's 12-month inflation through last month stood at 67.75%, according to Reuters calculations based on central bank figures. Venezuela's government is redoubling efforts to control inflation by holding the exchange rate at 36 bolivars to the dollar, while weighing its spending amid an election year.

On social media forums and among friends, young people in China are questioning whether to save for old age. Some are opting out, citing the shortage of jobs, low pay and their ambivalence about the future, the New York Times reported. Their skepticism betrays the enormous challenge for China’s leaders. Over less than three decades, the country has changed from a young society to an aging one. Seven straight years of plummeting births are pushing up the day when there will be fewer people working than retirees.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal has directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) not to terminate the concession agreement of an IL&FS group entity -- Baleshwar Kharagpur Expressway Ltd, and take appropriate measures for its insolvency resolution, the Economic Times of India reported. The appellate tribunal said the resolution of Baleshwar Kharagpur Expressway Ltd (BKEL), a SPV set up by IL&FS Transportation Networks Limited (ITNL), "is in final stages" and any termination at this stage would "further complicate" the process.

The number of insolvent Romanian companies increased by 13.5% year-on-year to 1,120 in the first two months of 2024, the country's trade registry office, ONRC said, SeeNews.com reported. Despite falling by 8.8% on the year to 207 in January-February, the highest number of insolvent companies and legal entities was registered in Bucharest, ONRC said in a data release on Wednesday.

Dealing with the extensive loan guarantees Italy provided to help businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic and energy crisis is proving complex, hampering efforts to fix some companies' debt problems, restructuring experts said, Reuters reported. Under successive emergency measures since 2020, Italy has extended guarantees on 189 billion euros ($205 billion) of bank loans.