Headlines

Rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve are significantly increasing the cost of capital for South Korea’s startups, elevating the chance many may face bankruptcy in coming months, according to the nation’s Minister for SMEs and Startups, Bloomberg News reported. “US rate increases are too fast and too violent and we are puzzled,” Lee Young said in an interview in Seoul.

Royal Bank of Canada, which just struck its largest deal ever to expand in its home market, is getting a boost from its dominant position in the country’s retail banking landscape at a time when rising rates are making lending more profitable, Bloomberg News reported. Net interest income rose 24% to C$6.28 billion ($4.64 billion) in the fiscal fourth quarter, the Toronto-based company said Wednesday. Overall profit topped analysts’ estimates in the three months through October.

India’s gross domestic product grew 6.3% from July to September as global pressures on prices and supply chains, along with economic downturns in the U.S. and European Union, slowed its economic recovery, the Wall Street Journal reported. In April to June, the economy grew 13.5% from a year earlier, benefiting from the easing of covid restrictions, and from a comparison to a quarter in which India’s economy was hit hard by a fierce wave of the illness.

Banks in the US and Europe with around $42 billion of buyout debt stuck on their balance sheets are making the most of their last chance to get rid of it this year, Bloomberg News reported. Stabilization in the leveraged loan and high yield bond markets has led to an opening for deals -- including for bonds and loans tied to the buyout of TV ratings business Nielsen Holdings Plc -- as banks try to reduce debt on their balance sheets before the holidays.

As French President Emmanuel Macron makes the rounds in Washington starting Wednesday for the first state visit of the Biden administration, high on his agenda are his plans for a nuclear energy “renaissance.” His entourage includes the major players from France’s nuclear energy industry, who will be looking to the French leader to help boost the development and export of their technology, including smaller and more versatile reactors, the Washington Post reported. But there could hardly be a more awkward time to promote French nuclear know-how.

Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., has exited the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) restructuring process that followed its insolvency in February 2021, CBC reported. The university has continued to operate while dealing with its financial problems. Under the restructuring, it cut 76 programs in April 2021. As well, nearly 200 staff and faculty members lost their jobs. The CCAA was created for commercial enterprises to help them restructure after an insolvency.

The bankruptcy court has allowed the State Bank of India's petition seeking to initiate insolvency proceedings against Kolkata-based steelmaker Reform Ferro Cast and appointed Arun Kumar Gupta as its interim resolution professional, the Economic Times of India reported. State-owned lender SBI had approached the Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against the steelmaker after it defaulted on its dues of about ₹267 crore.

Germany followed Spain and Belgium in reporting slower inflation, offering ammunition to those who want the European Central Bank to ease the pace of interest-rate increases, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices in Europe’s largest economy rose 11.3% from a year earlier in November, down from October’s 11.6% jump, the statistics office said Tuesday, citing factors including energy costs for the deceleration. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected an advance of 11.3%.

UK mortgage approvals fell by 10% last month, from 66,000 in September to just under 59,000, after Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget sparked chaos, Bloomberg News reported. According to the latest data from the Bank of England (BoE), this was the lowest number of approved mortgages by UK lenders since June 2020, when the property sector was hit by COVID-19 restrictions. It was also down on the 69,489 seen in October of last year. A handful of British banks pulled their mortgage deals after the mini-budget in September, while others hiked the interest rate on their offers.

Risks are piling on for Sweden’s commercial real estate sector as rising interest rates erode profitability and raise debt refinancing problems, the country’s financial supervisory authority said, Bloomberg News reported. As the Swedish central bank has responded to soaring inflation by rapidly raising interest rates, commercial property companies are facing rising costs and challenges in refinancing maturing debt.