Headlines

Canada’s national pension fund struck its first partnership to build and rent out single-family homes in the U.S., joining a rush to capitalize on a housing shortage, Bloomberg News reported. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will join with Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC, the largest property manager in the U.S., to build and acquire communities of single-family rental properties there, according to a statement Wednesday. CPPIB will own 95% of the $840 million joint venture and Greystar 5%. The surging price of homeownership in the U.S.

More than 11,000 people were declared bankrupt in Malaysia since the pandemic struck in March 2020, the New Straits Times reported. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department(Parliament & Law), Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told the Dewan Rakyat that the Insolvency Department recorded 11,207 cases of bankruptcy between March 2020 and October 2021. He said that there were 6,344 cases recorded between March to Dec 2020 and 4,863 cases recorded between Jan to Sept 2021.

While Covid-19 killed millions of people around the globe, deaths at STMicro’s facility in the Malaysian district of Muar were substantially higher than averages in the rest of the country and the world. One in 1,100 people in Malaysia died from the virus since the start of the pandemic, according to the country’s Ministry of Health, while it was at least one in 210 at the plant, according to Bloomberg News reporting. STMicro declined to comment on the specific number of workers who died at the Muar location.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak lost an appeal against his conviction last year on charges related to his role in one of the world’s largest financial scandals, dealing a setback to the disgraced ex-leader amid a resurgence of his political clout, the Wall Street Journal reported. Malaysia’s appellate court struck down the appeal on Wednesday, upholding Mr. Najib’s conviction last year on all seven of the charges in question, including abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.

Petroleos Mexicanos could end up spending about $1.6 billion to take over Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Deer Park refinery, more than twice the price announced in May, even as its finances are so dismal the government is injecting billions of dollars into the state oil producer, Bloomberg News reported. Pemex, as the company is known, has requested about $1.6 billion to acquire the Houston-area refinery, including a capitalization from Mexico’s National Infrastructure Fund and a bridge loan from commercial banks, according to Pemex documents seen by Bloomberg.

The Bank of Canada on Wednesday held its key overnight interest rate unchanged, as expected, and said inflation was broadening even as it warned that the Omicron coronavirus variant has created "renewed uncertainty," Reuters reported The central bank, in a regular rate decision, left its key overnight interest rate at 0.25% and maintained guidance that economic slack would be absorbed in the "middle quarters" of 2022, setting the stage for a first rate hike as soon as April.

Ireland may benefit from another surge in corporation tax despite having to give up its prized 12.5 per cent rate, the chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) has said, the Irish Times reported. Instead of losing €2 billion a year as the Government has forecast, Ireland could benefit directly from the recent global agreement on tax, which will involve a new minimum rate of 15 per cent, Ifac chairman Sebastian Barnes.

Some offshore bondholders of China Evergrande Group did not receive coupon payments by the end of a 30-day grace period, five people with knowledge of the matter said, pushing the cash-strapped property developer closer to formal default, Reuters reported. Adding to a liquidity crisis in China's once bubbling property market, smaller peer Kaisa Group Holdings (1638.HK) was also unlikely to meet its $400 million offshore debt deadline on Tuesday.

As many as 421 cases involving a realisable value of Rs 2.55 lakh crore were resolved and 1,149 cases having a liquidation value of Rs 52,036 crore went for liquidation under the insolvency law till this September, the Indian government said on Tuesday, the Economic Times reported. Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) is conducted as per the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). As of September 30, a total of 4,708 CIRPs were initiated under the IBC.

The Bank of Japan is likely to narrow the scope of its Covid aid, but keep it in place for longer in an attempt to focus the measures on businesses that still need help, says a former top official, Bloomberg News reported. “A partial extension is possible,” said Eiji Maeda, who led the central bank’s pandemic crisis response before stepping down from his post as executive director in May last year. “Funding is becoming an issue that’s focused on some businesses and some sectors.