Headlines

Factories in Russian-occupied areas of the Ukraine were packed up and moved on trains and trucks, and are being resurrected in the west, the New York Times reported. Manufacturers are creating jobs and hunting for skilled workers. Now closer to Poland — Ukraine’s gateway to Germany and western Europe — the reborn businesses are forging ties with the European Union, which Ukraine hopes to join soon. “The main motivation for them to come here is that they stay in Ukraine,” said Andriy Moskalenko, the deputy mayor of Lviv responsible for economic affairs.

Losses arising from cryptocurrency hacks jumped nearly 60% in the first seven months of the year to $1.9 billion, propelled by a surge in funds stolen from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, according to a blog post from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis released on Tuesday, Reuters reported. In the same period last year, stolen funds from hacking amounted to $1.2 billion. DeFi applications, many of which run on the Ethereum blockchain, are financial platforms that enable crypto-denominated lending outside of traditional banks.

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has decided to liquidate its Russian unit, limited liability company IKEA Dom, further scaling back its operations after more than a decade-long presence in the country, a corporate record showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Scores of consumer brands suspended operations in Russia after Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, with H&M, IKEA and Nike among the companies to have announced plans for a permanent exit.

UK job vacancies fell for the first time since August 2020 as real wages dropped at the sharpest pace on record, indicating a tightening inflation squeeze on consumers and businesses, Bloomberg News reported. The number of jobs employers are seeking to fill fell by 19,800 to 1.27 million in the quarter through July, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. Pay excluding bonuses and adjusted for inflation fell by 3% in the three months through June, the most since records began in 2001.

Britain has launched a scheme to extend tariff cuts to hundreds of products, such as clothes and food, from developing countries, part of London's post-Brexit efforts to set up systems to replace those run by the European Union, Reuters reported. In June, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wanted to start a new trade system to reduce costs and simplify rules for 65 developing countries to replace the EU's Generalised System of Preferences, which applies import duties at reduced rates.

Pakistan’s rupee, bonds and stocks are rallying as investors bet the nation will win a bailout from the International Monetary Fund this month and avoid a default, Bloomberg News reported. Dollar bonds due in December were indicated at about 95 cents on the dollar on Tuesday from a low of 85 cents in July, as investors turn more confident the debt will be repaid. The rupee surged 11% this month to 213.87 per dollar as of Monday, the biggest gainer in the world. The benchmark stock index climbed 9%, the top performer in Asia after Sri Lanka.

Asia cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex Pte Ltd was granted more than three months of protection from creditors by Singapore’s High Court, giving the troubled firm breathing room to come up with a funding plan, Bloomberg News reported. Justice Aedit Abdullah gave each of the five Zipmex entities a moratorium until Dec. 2. That will shield the companies from potential creditor lawsuits. The firm operates out of Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia and was seeking a five-month protection from creditors to form a restructuring plan.

The Supreme Court has set aside the ruling of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) rejecting Asset Reconstruction Co (India) Ltd’s claim in Tulip Star Hotels’ insolvency case, the Economic Times of India reported. The appellate tribunal had accepted the hotel operator’s claim that the ARC filed its case against the company under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) after the limitation period of three years from the date of declaring the asset as non-performing.

UK-based Altera Infrastructure has entered a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the U.S. to address its debt of over $1.5 billion, Offshore-Energy.biz reported. Formerly a part of Teekay, Altera Infrastructure is based in Westhill, Scotland and it is a supplier of infrastructure assets to the offshore energy industry. In a statement on Monday, the company said that it has executed a restructuring support agreement (the RSA) with approximately 71 percent of its funded debt obligations, which includes an investment management company Brookfield and a super-majority of its bank lenders.

Hong Kong's audit regulator said on Monday that it has initiated an enquiry into the financial statements of China Evergrande Group's property services unit and its former auditor after questions were raised following the developer's probe into seized deposits worth $2 billion of the unit, Reuters reported.