A judge in London ruled that gym chain Virgin Active can wipe out the rent arrears on most of its venues and avoid future steep payments, despite the opposition of a majority of its creditors, Bloomberg News reported. The decision represents a victory for tenants and a blow for landlords, with other companies now likely to seek a reduction in their debt pile using the same tool. Rent arrears have been building since March last year when non-essential businesses were forced to close or operate with restrictions due to the pandemic.
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Former British Prime Minister David Cameron repeatedly contacted senior ministers over a four-month period in 2020 to lobby for the now-failed, supply-chain finance firm Greensill Capital, according to documents published on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Cameron’s involvement in efforts to secure access for Greensill Capital to the government’s pandemic funding schemes have fueled wider questions about lobbyists’ influence over British government decision-making.
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More people struggling with their debts across England and Wales will have access to a solution which would give them a fresh start, the Belfast Telegraph reported. The maximum total debts allowable for someone taking out a debt relief order (DRO) will increase from £20,000 to £30,000, the Insolvency Service said. This will enable more people struggling with their debts to qualify, rather than turning to bankruptcy which is often seen as a “last resort”. DROs are a formal type of financial insolvency.
Landlords have lost a legal challenge against the restructuring at high street fashion chain New Look, in a major setback to their efforts to curb what they regard as misuse of insolvency laws, the Financial Times reported. A group of four landlords, including Land Securities and British Land plus the new owners of Manchester’s giant Trafford Centre, had challenged New Look’s use of a company voluntary arrangement to reset its rents for the second time in three years and to write off rent arrears.
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CDC Group, the U.K. government’s development investment arm, is taking a step to help bridge what it estimates is a funding gap of as much as $31 billion that Africa’s agriculture and food industry faces each year, Bloomberg News reported. The 73-year-old institution is channeling $100 million to small-holder African farmers through export and trading company ETG, and is seeking other partners to help it deploy more capital to the sector.
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The Bank of England does not expect to see a wave of bankruptcies among British firms when the government ends its coronavirus emergency support for the economy, BoE Chief Economist Andy Haldane said on Friday, Reuters reported. Many debts racked up recently by companies are spread over long durations “which increases the chances of them being able to be paid back and therefore bankruptcy is not picking up very much from current relatively subdued levels,” Haldane said.
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Administrators to collapsed firm Greensill Capital’s UK business said it had $17.7 billion in assets under management at March 8 of which $3.7 billion has been collected as of April 16, Reuters reported. The supply chain finance firm, which lent money to firms by buying their invoices at a discount, collapsed in March 2021 after insurers pulled their cover. Creditors of Greensill Capital Pty, the Australian parent of the British company, voted in April to liquidate that company.
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As optimism in Britain's economic rebound grows, companies in the country are expecting to borrow billions less than previously anticipated, according to a new study, YahooFinance.com reported. UK firms now expect to borrow £19bn ($26.4bn) this year — £7bn less than previously forecast in February. This is due to a combination of several things including an economic boost from the reopening of non-essential retail, outdoor activities and restaurants as well as easing restrictions further down the line.
Tata Steel Ltd. sued three of Sanjeev Gupta’s metal units for 7.9 million pounds ($11 million) over missed payments, piling more woes onto the embattled tycoon’s corporate empire, Bloomberg News reported. The London lawsuit centers on the 2017 sale of Tata’s specialty steel business to Liberty House Group for 100 million pounds. Liberty told the Indian firm’s U.K. arm that it had run into difficulties as early as May 2020 when demand for steel was hit due to the pandemic, lawyers for Tata said in documents filed at the U.K. High Court.
London's Court of Appeal will hear a request to revive a 5 billion pound ($6.95 billion) lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining group BHP (BHPB.L), (BHP.AX) over a 2015 dam failure in Brazil, a court order showed, Reuters reported. Judge Nicholas Underhill has agreed to an oral hearing that could help to overturn a previous Court of Appeal decision which denied a 200,000-strong Brazilian claimant group permission to appeal against a judgment to strike out the landmark case.
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