Headlines

A Quebec Superior Court judge has approved the sale of vehicle-maker Lion Electric Co. to a group of Quebec investors, giving the struggling manufacturer a new lease on life, the Canadian Press reported. During a hearing on Thursday, Justice Michel Pinsonnault said the deal is the only option that ensures the company can keep operating. “This is the only potential transaction that makes sense,” he said. “There are no others.” The decision comes five months after Lion Electric sought protection from its creditors in December.

When Builder.ai was seeking an emergency loan in 2024, the start-up gave lenders a revenue forecast that proved to be four times its actual sales, Bloomberg News reported. A group of creditors, led by Israeli firm Viola Credit, were originally told that Builder.ai projected sales of US$220 million (S$284 million) for 2024, the people said. The company later disclosed that the actual revenue amount for the year turned out to be about US$50 million. That revelation was one of the factors that ultimately led the lenders to seize most of the UK-based artificial intelligence (AI) start-up’s cash.

President Donald Trump on Friday said that he is “recommending a straight 50% tariff on the European Union” after complaining that trade negotiations have stalled, CNBC.com reported. The steep new import duties would start on June 1, Trump wrote on Truth Social. The EU “has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump wrote of the 27-nation bloc.

Reserve Bank of India is "examining" the licensing framework for banks to align it with the evolving needs of the economy and is also reviewing the role of lenders in distributing insurance products, amid complaints of mis-selling, the Times of India reported.

Wages in the eurozone rose at a much slower pace during the three months through March even as the unemployment rate remained at a record low, opening the way for further cuts to borrowing costs by the European Central Bank, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ECB on Friday said that wages set through negotiations between employers and labor unions or similar bodies were 2.38% higher in the first quarter of 2025 than a year earlier, a slowdown from the 4.12% increase recorded in the three months through December. That slowdown was sharper than expected.

U.K. retail sales jumped higher than expected last month, a result of warmer weather that helped food stores bounce back, the Wall Street Journal reported. Retail sales volumes climbed 1.2% on month in April after a 0.1% rise in March, the Office for National Statistics said Friday. It was a fourth-straight monthly increase, the first time that has happened since mid-2020 after businesses reopened following the first Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.

The German economy, Europe's biggest, grew by 0.4% in the first quarter thanks to stronger-than-expected exports and manufacturing, official data showed Friday, the Associated Press reported. The Federal Statistical Office had reported at the end of last month that the economy expanded by 0.2% in the January-March period compared with the previous quarter. The head of the office, Ruth Brandt, said that “the surprisingly good economic development seen in March” led to the revision.

Prosecutors investigating the so-called Homeplus scandal have imposed a travel ban on Michael ByungJu Kim, chairman of MBK Partners and the alleged central figure in the case, the Korea Joongang Daily reported. According to legal sources on Monday, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office’s Anti-Corruption Investigation Division recently requested the Ministry of Justice to bar Kim, a U.S. citizen, from leaving Korea.

The nation’s biggest banks are exploring whether to team up to issue a joint stablecoin, a step intended to fend off escalating competition from the cryptocurrency industry, the Wall Street Journal reported. The conversations have so far involved companies co-owned by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and other large commercial banks. Those include Early Warning Services, the operator of the peer-to-peer payment system Zelle, and the Clearing House, the real-time payment network. The bank consortium discussions are in early, conceptual stages and could change.

The number of company insolvencies registered in Scotland saw a modest decrease in April 2025, falling by 7% compared to the same month in the previous year, with 101 cases recorded, ScottishFinancialNews.com reported. This total comprised 47 creditors’ voluntary liquidations (CVLs), 51 compulsory liquidations, and three administrations. There were no company voluntary arrangements (CVAs) or receivership appointments. Looking at the broader picture, the company insolvency rate in Scotland for the 12 months ending April 2025 stood at 51.2 per 10,000 active companies.