Headlines

Brazilian waste management company Ambipar sought bankruptcy protection in a Rio de Janeiro court late on Monday, facing a cash crisis and the risk of accelerated debt repayments of billions of reais, Reuters reported. A company subsidiary has also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, according to a regulatory document made public early on Tuesday.

A total of 289 companies filed for bankruptcy in Finland in September 2025, according to data from Statistics Finland, the Helsinki Times reported. The figure was 15 higher than in the same month last year. The total number of person-years affected by the bankruptcies was 1,074. That marked a drop of 144 person-years from September 2024, showing fewer employees impacted despite the higher number of filings. The rolling 12-month annual change in bankruptcies stood at 9 percent in September. Construction companies accounted for 57 of the filings.

Allianz Trade has released its latest Insolvency Report, providing an analysis of the effects of recent US tariffs, global trade shifts, and updated forecasts for business insolvencies through 2027, InsuranceBusinessMag.com reported. The trade credit insurer projects that global business insolvencies will end 2025 up by 6%, with a peak anticipated in 2026, marking a fifth consecutive annual rise at 5%. A modest decline of 1% is forecast for 2027.

Swedish startup Stegra (formerly H2 Green Steel) has appointed a restructuring expert to its board of directors as the company struggles to avert a financial crisis, Bloomberg reports. The company recently announced a new round of financing, planning to raise an additional €975 million ($1.1 billion) to cover higher-than-expected project and infrastructure costs and to fill the gap caused by delays in government grant support. In addition, Stegra announced personnel changes to its board of directors.

Rumours over potential spikes to employer pension contributions in the upcoming Budget has thrown UK companies into a frenzy, with some admitting it could put them at risk of insolvency, CityAM.com reported. According to research from consultancy Barnett Waddingham, nearly 20 per cent of businesses fear they could become insolvent if an increase to employer pension contributions was mandated. Businesses have already been forced to shoulder additional cost burdens following decisions in Rachel Reeves’ maiden budget last year, with the national living wage increasing to £12.21 as of April 2025.

Fewer people than initially expected will be subject to Ireland’s new mandatory workplace pension, My Future Fund, it has emerged, amid of war of words between the Department of Social Protection and employer and pension groups, The Irish Times reported. The Government has consistently said that up to 800,000 people are likely to find themselves enrolled in the fund, which will deduct 1.5 per cent of their gross salary from their after-tax income from January – a figure that will rise to 6 per cent over the next decade.

Canada offered tariff relief on some steel and aluminum products imported from the U.S. and China, a government document showed, in efforts to help domestic businesses battered by a trade war on two fronts, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Mark Carney is negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump, who imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. His team also met with Chinese counterparts last week in an effort to secure relief on Chinese tariffs on Canadian agricultural goods. Canada's economy has come under strain as the impact of tariffs on Canadian exports to the U.S.

A group of banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs is struggling to put together a $20 billion loan to Argentina without leaving themselves too exposed to the financially distressed South American country, the Wall Street Journal reported. The bank loans would be part of the Trump administration’s plan to backstop the finances of libertarian President Javier Milei’s government with a $40 billion package, including a $20 billion currency swap with the U.S. Treasury Department and the separate $20 billion bank-led debt facility.

Chinese doctor Lisa Zhu took full advantage of consumer goods subsidies this year, buying three air conditioners and a washing machine - the big-ticket spending policymakers want to see from households as they target roughly 5% economic growth. But there is a catch. China's 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) subsidies, equivalent to about 0.2% of gross domestic product, are punching above their weight this year, with analysts saying the spending they incentivised had a greater impact on growth than their size.

The United States has been at the nexus of a data center boom, as OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others invest hundreds of billions to build the giant computing sites in the name of advancing artificial intelligence. But the companies have also exported the construction frenzy abroad, with less scrutiny, the New York Times reported. Nearly 60 percent of the 1,244 largest data centers in the world were outside the United States as of the end of June, according to an analysis by Synergy Research Group, which studies the industry.