Headlines

Canadian defense firm Telemus Systems Inc. has filed for bankruptcy months after Ottawa canceled export permits for military goods and technologies to Turkey over Ankara’s role in the Nagorno Karabakh war, the Defense Post reported. The decision prevented the Ontario-based electronic warfare systems manufacturer from fulfilling pre-existing deals with Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. According to Middle East Eye, Telemus had been selling a range of electronic warfare systems to the Ankara-based company for its Anka drone.

Bank of Japan chief Haruhiko Kuroda said there is scant risk of the country’s inflation accelerating in the same way it has elsewhere in the world as he reinforced the message that stimulus will keep rolling in Tokyo even as other central banks pare theirs back, Bloomberg News reported. Inflation trends overseas and moves by the Federal Reserve and other monetary authorities won’t sway BOJ policy or soften the yen, Kuroda said at a press briefing after the central bank stood pat on policy and lowered its price and growth forecasts.

China’s largest cross-border brokers plummeted in U.S. trading after a central bank official questioned the legitimacy of their operations amid Beijing’s continuing crackdown on private enterprise, Bloomberg News reported. These online brokers are engaged in “illegal financial activities” because they have no “driving licenses” to operate in China, Sun Tianqi, a senior People’s Bank of China official wrote in an article published on the website of Finance 40 Forum. Sun didn’t name the brokers, and added that calling them illegal has nothing to do China’s capital control rules.

The European Parliament launched a lawsuit against the bloc's executive on Friday for failing to apply a new law that allows the freezing of EU payments to countries which do not respect rule-of-law principles, Reuters reported. Poland and Hungary are both under formal EU investigation for not respecting the rule of law and stand to lose tens of billions of euros if the law is successfully applied to them.

The U.K. Insolvency Service says that creditors of Pazhar Zvezdy Ltd, previously known as ASA UK Development Limited, may not be aware that the company is now in compulsory liquidation, the Construction Index reported. Pazhar Zvezdy Ltd traded as a residential and commercial construction company. Following complaints it was investigated by the Insolvency Service. It was finally wound up in the public interest in the High Court on 7th September 2021 and the official receiver, Catherine Hudson, was appointed as the liquidator.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador may be poised to foot a titanic bill for the world’s most-indebted oil producer. Petroleos Mexicanos Chief Executive Officer Octavio Romero told lawmakers on Wednesday that the federal government will take over its bond payments, fueling a rally in notes from the beleaguered company, Bloomberg News reported. Payments could total $36 billion if the government takes on all the debt coming due by the time Lopez Obrador’s term expires in September 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Thirteen East African economies are projected to collectively expand by 4.1% in 2021 from 0.4% last year, supported by a global recovery, according to an African Development Bank report, Bloomberg News reported. East Africa is the only region on the continent to have avoided a recession in 2020, thanks to agriculture, sustained public spending on large infrastructure projects, and increased regional economic integration, according to an AfDB report published on Thursday.

Singapore’s highest court has dismissed an appeal by oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin and his two children after they were successfully sued for breach of fiduciary duties by the court-appointed managers of a company they once owned, Reuters reported. Lim is the founder of defunct Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd and Ocean Tankers, once one of Asia’s largest oil trading and shipping firms, which both went under judicial management in 2020, after oil prices collapsed.

Junk-bond issuance by China’s riskier companies has nearly ground to a halt, creating more challenges for the country’s real-estate developers that need to roll over more than $40 billion in dollar debt by the end of next year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sales of new junk bonds in dollars by Chinese borrowers this month have fallen by about 90% from their five-year average to $352 million as of Wednesday, Dealogic data shows, reflecting just two deals from smaller developers.

A U.K. energy supplier to tens of thousands of small businesses is on the brink of becoming the 14th provider to collapse in the last three months, further underlining the scale of the crisis gripping the sector, Sky News reported. CNG Energy's retail arm - which only supplies commercial customers - is close to falling into the Supplier of Last Resort (SOLR) system operated by Ofgem, the industry regulator.