Headlines

China Evergrande Group has only days to unveil its restructuring plan, but even if it meets the deadline, the embattled property developer faces a new and considerable hurdle: A young, politically connected investor who wants to wind down the company unless he gets his money back fast, Bloomberg reported. A business tied to Lin Ho Man, who only a few years ago graduated from the University of California Irvine, filed a petition in Hong Kong to wind down Evergrande if it doesn’t repay HK$862.5 million ($110 million).

Australia's economy will grow less than expected in coming years because of a global slowdown, high inflation and rising interest rates, Treasurer Jim Chalmers will say on Thursday, according to excerpts of a speech seen by Reuters. Chalmers will tell parliament that economic growth in the 2021/22 fiscal year that ended on June 30 is expected at 3.75%, down from a forecast of 4.25% made by the previous government in March. Growth forecasts for 2022/23 and 2023/24 have also been revised down by half a percentage point to 3% and 2%, respectively.

El Salvador plans to repurchase about $1.6 billion in sovereign bonds at market prices, part of a plan to cut down on debt and stave off fears of a default, President Nayib Bukele said on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bukele said on Twitter that his government sent two bills to congress to secure funds for “a transparent, public and voluntary” repurchase offer for bonds maturing in 2023 and 2025 at market prices in about six weeks. “El Salvador has enough liquidity” to meet debt payments and to buy all of its own debt up to 2025 in advance, Bukele wrote.

Grupo Financiero Inbursa is still in the process of buying Citigroup's Mexican retail bank unit and is inviting other business partners to join the bid, Inbursa's Director of Investor Relations Frank Aguado said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The comment, made during a conference call discussing its second-quarter results, comes days after Spain's Banco Santander said it had dropped out of the process to buy Citibanamex, having submitted a non-binding offer earlier this year.

Germany's state Economic Stabilisation Fund (ESF) has cut its stake in Deutsche Lufthansa to less than 10%, the Federal Finance Agency said on Wednesday, citing stabler conditions at the group, Reuters reported. The ESF took a 20% holding in Lufthansa as part of a government bailout to keep the airline afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic, and had previously reduced the share to 14.1%. The further reduction came "against the backdrop of Lufthansa's stable corporate development", the agency said.

An Irish developer has had €7.7 million of debts written off under a court-approved personal insolvency arrangement (PIA), the Irish Times reported. Mr. Justice Alexander Owens approved the application made on behalf of Co Roscommon-based Ronan Meeley and an interlocking PIA for his wife, Niamh Meeley. Mr. Meeley (52), who is now employed as a hotel maintenance worker, had debts totalling €8.2 million arising from his construction and development businesses that entered receivership during the recession.

Stablecoin issuer Tether faces scrutiny over an $840 mortgage it recovered from Celsius Community because the crypto lender’s chapter assessments how insolvency guidelines apply to digital belongings, the Financial Times reported. Celsius filed for bankruptcy safety within the U.S. this month, representing the most recent casualty of the latest crash in crypto. Tether, whose $66 billion stablecoin often known as USDT performs a key function in crypto markets, recouped an $840 million mortgage to Celsius forward of the chapter by promoting bitcoin Celsius pledged as collateral.

The sale of Central African Republic's first digital coin got off to a slow start, with just over 5% of the target bought in the hours after its launch, amid questions about the project's transparency and a wider downturn in the industry, Reuters reported. Central African Republic (CAR), one of the world's poorest countries, became the first African state to make bitcoin legal tender in April, baffling many cryptocurrency experts and prompting the International Monetary Fund to warn it was not a "panacea" for Africa's challenges.

The International Monetary Fund cut global growth forecasts again on Tuesday, warning that downside risks from high inflation and the Ukraine war were materializing and could push the world economy to the brink of recession if left unchecked, Reuters reported. Global real GDP growth will slow to 3.2% in 2022 from a forecast of 3.6% issued in April, the IMF said in an update of its World Economic Outlook. It added that world GDP actually contracted in the second quarter due to downturns in China and Russia.

The International Monetary Fund said Argentine officials reaffirmed the nation’s commitment to its $44 billion program with the fund, attempting to shore up confidence after the economy fell deeper into crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Argentine Economy Minister Silvina Batakis “agreed on the importance of decisive program implementation,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva tweeted Monday after meeting the new minister, who retweeted the comment.