Headlines

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday dismissed the plea of IDBI Bank which sought to initiate insolvency proceedings against Zee Entertainment, the Economic Times of India reported. A two-member NCLAT bench upheld the order passed by the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which had earlier rejected the private lender's plea to initiate insolvency proceedings against Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL).

IL&FS has requested an extension from the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to resolve 57 out of the 108 entities still in limbo, citing substantial progress in its ongoing restructuring, the Times of India reported. In its affidavit, the company reported that it has successfully resolved 197 of its 302 subsidiaries, which are no longer part of the insolvency process. To date, lenders have recovered Rs 45,000 crore of the Rs 99,000 crore owed, while the recovery target has been increased to Rs 61,000 crore.

Wall Street lenders are postponing leveraged-finance deals as investors shy away from risky transactions while global markets have been shaken in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, Bloomberg News reported. In the past several days, banks have pushed at least two leveraged-loan sales to the sidelines. They involve funding for HIG Capital LLC’s planned purchase of Canadian firm Converge Technology Solutions Corp. and a dividend to ITG Communications LLC owner Oaktree Capital Management. Lender commitments for both deals were due last week.

President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to impose an additional 50 percent tariff on China, escalating the tit-for-tat retaliation with Beijing that followed the White House’s sweeping import tax rollout last week, Politico reported. “If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. China was a primary target of Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs announced last week.

European Union officials on Monday were set to circulate a list of products they plan to hit with retaliatory tariffs, a major step toward striking back at President Trump as he ignites a global trade war, the New York Times reported. Representatives from across the bloc’s 27 member states are expected to vote on the wave of tariffs on Wednesday, and a solid coalition would be required to block them from taking effect. They are expected to go into force starting on April 15.

The tariffs announced by the United States will deal a major blow to the German economy, delaying a recovery and possibly putting Europe's biggest economy on track for a third year of recession for the first time in history, Reuters reported. Germany, the biggest trading partner of the United States, had a trade surplus of a record 70 billion euros with the U.S. in 2024. An export-oriented nation, Germany will be the biggest European loser in a trade war.

German chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz warned that international stock and bond markets could deteriorate further following the announcement of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff regime, in a statement to Reuters on Monday, Reuters reported. "The situation on the international equity and bond markets is dramatic and threatens to deteriorate further. It is therefore more urgent than ever for Germany to restore its international competitiveness as quickly as possible," Merz said in an emailed statement.

Argentina's mortgage market, for years almost non-existent due to spiraling triple-digit inflation and high borrowing costs, is starting to show signs of coming back to life under the pro-market reforms of libertarian President Javier Milei, Reuters reported. Monthly new mortgages in Buenos Aires province, home to 40% of the country's population, hit the highest level since 2018 at the start of the year, data from the local college of notaries show. Numbers were up nearly 500% in February year-on-year.

A Nigerian court has adjourned a tax evasion case against Binance to April 30 to allow the local tax authority to respond to a request by the cryptocurrency exchange to annul an order for court documents to be served on it by email, a lawyer for Binance said on Monday, Reuters reported. The lawyer, Chukwuka Ikwuazom, asked the court to set aside the order because the tax authority did not obtain a leave from the court to serve court documents on Binance outside Nigeria. Binance does not have a physical office in Nigeria.

Grocery prices are now climbing much faster than they were this time last year with fresh data from retail analysts Kantar Worldpanel suggesting that inflation in Irish supermarkets currently stands at just over 4.5 per cent, the Irish Times reported. The latest figure compared to a rate of less than 3 per cent in June of last year with the spike in prices leading to a slowdown in sales recorded in recent weeks. Take-home value sales in Ireland increased by 3.4 per cent over the four weeks to March 23rd 2025 compared to the same period last year, according to the latest grocery data.