Headlines

Embattled German battery-maker Varta AG has adjusted its restructuring plan to help win the support of a key group of lenders, paving the way for its approval, Bloomberg News reported. A “large proportion” of holders of its €250 milllion ($278 million) in promissory notes — also called Schuldschein — have expressed interest in the improved deal, the company said in a statement Tuesday. The Schuldschein lenders had originally resisted the restructuring plan and submitted a rival deal.

Lenders to Berlin-based SellerX canceled a plan to auction off the brand aggregator on Tuesday, opting instead to continue debt negotiations with shareholders of the struggling company, Bloomberg News reported. SellerX confirmed that the auction, initiated by BlackRock Inc. and Victory Park Capital Advisors LLC last month, has been canceled.

The U.K.’s annual rate of inflation was unchanged in August, despite prices of services increasing at a faster rate, reinforcing expectations that the Bank of England will leave its key interest rate unchanged Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 2.2% higher in August than the same month last year, a level of inflation that matched July’s rate, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal also expected inflation to remain at 2.2%.

The Bank of France cut its forecast for French inflation next year to well below the European Central Bank’s 2% target, adding to signals encouraging policymakers to pursue interest-rate cuts, Bloomberg News reported. The pace of annual price increases in the euro area’s second-largest economy will ease to 1.5% on average in 2025 from 2.5% in 2024, the Bank of France said in its September economic forecasts. That’s lower than the 1.7% it predicted in June, due mainly to expectations of weaker electricity prices. The Bank of France expects the rate to rise to 1.7% in 2026, it said on Tuesday.

Australia’s latest attempts to solve its housing crisis are stuck in political gridlock as the amount of available rental space in the nation hovers near a record low, Bloomberg News reported. A key piece of the center-left Labor government’s housing program is in limbo after opposition parties on Wednesday voted to defer for two months legislation that aims to help first home owners break into the market. The bill is for a shared equity scheme which would allow citizens to buy houses with a smaller deposit.

Japan’s exports rose at a slower-than-expected pace in August, adding to concerns about the outlook for the global economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Exports rose ​5.6% in August from a year earlier, Finance Ministry data showed Wednesday. That was much slower than the 10.2% increase in July and the 10.6% rise forecast by economists polled by data provider FactSet. Overseas demand for cars and machinery for construction and mining declined, while shipments of chip-making machines and electronic parts increased, the data showed.

Indonesia's central bank surprised markets by delivering its first rate cut in more than three years on Wednesday, moving to bolster growth in Southeast Asia's largest economy ahead of the start of an expected easing cycle in the United States, Reuters reported. Bank Indonesia (BI) unexpectedly trimmed the benchmark rate, opens new tab by 25 basis points to 6.00%, its first rate cut since February 2021.

Laurentian University has come a long way to repairing damage to its reputation in the nearly two years since it exited insolvency restructuring in late 2022, said the university’s new president, Sudbury.com reported. Lynn Wells, who became Laurentian’s 12th president and vice-chancellor in April, spoke about the many daunting tasks she has ahead of her to a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce audience on Sept. 17, as well as a meeting of Laurentian’s senate held the same day.

A long-awaited plan to help Ukraine rebuild using Russian money is in limbo as the United States and Europe struggle to agree on how to construct a $50 billion loan using Russia’s frozen central bank assets while complying with their own laws, the New York Times reported. The fraught negotiations reflect the challenges facing the Group of 7 nations as they attempt to push their sanctions powers to new limits in an attempt to punish Russia and aid Ukraine. American and European officials have been scrambling in recent weeks to try to get the loan in place by the end of the year.

Entertainment giant Sony Group Corp. is the latest company to jump onto a bandwagon of Japanese businesses seeking to tap blockchain technology, a trend that poses challenges for the nation’s government, Bloomberg News reported. Sony last month officially unveiled a digital ledger, Soneium, anticipating that developers will use it to create applications to enhance the firm’s offerings. Precisely how is a work in progress, but the broad idea is that intersecting Soneium with gaming, music and movies could yield opportunities.