Headlines

Police are describing the daylight shooting of South African insolvency lawyer Bouwer van Niekerk as a "deliberate hit," IOL.co.za reported. Van Niekerk was killed in the boardroom of his Saxonwold, Johannesburg office on Friday. The 43-year-old was at the time of his death reportedly working on high-profile cases, including a major insolvency case linked to an alleged Ponzi scheme. According to police spokesperson Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi, nothing was stolen.

Swedbank on Saturday said that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has closed its investigation into the bank without enforcement, Reuters reported. The investigation was initiated in 2019 and concerned Swedbank's historic disclosures of information, the company said. In 2019, Swedbank admitted to failings in combating money laundering and said it was under investigation by multiple U.S. authorities.

Workers at Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe voted to approve a sweeping restructuring plan, setting the stage for the revival of Germany's largest steelmaker, contingent on Thyssenkrupp AG's commitment to finance the initiative, Reuters reported. The IG Metall union said on Friday that 77% of participating members supported the plan, with 62% turnout in the vote held from July 21 to September 4. The restructuring programme includes cuts to jobs, working hours, and bonus payments, as well as site closures, but avoids forced redundancies until 2030.

The last group of people, companies and others owed money by Laurentian University when it declared insolvency four-and-a-half years ago are finally getting at least some of what they're owed, CBC.ca. The plan to pay back Laurentian's final creditors is in the works with last week's completion of a real estate deal between Infrastructure Ontario and Laurentian University. Back in September of 2022, a plan was put before the unsecured creditors for a vote.

Vedanta Group has won the bid for acquisition of troubled business Jaiprakash Associates (JAL), with an offer of ₹17,000 crore, beating out the Adani Group, PTI reported on September 5, citing sources, LiveMint.com reported. The mining conglomerate's ₹17,000 crore comes as JAL is undergoing insolvency proceedings after it defaulted on payment of loans. The bid value translates into JAL's net present value of ₹12,505 crore, the report added.

The eurozone economy grew marginally over the three months through June, figures confirmed Friday, leaving the European Central Bank unlikely to cut its key interest rate next week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Across the 20 nations that share the euro, gross domestic product was 0.1% higher than the first quarter, in line with previous estimates. That marks a sharp slowdown from the 0.6% expansion recorded over the first three months of the year. The slowdown was driven by the currency area’s largest member, Germany.

The U.S. is preparing to start renegotiating its largest free trade deal—the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the Wall Street Journal reported. Within the next month, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will begin public consultations on renegotiating the deal, which it must do by Oct. 4 under the 2020 law that implemented the pact.

Prime Minister Mark Carney rolled out billions of dollars in relief for Canadian businesses and workers battered by tariff wars with the country’s two largest trading partners, Bloomberg News reported. Carney unveiled the aid package on Friday, hours after jobs data revealed that Canada’s unemployment rate jumped to a four-year high. The plan targets companies hit by US and Chinese levies, and its centerpieces are a C$5 billion ($3.6 billion) fund for businesses to adapt and a “Buy Canadian” federal procurement program.

Canada unexpectedly shed jobs for a second month running in August, extending a soggy summer for a labor market that is showing signs of weakness broadening beyond areas directly hit by tariffs and trade worries, the Wall Street Journal reported. Employers in the country cut a net 65,500 jobs last month, the steepest decline since the start of 2022 when another Covid-19 variant forced widespread lockdowns, Statistics Canada said Friday. That builds on the 40,800 jobs shed in July to leave the unemployment rate 0.2 percentage point higher, at 7.1%.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced on Friday a 12 billion reais ($2.21 billion) debt renegotiation package aimed at supporting up to 100,000 agricultural producers, primarily small and medium-sized farmers affected by recent climate events, Reuters reported. The measure comes as Brazil's largest state-run bank, Banco do Brasil faces record default levels in its agribusiness portfolio, threatening the stability of the country's crucial agricultural sector.