Headlines

The bankruptcy court has approved a proposal from a consortium comprising Shri Dutt India Pvt Ltd and Shri Dutt Biofuels Pvt Ltd to acquire Indian Sugar Manufacturing Company Ltd, the Economic Times of India reported. The consortium has offered to pay Rs 175 crore to acquire the company which has total admitted liabilities of Rs 523 crore. All the lenders of Indian Sugar Manufacturing had earlier approved the proposal.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has dismissed a petition filed by Ashdan Properties against Chemhub Tradelink's committee of creditors-approved resolution plan for Pancard Clubs. Ashdan was one of the three bidders interested in acquiring the bankrupt Pancard, which develops and operates hotels and resorts, the Economic Times of India reported. Pancard Clubs has more than 1.5 million timeshare subscribers, who are classified as financial creditors.

The International Monetary Fund is now "very confident" the global economy will see a soft landing, its managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday, adding that interest rates would start coming down around mid year, Reuters reported. "We are very confident that the world economy is now poised for this soft landing we have been dreaming for," after some of the sharpest interest rate hikes in decades, Georgieva said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

Germany’s market for office buildings suffered its sharpest drop in two decades as higher financing costs and sluggish return-to-office trends soured investor appetite, Bloomberg News reported. The downturn accelerated in the fourth quarter with a 13% drop from the previous year, according to data published Monday by German banking association VDP. For the full year, prices slumped more than 10%, the most since records began in 2003, and the outlook is for further declines at the start of 2024.

Like a lot of explosive financial scandals, the story of Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill could fairly be described as a simple proposition that spun completely out of control, the New York Times reported. Quinn was an Irish oil-and-gas man with warm eyes and a mustache; Cahill was his longtime partner, an accountant by training. The two had been working in Nigeria since the 1970s, doing small-time deals in the energy and defense sectors, like fixing tanks and siting oil wells. But in the mid-2000s, they spied a bigger opportunity.

New Zealand central bank governor Adrian Orr has issued a warning about crypto currencies such as stablecoins, saying they are no substitute for fiat money, Bloomberg News reported. Stablecoins are “the biggest misnomers” and “oxymorons,” Orr told a parliamentary committee Monday in Wellington. “Stablecoins are not stable. They’re only as good as the balance sheet of the person offering that stablecoin.” Stablecoins, a form of crypto token pegged to another asset, use large reserves to support their value.

Egypt is mired in a grueling economic crisis that’s left its 105 million-plus people gripped by uncertainty, but one thing seems all but assured: another currency devaluation is likely on the way, according to a Bloomberg commentary. The anticipated move would be the fourth major round of weakening for the Egyptian pound since early 2022 — and potentially the largest yet. Done correctly, it could help bring closer to an end the nation’s worst hard-currency crunch in decades, drawing foreign capital to the $400 billion economy and pulling it back from the brink.

Bonds of Petroleos Mexicanos declined on Monday after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the firm’s credit score further into junk territory, saying the state oil company would be near default without support from the Mexican government, Bloomberg News reported. Pemex’s notes due in 2030 fell as much as 2.9 cents on the dollar to 84.6 cents, according to Trace data compiled by Bloomberg. The extra yield investors demand to hold Pemex’s debt due in about six years over the Mexican sovereign widened more than 60 basis points to 4.93 percentage points.

Brazilian grain exporters lobby Anec on Thursday warned it was concerned about a rise in farmer bankruptcy filings in the country, adding a recent increase in cases potentially compromises the execution of grain contracts, Reuters reported. The rise in farmer bankruptcy cases, which may affect delivery of committed grains throughout the season, may also hamper traders' ability to complete their export programs, Anec said. Farmer groups, including Aprosoja-Mato Grosso and Aprosoja Brasil, did not have an immediate comment.

Bulgarian insurance group Eurohold announced that it filed a lawsuit against Romania at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of what it claims to be the illegal bankruptcy of local subsidiary Euroins, Romania-Insider.com reported. Moreover, it also reconfirmed that it is preparing an arbitration request for the amount of over EUR 500 million at an international court in the U.S. At the same time, Eurohold claimed that the lawsuit in Romania against ASF’s decision to withdraw Euroins’ operating license has recently started.