Headlines

The number of insolvent Romanian companies increased by an annual 16.7% to 509 in January, said ONRC, the country's trade registry, SeeNews.com reported. Despite falling by 20.8% on the year to 76, the highest number of insolvent companies and legal entities was registered in the capital Bucharest, data published on the ONRC website on Wednesday showed. The highest number of insolvent companies was registered in the wholesale, retail and motor vehicles servicing sector - 235, up by an annual 1.5%, followed by construction with 104, up by 15.6%, and manufacturing with 64, up by 16.4%.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Mumbai on Thursday admitted an insolvency resolution application against NCR Rail Infrastructure (previously Arshiya Rail Infrastructure), and appointed Bhuvan Madan as the resolution professional for the company, the Economic Times of India reported. NCR Rail Infrastructure is an affiliate of BSE-listed Arshiya Ltd, which operates free-trade warehousing zones. Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company had approached the tribunal seeking to initiate insolvency proceedings against the company over a default on payment of Rs 71 crore.

The bankruptcy court in Ahmedabad has rejected Gujarat-based Express Group of Hotels’ revival plan for Neesa Leisure Ltd, which operates a luxury hotel chain under the brand Cambay, the Economic Times of India reported. The company has admitted liabilities of Rs 1,580 crore, whereas the resolution plan approved by the lenders proposed to give Rs 150 crore to them to acquire the company through the bankruptcy process. The successful resolution applicant had proposed Rs 250 crore towards capex and fresh funds, bringing the total value of the plan to Rs 400 crore.

A U.K. government agency is seeking to disqualify Lex Greensill, the founder of failed specialty lender Greensill Capital, from acting as a director, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Insolvency Service said on Thursday that it had started proceedings against Greensill to disqualify him from running or controlling companies for up to 15 years, owing to his conduct as a director of Greensill Capital. The agency had been investigating the directors of Greensill after its collapse in March 2021.

India’s state governments should implement labor, land and other reforms that are “low hanging fruits” to help sustain the nation’s economic growth nearer 8%, a top economic official said, Bloomberg News reported. An “urgent priority” is for labor rules to take effect, India’s Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran said in an interview on Thursday. The policies have been passed at the national level, and need to be implemented at the state level, he said.

Peru's economy should return to growth in the first three months of 2024, the central bank's chief economist Adrian Armas said in a presentation on Friday, predicting a reversal of four quarters of economic decline as inflation nears the bank's target range, Reuters reported. The monetary authority for the world's No. 2 copper producer had held its benchmark interest rate at 6.25% on Thursday, defying expectations of a 25-basis-point cut after inflation ticked up in February.

Canada’s labor market surged past expectations with the biggest job gains since September, but a rising unemployment rate and slowing wage growth still point to easing inflation pressures ahead, Bloomberg News reported. The country added 41,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate rose to 5.8%, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa. The employment figure more than doubled expectations and the jobless rate matched the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Rene Benko, the founder of the ailing Signa conglomerate, filed for personal insolvency at an Austrian court that was in the process of reviewing his personal finances, Bloomberg News reported. Benko made the filing voluntarily, Norbert Wess, a lawyer for the businessman told Bloomberg by email, confirming earlier media reports by the Kronen Zeitung newspaper. The decision deepens the private fallout for the tycoon from the financial meltdown at his property and retail empire, large parts of which sought creditor protection last year.

Russia has seen a sharp spike in corporate bankruptcies, according to a report that comes as Vladimir Putin looks to tax companies more to pay for his social program and the sanctions-hit economy continues to face turbulence, Newsweek reported. The business newspaper Kommersant reported that in the first two months of 2024, corporate bankruptcies had increased by more than a half compared with the same period last year—and experts predicted an increase in insolvencies in future.

NHS Lothian accepted the handover of an unfinished children's hospital to stop the private consortium behind the deal going bust, a public inquiry has heard, according to BBC Scotland News. The IHSL group building the Sick Kids in Edinburgh was facing insolvency, just months before the facility was due to open in July 2019. If IHSL went bust then NHS Lothian faced paying out at least £150m to get the project finished. The health board took ownership of the building in February 2019. But four months later last-minute inspections found safety concerns over the hospital's ventilation systems.