Headlines

Destiny Pharma Plc, a British biotech company chaired by City veteran Nigel Rudd, has appointed insolvency practitioners after failing to secure a rescue deal, Bloomberg News reported. Destiny Pharma, which earlier this month delisted from the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market, had been unable to secure a licensing partner to fund clinical trials for its most hopeful antibiotic product. It lodged an application to appoint administrators in the High Court, a form of insolvency, on Wednesday.

PwC China has informed its clients it expects a six-month business ban by Chinese authorities as early as September as part of punishment for its audit of collapsed property developer Evergrande, the Financial Times reported. The ban would prevent it from signing off on financial results and initial public offerings and from conducting other regulated activities, the report stated, citing multiple clients. PwC has been under scrutiny for its role in auditing Evergrande since the troubled property developer was accused in March of a $78-billion fraud, leading to an exodus of clients.

The insolvency of Indian education technology company Byju's threatens to be the biggest upset in a celebrated startup sector, unleashing a long battle by thousands of panic-stricken employees to recover dues and protect their careers, Reuters reported. Once a darling of global investors, valued at $22 billion in 2022, Byju's became popular by offering online training courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but is now locked in a dispute with U.S. lenders seeking $1 billion in unpaid dues.

South Korea’s central bank held interest rates steady but cut its inflation and growth forecasts for the year and signaled that it will pivot to easing in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Bank of Korea on Thursday kept its benchmark seven-day repurchase rate unchanged at a 15-year high of 3.50% for a 13th consecutive time—the longest such run in the country. Twenty-four of the 27 analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal ahead of the decision had expected no rate change in August, but all forecast a rate cut in October or November. BOK Gov.

The first ever Green leader of Bristol has warned that the city council is at risk of going bankrupt unless urgent action is taken, BBC.com reported. Councillor Tony Dyer has revealed that the authority presently faces an overspend of £22m. A savings programme is being developed, with warnings that some charges will also rise. But there is already criticism from campaigners, with accusations that the Greens have rowed back on earlier pledges. Money was already tight, but extra costs have come to light, and planned savings have fallen short.

The U.K.’s economy kept up pace in August, helped by a robust labor market as both the services and manufacturing sectors expanded further, a boost for the newly elected Labour government that has put economic growth at the heart of its political agenda, the Wall Street Journal reported. The S&P Global Flash U.K. PMI Composite Output Index—a measure of private-sector activity in both the services and manufacturing sectors—rose to 53.4 from 52.8 in July, marking the fastest rise since April and above a forecast of 52.6 by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Wages in the eurozone rose at a significantly slower pace during the three months through June, paving the way for further cuts in borrowing costs by the European Central Bank, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ECB on Thursday said wages set through negotiations between employers and labor unions or similar bodies were 3.55% higher than a year earlier, a slowdown from the 4.74% increase recorded in the first three months of the year. That was a slower increase than economists expected to see.

Canada’s two biggest railways shut down early Thursday after talks with union leaders failed, immediately blocking arteries of North American supply chains that carry about C$1 billion ($740 million) per day in trade, Bloomberg News reported. More than 9,000 employees at Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. were locked out after a deadline passed without an agreement on a new contract. Members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference had voted to strike over a number of issues, including scheduling and worker fatigue.

Hundreds of Mexican federal judges went on strike Wednesday to protest a judicial-system overhaul that they say is an authoritarian power grab by departing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Wall Street Journal reported. Under the proposed overhaul, judges would be required to step down and be replaced by others elected by voters. Currently, judges are appointed after a lengthy process that includes exams showing their knowledge of the law.

Thailand needs to urgently tackle its high levels of household and public debt, and focus on policies that can propel the country’s growth rate to match some of its Southeast Asian neighbors, according to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Bloomberg News reported.