Headlines

A test case relating to Covid-19 business interruption insurance is to go ahead in the Commercial Court using a hybrid remote and physical hearing arrangement, the Irish Times reported. With the Courts Service investing €2.2 million this year to ensure courtrooms are video-link enabled, the case, to be heard over three days later this month, involves the operators of the Old Imperial Hotel in Youghal, Co Cork, and a Slovenia-based insurance company.

The Bank of Mexico's cycle of rate hikes is not yet over and one or two increases are likely forthcoming amid concerns about inflation, though any monetary policy moves will depend on incoming data, Deputy Governor Jonathan Heath said on Monday, Reuters reported. Expressing concern about above-target inflation, Banxico, as the bank is known, raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.75% on Thursday, as expected, in a four-to-one vote by its governing board. Heath voted with the majority for the rate hike.

French economic growth will return to around 1.4% a year as public investment to spur the recovery from the Covid pandemic offsets the damage from a sharp recession, according to long-term government forecasts, Bloomberg News reported. President Emmanuel Macron’s government expects stronger growth rates in the short term as activity catches up with pre-crisis levels around the end of this year. As that surge fades, a 100 billion-euro ($116 billion) stimulus plan should ensure growth potential stabilizes at around 1.35%, a social-economic report published Monday shows.

British Treasury chief Rishi Sunak promised Monday to deliver an economy based on “good work, better skills and higher wages,” as the governing Conservative Party tried to shrug off the U.K.’s economic turmoil as the growing pains of a thriving, self-reliant post-Brexit economy, the Associated Press reported. Sunak touted the U.K.’s low unemployment rate of under 5% as a sign it is putting pandemic disruptions behind it. He said now that Britain has left the European Union, it will embrace “the agility, flexibility and freedom provided by Brexit” to create a dynamic, high-tech economy.

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) has won the auction for Morrisons with a 7 billion pound ($9.5 billion) bid, paving the way for the U.S. private equity firm to take control of Britain's fourth-biggest supermarket group, Reuters reported. The board of Morrisons recommended CD&R's 287 pence per share bid on Saturday, hours after its bid beat a consortium led by Softbank owned Fortress Investment Group, which had made an offer worth just a penny less per share at 286 pence.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis denied any wrongdoing on Sunday in connection with an international investigative report that listed him among current and former world politicians and businessmen that it says have used offshore financial structures, Reuters reported. The Pandora Papers report, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, said Babis moved $22 million through offshore companies to buy an estate on the French Riviera in 2009 while keeping his ownership secret. The report did not say the transactions broke the law.

A Saudi court on Sunday issued a final order on the restructuring of the Algosaibi family’s conglomerate AHAB, putting a formal end to one of Saudi Arabia’s largest and longest debt disputes, Reuters reported. AHAB filed for a financial restructuring in 2019 under the framework of Saudi Arabia’s bankruptcy law, introduced the previous year to make the kingdom more investor-friendly. The Dammam commercial court on Sunday issued the final ratification order for the AHAB restructuring, which is now unappealable, Simon Charlton, chief restructuring officer at AHAB, told Reuters.

Philippine Airlines Inc. received U.S. court approval to access a $505m debtor-in-possession financing, which is core to its restructuring plan, Bloomberg News reported. “This important step confirms that our recovery process is on track,” Philippine Air President Gilbert Santa Maria said in a statement. Getting full access to the long-term equity and debt financing will give the Lucio Tan-led airline additional liquidity to meet obligations and continue operating as usual.

Tata Sons Pvt. is set to take over ailing Air India Ltd. again, more than half a century after the country’s biggest conglomerate ceded control to the state, ending the government’s hold over an airline that for decades defined the lofty ambitions of a newly-independent nation, Bloomberg News reported. A panel of ministers accepted a proposal from bureaucrats, who recommended the conglomerate’s bid ahead of an offer from entrepreneur Ajay Singh. An official announcement is expected in the coming days.

Trading of China Evergrande Group shares was suspended in Hong Kong, along with those of its property management unit, as the property giant contends with a deepening cash crisis, Bloomberg News reported. No reason was given for the trading halts, which also affect all structured products relating to the company, a stock exchange filing showed on Monday morning. Evergrande shares have plunged 80% this year, and its bonds have tumbled to levels that suggest investors are bracing for a default.