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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A U.S. judge refused to block a debt payment designed to free Byju’s from an insolvency case in India, telling American lenders to take their complaints about the transaction to a court in the home country of the educational tech firm, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon rejected a lender request to block Riju Ravindran, brother of Byju’s founder, from paying more than $19 million to India’s governing board for cricket. A deal to clear the debt enabled Byju’s to win dismissal of an insolvency case in front of a judicial tribunal in India.
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With an offer of $5 million, U.K.-based outdoor and sports gear retailer Mountain Warehouse has emerged as the stalking horse bidder for Eastern Mountain Sports’ intellectual property. The bankruptcy auction ends by Aug. 30, when the deal is scheduled to close, per court documents, RetailDive.com reported. After that date, EMS will close any inventoried stores until the deal is complete, and it would be up to Mountain Warehouse to reopen them. If EMS accepts a higher bid, Mountain Warehouse is entitled to a $150,000 break-up fee, according to court filings.
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