Headlines

China Evergrande Group’s main unit has said it has “resolved” an interest payment due on one of its domestic bonds on Wednesday, offering some relief to jittery markets that had been on edge over fears that a messy default of China’s No. 2 property developer could ripple through China’s economy and the global financial system, Al Jazeera reported.

There have been many heated debates of late about the 90% or higher haircuts that lenders have taken in several high-profile bankruptcy resolutions, the New Indian Express reported. Erstwhile promoters, resolution professionals and even the committee of creditors have all been blamed by turns for the state of affairs. Opinion writers have written angry columns, and TV channels have carried heated panel discussions.

Unable to sell such assets as its retail outlets and its online domain, Brazil’s Sarava Libraries suffered a new setback in its judicial recovery plan and risks declaring bankruptcy, Lodi Valley News reported. After an action by one of its creditors, technology company Infosys, which questioned the retailer’s plan filed in March, the court has now decided that Sarava will file a new proposal within 30 days, under pain of filing for bankruptcy. However, a few days before this decision the company had already made an adjustment to the plan and is contemplating the failure to sell the assets.

In Herat, a key axis of trade in western Afghanistan, a wave of bankruptcies is feared among traders, who express their “hopelessness” in the face of the deterioration of the country’s economic situation after the return of the Taliban to power in the middle of August, Market Research Telecast reported. “At the beginning, when the Taliban arrived, people were very happy, because we perceived that with them security was returning,” says Faghir Ahmad, a trader and importer of food products from Iran, very close to Herat.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, which is presiding over Aeroméxico's chapter 11 voluntary financial restructuring process, granted the company's request for extensions of the plan exclusivity periods, according to a company press release. The exclusive period for filing a chapter 11 plan now expires on Oct. 8, 2021, subject to further extension as ordered by the court. On Sept. 10, 2021, the company delivered to its DIP Lenders the Final Valuation Materials and the Refinancing Qualification Certificate in accordance with the DIP Credit Agreement.

Not many would have given Luckin Coffee a chance to survive its accounting fraud, yet since falling into provisional liquidation in July 2020, the firm has opened more stores, is getting a capital injection to repay creditors and is looking to exit chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, the South China Morning Post reported. On Tuesday, the Chinese Starbucks wannabe set another milestone by inking restructuring terms that could make bondholders almost whole and settle U.S. class-action lawsuits.

U.S. stock markets opened higher on Tuesday, rebounding from their worst day in months on Monday as nerves about the Chinese real estate debt crisis eased, Investing.com reported. Better-than-expected data from the housing market also supported the sentiment. Housing starts and building permits for August both came in above expectations, albeit not by enough to cause any acceleration in the Federal Reserve's timeline for running down its asset purchases or raising interest rates. The Fed's latest two-day policy meeting started Tuesday. By 9:45 a.m.

European Central Bank policymakers still see the recent inflation surge as temporary, but a growing number appear to be acknowledging the risk that price growth may exceed their relatively benign projections, Reuters reported. Inflation hit 3% last month, well above the ECB's 2% target, and could even climb to 3.5% by November, but the bank then sees a rapid drop that will drag price growth back below 2% for years to come. A surge in commodity prices, supply bottlenecks and growing signs of labour shortages are, however, challenging this "hump-shaped" profile for consumer price growth.

France urged its European Union partners to consider whether to delay negotiations on the bloc’s future trade agreement with Australia over what Paris says is a lack of trust sparked by a major defense deal among the U.S., Australia and Britain, the Associated Press reported. French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said that he would raise the trade pact and the security implications of the deal, known as AUKUS, at a meeting with his counterparts in Brussels, and that France would ensure that it is discussed at EU summits and ministerial meetings next month.

Visitors to Byton Ltd.’s website are greeted with color-saturated images of shiny electric cars gliding along manicured streets. Those paying a visit to the automaker’s factory in Nanjing, eastern China may be less impressed. The plant is modern and huge, gleaming under the hot summer sun. But there’s total silence. Production has been suspended since the pandemic began, and there’s no one around except for a lone security guard, Bloomberg News reported. It’s a similar situation across town at Bordrin Motors.