Headlines

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has admitted listed infrastructure development company SKIL Infrastructure Ltd under the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) following an application filed by its financial creditor, Amluckie Investment Company Ltd., the Economic Times of India reported. The tribunal has also appointed Purusottam Behera as its resolution professional.

Jaicorp’s vice chairman Virendra Jain and his son Ankit Jain have emerged the highest bidders for Chennai-based steel maker Kamachi Industries, a sick unit being liquidated after a failed insolvency resolution process, the Economic Times of India reported. The father-son duo offered to acquire the company as a going concern. Their bid of Rs. 487 crore has been made under a National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)-monitored process initiated by State Bank of India in February 2020. Kamachi Industries defaulted on Rs 2,200 crore of loans granted by a consortium of five public sector banks.

In an attempt to bring harmony and reduce delays, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has now allowed the appointment of the same insolvency professional (IP) in the resolution or liquidation process of the corporate debtor (CD) and its personal guarantor (PG), the Financial Express reported. “Removal of this restriction will allow the appointment of the same IP in both the corporate process as well as the insolvency and bankruptcy proceeding of the PGs to the CDs for better harmonisation and effective coordination of both the processes,” the IBBI said on Saturday.

China's securities regulator said on Tuesday it would suspend brokerages from borrowing shares for lending and cap the size of the so-called securities re-lending business, as part of further efforts to curb short-selling, Reuters reported. The watchdog will also ban securities lending to investors who sell stocks on the same day of purchase, and vowed to crack down on illegal arbitrage using short-selling.

Three South Korean financial firms set aside almost $560 million combined to cover potential losses amid wider regulator concerns about real estate exposure as valuations continue to fall, Bloomberg News reported. Woori Financial Group Inc. booked a provision of 525 billion won ($396 million) in the fourth quarter after a “comprehensive examination on vulnerable areas” such as property, Vice President Sung-Wook Lee said on a call with analysts.

Retail sales growth in the U.K. slowed in January mainly due to easing inflation and weak consumer demand, with cost-of-living pressures entering their third year, according to British Retail Consortium data, the Wall Street Journal reported. Total retail sales for the four weeks to Jan. 27 increased by 1.2% on month compared with 1.7% growth the prior month and the three-month average of 1.9%, the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor said Tuesday. Growth stood at 4.2% in January last year.

Outstanding loans in Brazil grew by 7.9% in 2023, a sharp deceleration from the previous year when the expansion had been 14.5%, central bank data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The credit stock saw a 1.4% increase in December from the previous month, with the volume of financing concluding the year at 5.8 trillion reais ($1.16 trillion). The slowdown in outstanding loans last year was driven by high borrowing costs.

Europe's green energy transition is stuck between a rock and a hard place. A flood of cheap Chinese solar panel imports is driving record solar energy installations. But those same imports are crushing Europe's few local solar manufacturers, Reuters reported. Governments and industry are split over how to respond. Europe just had a bumper year for green energy. European Union countries installed record levels of solar capacity, 40% more than in 2022. The vast majority of those panels and parts came from China – in some cases, 95%, International Energy Agency data show.

Scandinavian airline SAS said it would file a second amended chapter 11 plan of reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday and said it had obtained the support of the unsecured creditors' committee, Reuters reported. The company said it expected about $325 million to be allocated to general unsecured creditors as part of the amended plan, consisting of up to $250 million in cash and $75 million in new equity.

Vadraj Cement, which was stuck in liquidation for more than five years under the Bombay High Court, has been shifted to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for debt resolution, giving lenders a glimmer of hope to recover more than half of their dues, the Economic Times or India reported. Last Friday, NCLT pronounced an order to admit Vadraj Cement, formerly known as ABG Cement, for corporate insolvency process. Adani Group, UltraTech Cement and JSW Cement may bid to acquire the debt-laden company, lenders said.