Headlines

A court decision in the Amazon rainforest city of Sinop that shielded a corn and soybean producer’s land from seizure by creditors is reverberating through Faria Lima Avenue, the Brazilian equivalent to Wall Street, Bloomberg News reported. The ruling is raising concerns among lenders that it may be harder than anticipated to take control of acreage pledged as backing for agribusiness receivables certificates, or CRAs, a class of relatively new fixed-income securities used to finance grain and oilseed growers.

Suraksha Group has infused ₹250 crore in Jaypee Infratech Ltd (JIL) as equity and debt after taking control of the latter in early June, the Hindustan Times reported. New Delhi, Aug 25 (PTI) Suraksha Group has infused ₹250 crore in Jaypee Infratech after acquiring it through insolvency process and has also arranged a ₹3,000 crore loan facility, as it gears up to complete around 20,000 unfinished flats in Delhi NCR.

China’s central bank left a key interest rate unchanged, keeping a lid on a bond frenzy as it stays patient in supporting the economy, Bloomberg News reported. The People’s Bank of China kept the rate on its one-year policy loans, or the medium-term lending facility, at 2.3%, after a slashing the rate by 20 basis points in July. Meanwhile, the central bank withdrew a net 101 billion yuan ($14 billion) from the banking system this month, as 401 billion yuan of the loans expired on August 15.

Bank of China Vice Chairman and President Liu Jin resigned for personal reasons effective on Sunday, the bank said, Reuters reported. The state-owned lender said that its board had approved Chairman Ge Haijiao to serve as acting president, according to a filing released by the bank on Sunday.

Elliott Investment Management is the leading bidder in a U.S. court-ordered auction of the parent company of Venezuelan-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp., Bloomberg News reported. Elliott was competing against bidders including independent refiner Vitol Group and Canadian miner Gold Reserve Inc., which was working on a joint bid with billionaire Carl Icahn’s CVR Energy. Elliott has now been granted exclusivity to negotiate a deal. The auction process has been long and winding, and Elliott’s emergence as the top contender doesn’t necessarily mean it will end up with the asset.

Sweden’s major banks pose a vulnerability to the financial system due to their exposure to “highly-indebted property companies,” according to minutes from the Riksbank’s policy meeting earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported. The property risks are mainly operational, for example from elevated and still rising levels of vacancies in the office segment, as well as a high rate of bankruptcies in the near term, Olof Sandstedt, the bank’s head of financial stability, said in the statement. “This means that there is still a risk that the banks’ loan losses may increase,” Standstedt said.

Sentiment at German companies edged lower this month, as Europe’s largest economy shows little sign of a recovery amid a persistent manufacturing slump, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Ifo Institute’s business-climate index fell to 86.6 in August, from 87.0 in July, data showed Monday. It marked the fourth decline in as many months. “The German economy is increasingly falling into crisis,” Clemens Fuest, president of the Ifo Institute, said. Companies assessed their current situation as worse, and expectations for the future were more pessimistic, he said.

Brazil's central bank chief said on Saturday that discussing monetary policy transmission will become increasingly difficult without addressing fiscal issues, citing the growing burden of public debt driven by expanded government spending, Reuters reported. Roberto Campos Neto stressed that income transfer programs implemented during the pandemic are now larger and have become permanent. In Brazil, 50 million people are "gaining money from the government compared to 43 million people who are employees and entrepreneurs," he added.

Home insurance is becoming unaffordable for a growing number of Australian households as increased climate threats drive up their premiums, potentially putting billions of dollars in mortgage loans at risk, a report said on Monday, Reuters reported. As of March 2024, 15% of Australian households were experiencing home insurance affordability stress, which is defined as having premiums that cost more than four weeks' of their incomes, the report from the Actuaries Institute found.

The Canadian arbitrator appointed to resolve a messy railroad labor dispute to protect the North American economy has ordered employees at the country’s two major railroads back to work so both can resume operating, the Associated Press reported. Saturday's order means Canadian National will be able to continue operating the trains it restarted on Friday morning just over a day after it locked out workers. But Canadian Pacific Kansas City likely won't be able to restart its operations before 12:01 a.m. Monday, when workers were ordered to return.