United States

Key terms of a proposed court agreement with a U.S. hedge fund seeking to gain control of oil refiner Citgo Petroleum from Venezuela would lock in the fund's low-ball bid, the company's creditors said in new court filings against the deal, Reuters reported. The backlash to Elliott Investment Management's wholly-owned Amber Energy's offer ends any chance this year of a change to Citgo's ownership to satisfy debt defaults and expropriations by Venezuela.

Europe's biggest debt collector, said on Friday that it will file for voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States as it seeks to restructure its own finances, Reuters reported. The company has struggled as the pandemic, an energy crisis and two-decade-high interest rates failed to unleash a wave of loan defaults, with concerns mounting over Intrum's net debt, which reached 49.4 billion Swedish crowns ($4.69 billion) at the end of June.

Three U.S. education-software companies that bankrupt Indian tech-firm Byju’s bought for $820 million just a few years ago will be put up for sale in order to repay lenders, a court-appointed trustee said, Bloomberg News reported. It is unclear how much the units are worth and if all three — Neuron Fuel Inc., Epic! Creations Inc. and Tangible Play Inc. — will attract offers, the trustee, Claudia Springer, said in an interview.

The United States will use restrictive tools like tariffs to push back against China's practice of making far more goods than it needs in order to dominate global markets, White House official Daleep Singh said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, said the Asian giant has amassed growing market power that it uses for economic and geopolitical leverage, and Washington viewed the costs as unacceptable. "So that's the problem, and it's not abstract.

Light has filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S., a step by the Brazilian electric utility company to complete a restructuring deal that creditors approved in May in its home country, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Light on Tuesday filed for chapter 15 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Light, which provides energy for most of Rio de Janeiro, began a reorganization in Brazil in 2023, as well as in England in July. The company has assets of $582.1 million and carries more than $2.1 billion in debt, including two issuances of U.S. notes totaling $600 million.

Aerospace and defense manufacturer Moog has agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle allegations its India subsidiary bribed officials to secure contracts with Indian government officials and to eliminate competitors from the bidding process, the Wall Street Journal reported. Moog, of East Aurora, N.Y., agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.1 million and to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of around $600,000. The company, which didn’t admit to or deny the Securities and Exchange Commission charges, also agreed to cease and desist from future such conduct.

The U.S. Treasury's top economic diplomat on Friday called on the International Monetary Fund and multilateral development banks to work on new ways to provide short-term liquidity support to low- and middle-income countries to head off debt crises, Reuters reported. Jay Shambaugh, the Treasury's undersecretary for international finance, told an Atlantic Council event that the Treasury was working with these institutions "to find a better path" for countries with high but sustainable debts that face liquidity pressures. Shambaugh, who oversees the dominant U.S.

Holders of billions of dollars in Venezuelan bonds and notes have emerged as last-minute protagonists in a U.S. court case set to decide the ownership of oil refiner Citgo Petroleum, threatening to derail an auction to compensate more than a dozen companies for unpaid debts and expropriations by the country, Reuters reported. At least two groups of holders have resorted to other U.S. courts to enforce their claims, pursuing the same Citgo assets that industrial conglomerates, mining and oil firms have been pursuing for years.

A software company controlled by Indian entrepreneur Byju Raveendran drained cash from U.S. affiliates in violation of US bankruptcy rules, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Delaware, Bloomberg News reported. Money that should be used to repay creditors was instead siphoned off to Whitehat Education Technology, a court-approved trustee for the affiliates said in court papers. The trustee, bankruptcy attorney Claudia Springer, sued to get back nearly $700,000 that was moved from entities under her control.

U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports were reopened on Friday after dockworkers and port operators reached a wage deal to settle the industry's biggest work stoppage in nearly half a century, but clearing the cargo backlog will take time, Reuters reported. The strike ended sooner than investors had expected, weakening shipping stocks as freight rates were no longer expected to surge. "The port strike ended fairly quickly, removing any significant downside risk to the economy this quarter," said Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.