Headlines

House builders slammed the brakes on construction at the start of 2023 as a surge in mortgage interest rates causes activity in the property market to freeze over, Bloomberg News reported. The industry suffered its biggest contraction in almost three years in January after a slump in property prices and home loans gathered pace, S&P Global’s construction purchasing managers’ index showed Monday. Britain’s biggest house builders are scaling back new developments amid warnings of large house price falls in 2023.

France’s National Assembly will start debating French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform bill on Monday as unions gear up for two more days of strikes and protests against the plan this week, Bloomberg News reported. So far, neither the government nor opponents to the change have given much ground. Macron has pledged to see his program through, which includes increasing the minimum retirement age to 64 from 62, while unions have called on the French to protest in even greater numbers on Tuesday than they did last week.

Britishvolt Ltd’s administrator selected Australian startup Recharge Industries as the preferred bidder to acquire the majority of the insolvent UK battery firm’s business and assets, Bloomberg News reported. The acquisition is expected to take place within the next seven days, according to a statement Monday by EY, Britishvolt’s administrator. Recharge Industries is a subsidiary of Scale Facilitation Partners LLC. Once considered the UK’s best shot for a homegrown electric-vehicle battery supplier, Britishvolt went into bankruptcy last month after failing to identify any potential rescuers.

The ports-to-energy conglomerate controlled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani said its founders will prepay a $1.1 billion loan that was backed by shares of some of its companies, a move to shore up investor confidence after a rout in its stock prices over the past two weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Adani Group said Monday that its so-called promoters—a term used to describe controlling shareholders—have posted amounts to pay off the loan ahead of its maturity in September 2024.

For more than a decade, the British government has run its National Health Service, the world’s largest government-run healthcare system, on a tight budget. The NHS prided itself on being one of the leanest healthcare systems in the developed world, spending less per head on average than its large European neighbors—and far less than the U.S. Now the state-funded service is falling apart, the Wall Street Journal reported. People who suffer heart attacks or strokes wait more than 1½ hours on average for an ambulance. Hospitals are so full they are turning patients away.

The National Company Law Tribunal, Chennai (NCLT) has approved the Resolution Plan of ASG Hospital for Vasan Health Care, the Times of India reported. This was the first case admitted in Chennai in April 2017 under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. After a two year stay of the process by Madras High Court, the insolvency process was revived on October 3, 2019. The total resolution plan amount is Rs 526 crore. This includes Rs 400 crore for payment to all the stakeholders including creditors and Rs 126 crore towards working capital and capex infusion to revive the eye care hospital.

Top Brazilian banks that are creditors of distressed retailer Americanas SA plan to go after personal assets of billionaires who are the firm’s biggest shareholders: Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Sicupira, Bloomberg News reported. The firms will make the move if the billionaires don’t rescue the company with combined capital injections of at least 15 billion reais ($3 billion). The billionaires have offered no more than 6 billion reais.

Britishvolt Ltd.’s administrators received two bids for the insolvent UK battery startup when the deadline for proposals ended on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. A consortium of former Britishvolt investors and Australian battery startup Recharge Industries submitted bids, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is confidential. Once considered the UK’s best shot for a homegrown electric-vehicle battery supplier, Britishvolt went into bankruptcy last month after failing to identify any potential rescuers.

Loss-making Norwegian airline Flyr said on Tuesday that it would file for bankruptcy after failing to raise the cash it needed for its operations, Reuters reported. "There is no longer a realistic opportunity to achieve a solution for the short-term liquidity situation," the company said in a statement, adding the board's decision was unanimous. More than 400 employees will lose their jobs as a result of the bankruptcy, Flyr founder and board Chair Erik Braathen told Norwegian daily Dagbladet.

A group of overseas private creditors is ready to hold debt restructuring talks with Sri Lanka consistent with the International Monetary Fund's programme, their legal adviser said on Friday, Reuters reported. The group "stands ready to engage quickly and effectively with the Sri Lankan authorities to design and implement restructuring terms that would help Sri Lanka restore debt sustainability and allow the country to re-gain access to the international capital markets," the creditor's legal adviser said in a letter to the Washington-based lender.