Headlines

The Egyptian pound plunged to a record low on Wednesday as authorities navigate the country’s worst foreign-exchange crunch in half a decade, Bloomberg News reported. The currency headed for its biggest slump since a devaluation in October with a slide of as much as 7% to about 26.5 per dollar in the offshore market, before trimming some losses, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That still leaves the pound stronger than prices offered in the black market. “This is certainly another devaluation,” said Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.

France’s unions have pledged to dig in for a prolonged fight against French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to overhaul the country’s pension system, a new threat to his pro-business agenda, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Macron’s government is meeting with unions this week, putting an explosive issue back on the table as the country navigates the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine. The government said it would detail the proposed measures next week. Revamping the country’s pension system was one the main planks of Mr.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce plans to appeal a New York judge's order that it pay about $848 million in damages to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, in a contract dispute tied to the 2008 global financial crisis, Reuters reported. In a statement on Wednesday, the Toronto-based bank said it expects to take a C$1.16 billion pre-tax charge, or about C$850 million ($629 million) after taxes, in its first-quarter results, reducing its ratio of capital to assets.

Hong Kong is making a pitch to multinational companies to list on its stock market, despite heightened tensions between China and the West, the Wall Street Journal reported. The city’s stock exchange hopes a new initiative that allows mainland Chinese investors to trade shares of international companies will present a compelling case for some of the world’s largest businesses to raise funds in the Asian financial hub.

Chinese regulators have said e-commerce giant Alibaba’s finance affiliate Ant Group can raise $1.5 billion for its consumer finance unit in an important step forward after the government called off a planned IPO two years ago and ordered the firm to restructure, the Associated Press reported. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) in the southwestern city of Chongqing said in a notice dated Dec. 30 that Ant’s consumer credit unit had gained approval to increase its capital to 18.5 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) from 8 billion yuan ($1.16 billion).

Cineworld, the British cinema operator in bankruptcy proceedings, said today that it would not sell any of its assets individually, and that it had not held discussions with AMC Entertainment about the sale of any of its theaters, Reuters reported. The British company said it would focus on selling the group as a whole rather than disposing of individual assets, along with its restructuring efforts, and was expecting to start reaching out to potential parties for a sale later this month.

A tender for the sale of embattled China Evergrande Group's headquarters in Hong Kong has lapsed again, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, because the offer prices and terms fell short of requirements, Reuters reported. Lenders to the office tower, China Evergrande Centre, valued at between HK$8 billion and HK$9 billion ($1.02 billion and $1.15 billion), appointed a receiver in September to seize the asset and tender it for sale with a bid deadline of Oct 31.

Three weeks after Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, tried to reinvigorate China’s stalled economy by abruptly abandoning his stringent pandemic restrictions, he struck an upbeat note in his annual New Year’s Eve address. “China’s economy has strong resilience, great potential and vitality,” he said. But that optimism is hard to find in downtown Guangzhou, the commercial hub of southern China, the New York Times reported. Nearly three years of “zero Covid” measures have crushed businesses. Streets are lined with shuttered stores and workshops.

High energy prices and high inflation are hitting Sweden's businesses hard. With energy price subsidies for these consumers delayed, the government is now extending existing tax deferral schemes implemented during the pandemic to ease the pressure. Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson and Energy and Business Minister Ebba Busch announced the scheme on Dec. 29. “Many, many companies are now struggling with their liquidity,” Svantesson said.

Japan is the world’s largest creditor. At the end of 2021, it held roughly $3.2 trillion in foreign assets, 30 percent more than No. 2 Germany. As of October, it owned over a trillion dollars of U.S. government debt, more than China. Japanese banks are the world’s largest cross-border lenders, with nearly $4.8 trillion in claims in other countries. Late last month, the world got an unexpected reminder of how integral Japan is to the global economy, when the country’s central bank unexpectedly announced that it was adjusting its stance on bond purchases, the New York Times reported.