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In a relief to low-cost carrier SpiceJet, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on January 29 dismissed an insolvency petition filed against the company by aircraft lessor Wilmington Trust SP Services, The Hindu reported. A Delhi-based bench of NCLT comprising members Mahendra Khandelwal and Rahul Prasad Bhatnagar dismissed the petition of the aircraft lessor based in Dublin, Ireland. Wilmington moved the insolvency plea against SpiceJet in June 2023 over unpaid dues.

The head of Scandinavian airline SAS, opens new tab criticised the European Commission on Monday for taking a "cautious" approach to consolidation in the industry at a time when the EU is adding to the cost of flying, Reuters reported. Anko van der Werff, whose long-struggling carrier is the largest in Scandinavia, listed the European Union's flagship scheme to help curb greenhouse gas emissions as among the reasons why the EU "clearly wants flying to be more expensive".

China Evergrande Group creditors are set to recover just a fraction of the billions of dollars worth of the builder’s debt they hold, with most of its assets likely hard to access for liquidators, Bloomberg News reported. Almost all of Evergrande’s assets are in mainland China, presenting legal hurdles for non-Chinese administrators. The key Hong Kong holdings add up to just $2.9 billion compared with $25.4 billion in offshore liabilities as of the end of June 2022, according to a court document and Bloomberg’s calculations.

The number of companies going bust in the UK jumped to the highest level in 30 years as businesses were hit by a combination of high borrowing costs, surging inflation and weakening consumer demand, Bloomberg News reported. In 2023, there were 25,158 registered company insolvencies across England and Wales, according to quarterly data released on Tuesday by the government’s Insolvency Service. That’s the most recorded since 1993. One in 186 active companies entered insolvent liquidation in 2023, the highest rate in around a decade.

Mexican lender Unifin has concluded its bankruptcy proceedings, the company said in a filing on Monday, following the approval of its plan to restructure debts by a local court, Reuters reported. Unifin's business model focuses on offering specialized financing to companies, as well as car loans. In 2022, a court approved Unifin's voluntary application for declaration of bankruptcy, a move the firm said would help it protect assets and hold talks with creditors. The lender's last published quarterly results from the second quarter of 2022 showed financial liabilities of around $4 billion.

The eurozone economy stagnated late last year as a lingering energy crisis sparked a loss of competitiveness in some European industries, and consumers reined in spending to grapple with high living costs, Europe’s statistics agency reported Tuesday, the New York Times reported. But economists believe the worst may be over, as the European Central Bank continues its campaign to wring out inflation without plunging the eurozone economy into a deep downturn.

Mexico’s economy slowed more than forecast in the fourth quarter on waning exports and household consumption, fueling bets the nation’s central bank will start interest rate cuts in coming months, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product expanded 0.1% on a quarterly basis, less than the 0.3% median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. From a year earlier, it grew 2.4%, below the 3% median forecast, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by Mexico’s national statistics institute. For for the full year of 2023, Mexico’s economy expanded 3.1%.

An application to extend the bankruptcy of Wexford businessman Alan Hynes over his alleged non-cooperation with the official administering of his bankruptcy has been adjourned to next month, the reported. Mr Hynes has brought a separate application to “annul” his bankruptcy and is seeking legal aid to pursue that, Mr Justice Liam Kennedy heard on Monday.

Property developer China Evergrande Group has been ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court, bringing an end to the yearslong saga of a company whose default rippled through the world’s second-largest economy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The liquidation order came despite an 11th-hour push by the company’s creditors to reach a deal over the weekend, according to people familiar with the matter. It comes more than two years after the company defaulted on its dollar bonds, becoming one of the first dominoes to fall in China’s beleaguered real-estate sector.

An estimated 233 home developers in China filed for bankruptcy last year, according to the China Real Estate Association, the Taiwan News reported. The highest number of bankruptcies was in Zhejiang Province, with 36 cases accounting for 15.45% of the nation’s total. Hunan and Guangdong provinces were second and third respectively. However, the report added the number of bankruptcies for 2023 was the lowest since 2020. There were 408 home developers who filed for bankruptcy in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 343 in 2021, and 308 in 2022.