Headlines

South Africa's largest airline, FlySafair, has been given a year to reduce its foreign shareholding, or it risks having its license suspended, Business Insider Africa reported. If the airline fails to meet the deadline of a year from Jan. 23, it will be required to appear before the Domestic Air Services Council to explain why its license should not be revoked, according to a statement from the Department of Transport on Wednesday.

India plans to review import tariffs on over 30 items, including luxury cars, solar cells and chemicals, a senior finance ministry official said, potentially leading to increased imports from the United States as global trade tensions grow, Reuters reported. The move, aimed at reducing average tariffs, comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the U.S. next week. In a bid to avoid President Donald Trump's growing tariff actions, India has already reduced average import tariff rates to 11% from 13% on several items in the latest budget.

Critical legal and regulatory shifts, from AI-driven workforce transformation to evolving insolvency frameworks, are expected to redefine India Inc.'s business strategy, the Economic Times of India reported. A recent report by Khaitan & Co., ‘Foresight 2025,’ states that legal agility will be key for businesses navigating India’s evolving corporate terrain as regulatory complexities deepen across sectors.

The head of Italy's fashion chamber said he has appealed to its government to protect the country's second-largest industry from possible tariffs from the Trump administration, the Associated Press reported. “We hope they don’t arrive,’’ Italian National Fashion Chamber President Carlo Capasa said Wednesday during the presentation of the calendar for the next Milan Fashion Week later this month.

Japan’s boom in management buyouts looks set for stricter oversight to protect minority shareholders when companies go private, the Japan Times reported. The Tokyo Stock Exchange will this month consider changes to the Corporate Code of Conduct that would require firms to improve disclosure of assumptions used to calculate the price of buyouts, and to set up a special committee to hear opinions about the proposed deal. The move shines a light on concerns of minority shareholders that have arisen as buyouts in Japan rose to the highest since 2011.

French factory production unexpectedly dropped at the end of the year, contributing to a backsliding in the eurozone’s second-largest economy, with few signs of a rapid rebound at the start of 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported. Total output of goods was 0.7% lower on month in December, reversing a slight increase in November, statistics agency Insee said Wednesday. That was a worse result than the stagnation forecast by economists, according to a poll compiled by The Wall Street Journal, and means output decreased in seven out of 12 months last year.

Kenya's central bank cut its main interest rate for the fourth meeting in a row on Wednesday, saying it wanted to do more to support lending and boost economic growth, Reuters reported. The Central Bank Rate was lowered by 50 basis points to 10.75%. The bank's Monetary Policy Committee also decided to cut the Cash Reserve Ratio - by 100 basis points, to 3.25% - and said it had started on-site inspections of banks to check they were passing on the benefits of lower funding costs to customers.

Uganda's police have detained nine finance ministry officials as part of an investigation into accusations of hacking the central bank's electronic systems that resulted in theft of 62 billion shillings ($16.87 million), the ministry and police said, Reuters reported. In November last year, State Minister for Finance Henry Musasizi confirmed reports in local media that the central bank's accounts had been hacked and money stolen.

Nissan Motor and Honda Motor have hit a standstill negotiating the terms of a merger, announced less than two months ago, that would have created one of the world’s largest auto groups, the New York Times reported. Before their disclosure in late December that they were exploring combining operations, Nissan and Honda had discussed operating as partners under a holding company.

Private equity firms are finding new ways to keep a tighter grip on portfolio companies if they get into financial distress, Bloomberg News reported. They’re adding new provisions to debt documents to curb creditor voting rights, and are also pushing back against so-called cooperation agreements between lenders. These proactive measures by buyout firms come as they strive to maintain the power they’ve been gaining in the past decade as lender protections weakened. Blackstone Inc.