Headlines

The committee of creditors of Vasan Health Care Pvt. Ltd. has approved a resolution bid of around ₹550 crore by Rajasthan-based ASG Hospital Private Ltd. under the insolvency process, according to the sources, The Hindu reported. The plan would be placed before National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Chennai for approval. Max Vision Eye Hospitals Private Limited, Dr. Agarwals Healthcare Limited had also bid for Vasan Health in the insolvency process. The clear break-up of ASG’s plan would be known only when it is filed for approval.
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China’s top disciplinary watchdog sharply criticized more than two dozen financial regulators, state banks, insurers and bad debt managers following months of investigations, Bloomberg News reported. The financial agencies had common problems in meeting the objectives of the Communist Party’s leadership, including gaps in their work to implement the Party’s major strategy, insufficient awareness and mechanisms to prevent financial risks, and slow progress in making financial reforms, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement Thursday.
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Mexico’s economy narrowly avoided recession in 2021, as manufacturers adjusted to supply chain snarls and shortages amid a lack of fiscal stimulus, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product stayed unchanged in the fourth quarter from the previous three-month period, better than the median estimate for a 0.1% decline in a Bloomberg survey, according to final data released by Mexico’s statistics institute Friday. Preliminary data last month had showed GDP falling 0.1%, which followed a 0.4% third-quarter contraction.
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Mexico’s Unifin Financiera SAB said it placed the full amount it sought to raise in the local debt market on Thursday as it faced a test of confidence among investors following the default of another Mexican non-bank lender, Bloomberg News reported. The equipment leasing company sold 3 billion pesos (about $145 million) in one-year notes, according to a filing with the stock exchange. The notes have a variable rate of Mexico’s interbank rate plus 1.4 percentage points and total demand was for 3.08 billion pesos.
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Japan’s factory output fell for a second straight month in January as supply shortages continued to hurt manufacturers, adding to concern that the economy could shrink this quarter as omicron restrictions weigh on activity and the Russian invasion of Ukraine clouds the outlook, Bloomberg News reported. Production slipped 1.3% from the previous month, with falls at automakers and iron and steel manufacturers making the biggest contributions to the drop and driving output below year-earlier levels, according to the industry ministry Monday. Economists had expected a decline of 0.7%.
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Brazilian miner Vale SA will sign on Friday an agreement with local authorities in which it must pay 236.7 million reais ($46.0 million) for failing to meet a legal deadline to decommission its tailings dams in the state of Minas Gerais, a document seen by Reuters showed. According to the draft agreement, struck with the Minas Gerais state prosecutors, the company will also undertake a series of obligations to remove all of its upstream tailing dams.
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Afghanistan is inching closer towards economic collapse six months after the Taliban seized power, the Red Cross said on Friday, with a paralysed banking system stymieing international efforts to get financial aid into the war-ravaged country, Reuters reported. Organisations such as the Red Cross have been forced to rely on informal money exchanges to move cash in to pay the salaries of some workers, although most of Afghanistan's estimated 500,000 state employees have now worked without pay for months. "The banking system is totally paralysed.
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Samarco Mineracao on Wednesday presented a new debt restructuring proposal it hopes can win the support of creditors at a meeting on March 10 and help take the Brazilian iron ore miner out of bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Creditors of the joint venture between Vale SA and BHP Group had been expected to vote on Wednesday on the latest proposals to restructure some $5 billion in debt. But due to a lack of quorum, the meeting was rescheduled, Samarco said in a statement.
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Restructuring bankers have visited Sri Lanka to discuss proposals with the government on raising funds to help manage a debt crisis that has left the South Asian country struggling to pay for imports and stoked political controversy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Advisers from investment banks including Rothschild & Co. and Lazard Ltd. have recently met with government officials and discussed potential plans to help the nation raise cash, including asset sales and securitized debt facilities. Rothschild declined to comment.
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When the United States barred Americans from doing business with Russian banks, oil and gas developers and other companies in 2014, after the country’s invasion of Crimea, the hit to Russia’s economy was swift and immense. Economists estimated that sanctions imposed by Western nations cost Russia $50 billion a year. Since then, the global market for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets has ballooned, the New York Times reported. That’s bad news for enforcers of sanctions, and good news for Russia.
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