Elliott Investment Management is the leading bidder in a U.S. court-ordered auction of the parent company of Venezuelan-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp., Bloomberg News reported. Elliott was competing against bidders including independent refiner Vitol Group and Canadian miner Gold Reserve Inc., which was working on a joint bid with billionaire Carl Icahn’s CVR Energy. Elliott has now been granted exclusivity to negotiate a deal. The auction process has been long and winding, and Elliott’s emergence as the top contender doesn’t necessarily mean it will end up with the asset.
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Yuzhou Group Holdings Co. filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy Thursday in New York, a move by the defaulted property developer to seek US court recognition for its offshore debt restructuring and ward off litigation, Bloomberg News reported. The Chinese builder, which failed to pay $2.9 billion of dollar notes with interest as of the end of 2023, is undergoing restructuring in Hong Kong and Cayman Islands.
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Destiny Pharma Plc, a British biotech company chaired by City veteran Nigel Rudd, has appointed insolvency practitioners after failing to secure a rescue deal, Bloomberg News reported. Destiny Pharma, which earlier this month delisted from the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market, had been unable to secure a licensing partner to fund clinical trials for its most hopeful antibiotic product. It lodged an application to appoint administrators in the High Court, a form of insolvency, on Wednesday.
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PwC China has informed its clients it expects a six-month business ban by Chinese authorities as early as September as part of punishment for its audit of collapsed property developer Evergrande, the Financial Times reported. The ban would prevent it from signing off on financial results and initial public offerings and from conducting other regulated activities, the report stated, citing multiple clients. PwC has been under scrutiny for its role in auditing Evergrande since the troubled property developer was accused in March of a $78-billion fraud, leading to an exodus of clients.
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More than 6,400 Fisker Ocean SUVs had been delivered as of April, but if – as seems increasingly likely – Fisker goes out of business and its assets are liquidated to pay off creditors, all those vehicles and their owners could essentially be left out in the cold, the Globe and Mail reported. Fisker began delivering the Ocean SUV to Canadian customers at the end of 2023. The company hasn’t disclosed how many were sold here, but they’re a rare sight on the roads. There were issues related to customer service and vehicle reliability.
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China’s central bank said a meeting in Shanghai produced an agreement with the U.S. Treasury to appoint contact people to deal with any future “financial stress events,” Bloomberg News reported. The two sides also “exchanged lists of financial stability contacts” during the fifth meeting of the so-called Financial Working Group that was set up following Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to China last year.
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A group of senior Biden administration officials is traveling to Shanghai this week for a round of high-level meetings intended to keep the economic relationship between the U.S. and China on stable footing amid mounting trade tensions between the two countries, the New York Times reported. The talks will take place on Thursday and Friday and are being convened through the U.S.-China Financial Working Group, which was created last year.
SG Investments, America, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of German-based manufacturer Dürkopp Adler (DA), has acquired ICON Aircraft assets — the result of a chapter 11 § 363 sale in ICON’s chapter 11 case filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, according to a Procopio press release. Procopio Restructuring and Bankruptcy Partner William Smelko represented DA in the transaction with the assistance of Procopio’s Asia Pacific team. Local Delaware Counsel Evan Miller of Saul, Ewing also assisted SG in acquiring the assets.
Glas Trust Company has filed the plea challenging the NCLAT order which quashed the bankruptcy proceedings against BYJU in the Supreme Court, LegalWorld.com reported. The matter will be heard on August 12. The NCLAT quashed the bankruptcy proceedings against BYJU after a settlement was reached between Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and BYJU, wherein the ed-tech agreed to pay off its dues of INR 158 Cr. Glass Trust opposed the settlement on the grounds on possibly jeopardizing of their financial interest while settling the BCCI debt.
Former Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang was convicted Thursday in a financial conspiracy case that welled up from from his country's “ tuna bond ” scandal and swept into a U.S. court, the Associated Press reported. A federal jury in New York delivered the verdict. Chang was accused of accepting payoffs to put his African nation secretly on the hook for big loans to government-controlled companies for tuna fishing ships and other maritime projects.
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