Headlines

France is to introduce a rebate of 0.15 euros ($0.16) per litre of transport fuel to help drivers cope with soaring pump prices, Prime Minister Jean Castex said, Reuters reported. The measure, to apply for four months from April 1, is expected to cost the government just over 2 billion euros, he said. Retail gasoline and diesel prices soared to record highs in many countries across the world this week as Russia's invasion of Ukraine added to market tensions, after economies had begun recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.

The French government is considering whether to revive an ambitious plan to nationalize debt-laden Electricite de France SA and reorganize its business with a focus on nuclear production, Bloomberg News reported. The energy market chaos exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine is giving fresh impetus to France’s long-mooted push to restructure its biggest power supplier. Officials have been having early talks with potential advisers about the idea of buying out EDF’s minority shareholders and delisting the company from the stock market.

Creditors of Brazilian miner Samarco Mineracao SA have suspended their assembly to reconvene on April 1 after the company presented a new restructuring plan on Thursday, Reuters reported. Samarco, a joint venture between Vale SA and BHP Group PLC, changed its restructuring plan to offer a new alternative to pay creditors, hybrid bonds that will distribute part of Samarco's cash flow. The company did not change other conditions in the plan, such as the 75% haircut over the bonds face value.

New Zealand banks are calling on the Reserve Bank to delay implementation of new mortgage lending restrictions such as debt-to-income ratios as the housing market cools. Existing restrictions and rising interest rates are already slowing home-lending growth, and banks are concerned the introduction of further limits could have “unintended consequences,” the New Zealand Bankers Association said in a submission to the RBNZ posted on its website. It urged the central bank to assess the impact of market changes before using additional tools.

Brazil's central bank announced tougher rules for fintechs on Friday, saying that payment institutions will be subject to regulations based on their size and complexity and raising standards for required capital, Reuters reported. The new framework, which will start taking effect in January 2023 with full implementation by January 2025, will extend the proportionality of regulatory requirements currently used for conglomerates of financial institutions to include financial conglomerates led by payment institutions.

Singapore’s Makara Capital, and asset reconstruction companies including JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Company and Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Ltd (ARCIL) are among some of the few entities that have submitted their Expressions of Interest (EoIs) to acquire Srei group companies under the consolidated corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP), The Hindu reported. The deadline for submitting EoI ended late Saturday evening.

Gayle Killilea, former wife of bankrupt property baron Sean Dunne, this week appealed a 2019 U.S. jury verdict ordering her to pay nearly €20 million to the trustee of his US bankruptcy, the Irish Times reported. Killilea’s lawyer Patrick Fahey filed the appeal on Thursday with the US court of appeals for the second circuit in New York. She joined her ex-husband Mr Dunne who flied a separate appeal with the same court last year. Thomas Curran, a lawyer for the bankruptcy trustee, said on Friday he is confident the court will uphold the verdict.

Ukraine's top government economic adviser Oleg Ustenko said on Thursday that invading Russian forces have so far destroyed at least $100 billion worth of infrastructure, buildings and other physical assets, Reuters reported. Ustenko, chief economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told an online event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics that the war has caused 50% of Ukrainian businesses to shut down completely, while the other half are operating at well below their capacity.

Russia’s government moved closer to seizing and even nationalizing foreign-owned companies that are leaving the market over the invasion of Ukraine while planning measures to coax others into staying, Bloomberg News reported. In the first explicit response to the exodus of foreign businesses from Ikea to McDonald’s Corp., the Economy Ministry has outlined new policies to take temporary control of departing companies where foreign ownership exceeds 25%. Under the proposals, a Moscow court would consider requests from board members and others to bring in external managers.

Aeroflot Russian Airlines PJSC spent billions of dollars over two decades transforming itself from a stodgy, Soviet-era carrier, with bland food and uncomfortable seats, into an award-winning airline flying new jets around the world, the Wall Street Journal reported. In two weeks, all that progress threatens to come undone—providing an example of how one of Russia’s best-known and most internationally connected companies has been threatened by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the West’s response.