Headlines

A luxury development in the heart of Mayfair has collapsed into administration, after defaulting on its loans, Bloomberg News reported. 60 Curzon, a set of 32 apartments designed by the French architect Thierry Despont, has appointed insolvency experts from Interpath Advisory. The project, which was developed by Brockton Capital and financed by funds managed by Apollo Global Management Inc., will continue to be marketed. It is majority owned by two Chinese investment firms, Citic Capital and Cindat which bought their stake from Brockton in 2016.

Hemant Kanoria-promoted Sarga Hotels, which operates a five-star hotel under the Westin brand in Kolkata, will be acquired by Shri Ram Multicom under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process, the Economic Times of India reported. The Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal approved a Rs 301 crore resolution plan against Rs 816 crore admitted claims from creditors, employees, and trade creditors. Shri Ram Multicom has developed Fairfield Hotel, a budget category hotel and operates malls and hotels in Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

Resources conglomerate Vedanta will seek to cut debt by up to $2 billion in the next fiscal as it focuses on generating free cash flow by managing costs and enhancing volumes, chief financial officer Ajay Goel told ET, the Economic Times of India reported. The Anil Agarwal-owned company is also looking at generating operating profit of $7 - $7.5 billion in FY25. "As a company, we have many priorities, but all other priorities remain subservient to the priority of deleveraging," Goel told ET in an exclusive interaction.

China’s solar factories are tapping the brakes as the industry struggles with a price war and overcapacity that could force many into bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Some wafer factories are already operating at as little as 40% of their capacity with more production cutbacks expected in February, the China Silicon Industry Association said in a Thursday statement. Prices for the thin squares that get wired into cells and then assembled into panels have fallen 75% since August 2022, according to BloombergNEF.

Brazil's inflation came in well below market expectations in its mid-January reading, statistics agency IBGE said on Friday, providing central bank policymakers with good news as they gather next week for their first interest rate decision of 2024, Reuters reported. Consumer prices in Latin America's largest economy rose 0.31% in the month to mid-January, IBGE said, down from 0.40% in the previous month and below all estimates in a Reuters poll of economists, whose median forecast was for a 0.47% increase.

French farmers said that they will continue protests over falling incomes, higher costs and stringent European regulations after measures unveiled Friday by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal failed to calm their anger, Bloomberg News reported. Attal pledged a reversal of a plan to raise taxes on farming fuel, faster disbursement of emergency funds, and big fines for companies not respecting rules on price negotiations.

A Canadian landlord is sounding out potential buyers for a downtown Toronto office tower, testing a market that’s been largely frozen since interest rates started shooting up nearly two years ago, Bloomberg News reported. Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust has hired CBRE Group Inc. and Toronto-Dominion Bank to market 438 University Ave., according to marketing documents. The company also remains open to offers for another building at 655 Bay St., which was put up for sale more than a year ago.

The UK government has launched a new investigation into the takeover of the Telegraph Media Group backed by the United Arab Emirates, prolonging the uncertainty over the newspaper group’s future, Bloomberg News reported. The move effectively resets the ongoing probe that was set to present its findings on Friday and extends the deadline to March 11.

Brazilian airline Gol said on Thursday it is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, with a $950 million financial commitment from its controlling shareholder Abra Group, Reuters reported. Abra also controls Colombian carrier Avianca, though the two airlines operate separately. The move makes Gol the latest Latin American carrier to seek bankruptcy protection after a pandemic-related crisis, following the path of its sister company Avianca, Mexico's Aeromexico and Chile-based LATAM Airlines.

Lenders to Byju’s Alpha filed an insolvency petition after the Indian education startup missed payment on a $1.2 billion loan, Bloomberg News reported. The move, announced by creditors in an emailed statement on Thursday, is the latest step in the fight between the startup founded by Byju Raveendran, once valued at $22 billion, and its creditors. Lenders have already taken control of its units in Singapore, while the company is challenging their moves in the US.