Headlines

A court in Dusseldorf has initiated insolvency proceedings for fashion retailer Esprit's European operations, impacting Esprit Europe GmbH and six other German subsidiaries, according to court documents published on Thursday, DPA International reported. The global firm, which filed for bankruptcy in May due to insolvency and over-indebtedness, has appointed Lucas Flöther as custodian. About 1,300 employees have been notified and salary payments are assured until insolvency-related terminations take effect.

Struggling Oudenaarde-based GAN specialist BelGaN has failed to secure the investment needed to continue and has declared bankruptcy, Evertiq.com reported. BelGaN's history goes back to 2008, when ON Semiconductor acquired the Oudenaarde site and made semiconductor products for the automotive, industrial and medical sectors. In 2022, BelGaN acquired the fab, and decided to switch production from traditional silicon chips to gallium nitride chips, which can be used in electric chargers, electric cars and data centres. The company ran out of cash to fund the transition, hence this announcement.

U.S.-based Glas Trust is asking an Indian court to not quash insolvency proceedings for ed-tech giant Byju's as lenders the trust represents are owed $1 billion, posing a new challenge for the Indian startup that was once the nation's biggest, the Economic Times of India reported. Byju's was valued at $22 billion in 2022 before being hit with many setbacks including boardroom exits, an auditor resignation and a public spat with foreign investors over mismanagement. The company has denied any wrongdoing.

The staff of the troubled Liberty Częstochowa steelworks in southern Poland received notice on Wednesday of a 40% cut in their August wages amid hopes that a buyer or new leaseholder will come forward before a September deadline, TVPWorld.com. The British-owned mill was declared bankrupt at the request of its creditors on July 25. The new, lower rates of pay will remain in place while a new leaseholder is sought to take control of the century-old mill. The receivers have set a deadline of September 1 for finding a new tenant or beginning the sell-off of its assets.

The risks still circling Sweden’s commercial real estate industry were laid bare late on Thursday when the debt crisis deepened for one of the country’s most high profile landlords, Bloomberg News reported. The Swedish Tax Agency filed a petition with a court for Oscar Properties Holding AB to be declared bankrupt, adding to a growing list of claimants that have sought insolvency proceedings against the former developer of luxury apartments.

Global burger chains to car manufacturers are increasingly feeling the pinch from a faltering recovery in the world's No. 2 economy, China, and are strapping in for a bumpy ride ahead, Reuters reported.

South Korea’s headline inflation picked up at a stronger-than-expected pace in July, reaccelerating due to higher prices for agricultural and oil products, after easing for three consecutive months, the Wall Street Journal reported. The benchmark consumer-price index rose 2.6% from a year earlier, following a 2.4% gain in June, the country’s statistics office said Friday. Compared with the prior month, the index rose 0.3% in July compared with the median forecast of a 0.2% increase. In June, it fell 0.2% from the previous month.

The Asian manufacturing recovery seems to have continued at the start of the second half of the year, with survey data signaling fairly healthy factory activity in July despite the continued threat of inflation and a pullback in demand, the Wall Street Journal reported. Purchasing managers index data from S&P Global showed that new order growth for the Asean region hit a 15-month high in July, improving for a seventh straight month.

U.K. retail footfall levels slipped in July, when consumers shifted their spending to holidays and leisure activities from shopping, according to a study, the Wall Street Journal reported. The number of visits to stores—comprising high-street shops, retail parks and shopping centers—for the four weeks ended July 27 fell 3.3% from the same period a year earlier, accelerating from a 2.3% decline in June, according to data from British Retail Consortium and Sensormatic Solutions IQ published Friday. The fall marked the 12th consecutive month of decline in U.K. store visits.

Ukraine has made a payment of about $200 million to holders of its GDP warrants, securities that weren’t part of a recent $20 billion eurobond restructuring agreement with private creditors, the finance ministry said, Bloomberg News reported. The payment comes after the finance ministry said in a statement in July that it intended to pay a consent fee in early August linked to $2.6 billion of outstanding warrants, as well as a deferred payment on the notes from 2021.