Headlines

Employees who work overseas for U.S.-based companies are not protected by a federal law prohibiting retaliation against whistleblowers who raise concerns about violations of securities laws, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday, Reuters reported. A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected a bid by Christopher Garvey, a former top Asia-based lawyer for Morgan Stanley, to revive claims that he was forced to resign in 2016 after reporting alleged illegal activities that predominantly occurred outside the U.S.

Johnny Ronan’s property group this month sold its Paris property for €24.5 million to help pay down the group’s debt, the Irish Times reported. Consolidated accounts filed by Ronan’s Ardquade Ltd. also reveal that this year Ronan also advanced a loan to the group that was used to repay “a substantial part” of the group’s junior debt. Nearly a year ago, the group’s senior and junior debt amounted to a combined €194.88 million.

After a sharp drop in Latin American deals in 2022, bankers expect a slow recovery next year, led by M&A, Reuters reported. IPOs may take longer to resume, due to high global interest rates. The volume of M&A deals in Latin America fell 35% this year, to $86 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Roderick Greenlees, global investment banking head at Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB4.SA), said the total value of M&A, although lower than the record year of 2021, was within historical range in the years before.

Garuda Indonesia hopes to resume trading in its shares after issuing around $80 million in Islamic bonds this week, the CEO of the country's flagship airline said on Tuesday, Nikkei Asia reported. The Indonesia Stock Exchange suspended trading in the state airline's stock in June last year, after the company defaulted on coupon payments for a $500 million Islamic bond, or sukuk. Garuda's troubles were long in the making, but worsened as the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the industry, bringing air travel and tourism to a virtual standstill.

Private-equity major Advent International will buy a 50.1% stake in Suven Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (SUVH.NS) from its promoter Jasti family and consider merging it with a peer in its portfolio, the Indian drugmaker said on Monday, Reuters reported. Suven said Advent would make an additional open offer for up to 26% of the voting share capital held by public shareholders at a price of 495 rupees per share. Shares rose as much as 4.8% to 520 rupees in early trading.

Japan's government revised up on Thursday its growth forecast for the next fiscal year on prospects for higher business expenditure and substantial wage hikes that are seen underpinning consumption, Reuters reported. The upgraded projections, which provide a basis for the government's annual budget plan due on Friday, underscore how Japan is set to buck a global growth slowdown thanks to robust domestic demand supported by inbound tourism reopening.

Britain's accounting watchdog said on Thursday it had fined Deloitte LLP more than 900,000 pounds ($1.09 million) over its audits of building materials supplier SIG plc (SHI.L) for the 2015 and 2016 financial years, Reuters reported. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it had imposed a penalty of 1.25 million pounds on Deloitte LLP, reduced to 906,250 pounds after it admitted breaches over its work on SIG's financial statements. The FRC reprimanded Deloitte, ordering it to take action to prevent the breaches from happening again.

India plans to introduce new rules for handling real estate bankruptcies, which would help homebuyers even as their builders wind down, Bloomberg reported. The proposed change to the nation's Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code will permit resolution of the cases on a project-wide basis, people familiar with the matter said. That will allow handing over completed apartments to homebuyers even when the developer's insolvency process is underway, they said.

With the economy in shambles and people in dire straits, bankruptcy stares Pakistan in the face as it is hit by useless spending, the Financial Post reported. All is not well with the employees of Pakistani Missions in foreign countries, as payment of salaries has been pending for the past four months. Despite letters elaborating their hardship to the Foreign Ministry, nothing has been forthcoming so far. Funds to the tune of USD 5 million are yet to be released. No solution is in sight, even as the matter was taken to the Finance Ministry.

To facilitate the ongoing process to sell its businesses, DCL Corporation (DCL or the Company), a leading manufacturer and reseller of color pigments, announced that on Dec. 20, its U.S.-based subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for a court-supervised reorganization under chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, according to a press release. Contemporaneously, the company and its Canadian subsidiaries have also commenced court-supervised restructuring proceedings in Canada under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, R.S.C. 1985, c.