Headlines

A Hong Kong court on Monday adjourned a hearing into a petition seeking liquidation of Country Garden until Jan. 20, 2025, giving a breather to the embattled Chinese developer which is trying to finalise an offshore debt revamp plan, Reuters reported. Ever Credit Limited, a unit of Hong Kong-listed Kingboard Holdings, filed the liquidation petition against Country Garden in February for non-payment of a $205 million loan. The developer defaulted on its $11 billion worth of offshore bonds last year.

Shares of China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle fell 7% in Monday morning trade after individual creditors of two of its units sought court approval for the units to go through bankruptcy proceedings and be reorganised, Reuters reported. The electric car maker said its units Evergrande New Energy Vehicle (Guangdong) and Evergrande Smart Automotive (Guangdong) had received notice from a local court about the July 25 application.

Taking strong exception to slow action under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC), govt has started monitoring the top 20 cases, while also asking bank chiefs to closely follow the top 20 cases with their banks, the Times of India reported. This has led to movement in Jaiprakash Associates and Amtek Auto, where lenders were seen to be dragging their feet. "Banks have been citing delays in the tribunal, but we discovered that they were themselves to blame.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda will have investors on high alert Wednesday when he lays out a detailed plan for quantitative tightening after years of massive easing. He may also double down by adding an interest rate hike to boot, Bloomberg News reported. While only about 30% of BOJ watchers predict a hike as their base-case scenarios, almost nobody is ruling out the possibility, according to a Bloomberg survey. The high degree of uncertainty has propelled the yen and Japanese stocks on a roller coaster ride that’s likely to continue until the decision and beyond.

As the rest of the world fought to keep inflation in check, one country welcomed it with open arms. In the past few years, Japan saw a burst of inflation, spurred by pandemic supply chain snags and geopolitical shocks, as a way to shake the economy out of a decades-long cycle of weak growth and pressure from deflation. So while major central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates to rein in prices, the Bank of Japan kept rates low as inflation accelerated, the New York Times reported.

South Africa is getting closer to publishing long-awaited changes to its financial rules and has earmarked over-the-counter derivatives for greater scrutiny, alongside unlisted financial market activity, Bloomberg News reported. Regulators have been undertaking a financial market review for several years and “are at the point where we are able to put through some of those recommendations,” said Financial Sector Conduct Authority Executive Director Olano Makhubela.

Mozambique won a fraud case over a $2 billion bond scandal that embroiled Credit Suisse and created a financial crisis for the southern African nation, Bloomberg News reported. After a three month trial, a London judge ruled that Mozambique was defrauded in a controversial maritime project meant to finance the construction of a new coastal patrol and a tuna fishing fleet. The government-backed fundraising was plagued by corrupt deals, with hundreds of millions of dollars looted, while much of the debt was kept hidden from bondholders and other lenders.

Ethiopia’s central bank allowed the nation’s currency to trade freely, a key reform needed to secure more than $10 billion of funding and debt relief it’s been negotiating with the International Monetary Fund. The birr plunged. The National Bank of Ethiopia permitted banks to buy and sell foreign currency at freely negotiated rates, according to a directive on its website, Bloomberg News reported.

Australia's banking regulator on Monday said it would retain its strict home loan lending rules amid concern that the level of overall risk to the financial system remained elevated, taking into account an uncertain interest rate and economic outlook, Reuters reported. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) said that the outlook was clouded by geopolitical instability and household debt and inflation holding above the central bank's target range.

Stonegate Pubs, the UK’s biggest pub operator, is starting a large debt refinancing with a bond sale and a £250 million cash injection from its private equity owner TDR Capital. The company is selling the equivalent of around £2.1 billion ($2.7 billion) in bonds, which will be split between sterling fixed-rate and euro floating-rate senior secured notes, according to a person familiar with the matter. Only about £670 million will be marketed by banks led by Barclays Plc. The rest is to be bought by existing investors.