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In granting bankruptcy protection, the National Company Law Tribunal in New Delhi ordered a moratorium on Go First's assets and leases. But bankruptcy protection supersede lessors' repossession requests. Go First's lessors also include SMBC Aviation Capital and CDB Aviation's GY Aviation Leasing. Its voluntary seeking of bankruptcy protection to renegotiate contracts and debt marks a first for an Indian airline, and Chief Executive Officer Kaushik Khona, who was present as the order was read, hailed the tribunal's decision as "historic". The Indian tribunal said the new resolution professional will take "all necessary steps including the execution of the arbitral award".

This is the first time an Indian airline has voluntarily sought bankruptcy protection to renegotiate contracts and debt. But if bankruptcy protection is granted, those laws supersede lessors' repossession requests. Go First's lessors include major global names such as Jackson Square Aviation, SMBC Aviation Capital and CDB Aviation's GY Aviation Leasing. Two advisers to some lessors said there were major concerns that the granting of bankruptcy protection for Go First could force the lessors to embark on lengthy litigation to repossess planes. The person added that the development could lead to higher lease rates for Indian airlines in the future.

Violent clashes between supporters of Imran Khan and police broke out across the country after Pakistan's anti-corruption agency arrested the former prime minister on Tuesday. Pakistan's rupee has lost nearly 50% over the past 12 months. JPMorgan analyst Milo Gunasinghe said little relief from political uncertainty was in sight while the IMF programme remained stalled. "It is usually up to the country to present a credible plan of policies and financing that, in the face of political uncertainty, will credibly address the members’ balance of payment problems." The armed forces remain Pakistan's most powerful institution, having ruled directly for close to half the country's 75-year history through three coups.

☆ Consultancies are coming off a pandemic boom. Are they still worth hiring?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Management consultancies helped design vaccination programs during the pandemic and are currently providing advice on how to rescue one of the world’s biggest banks. The $230 billion management consulting industry is a broad church: it includes companies offering everything from project management expertise to designing new organizational structures. Many big firms — think EY and KPMG — also conduct audits and advise on their clients’ tax issues, though these services are generally seen as distinct from their consulting work. In The Big Con, published in February, prize-winning economist Mariana Mazzucato and her co-author Rosie Collington argue that management consultancies “infantilize” governments by keeping them dependent on their services. Nearly 80% of firms surveyed globally have told the think-tank that consultants’ work is either of high or very high quality, she noted.

☆ Bed Bath & Beyond files for bankruptcy protection after long struggle, begins liquidation sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 23 - Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (BBBY.O) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday after the home goods retailer failed to secure funds to stay afloat, and has begun a liquidation sale. In February, the embattled retailer had planned to raise around $1 billion through the offering of preferred stock and warrants to avoid bankruptcy. But Bed Bath terminated the deal in late March and announced plans to sell $300 million worth of its shares, warning it might have to file for bankruptcy if it could not secure the funds. In February, according to a court filing, Bed Bath & Beyond's Canadian operations were going out of business. The Canadian division, which operates 54 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and 11 buybuy BABY stores, is insolvent, the filing posted on the website of consultancy Alvarez & Marsal showed.

☆ SVB CEO, CFO resign, company appoints turnaround expert as interim finance head
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 21 (Reuters) - SVB Financial Group's CEO and chief financial officer resigned this week while the collapsed lender's restructuring committee appointed a turnaround expert as interim CFO, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. CEO Gregory Becker resigned on April 19, while finance chief Daniel Beck left the company on April 18, SVB said. The two top executives were sued in March by shareholders who accused them of concealing how rising interest rates would leave its Silicon Valley Bank unit "particularly susceptible" to a bank run. The restructuring committee appointed Nicholas Grossi of A&M as the company's interim chief financial officer on April 20, according to the filing. The regulators then agreed to backstop a deal for regional lender First Citizens BancShares (FCNCA.O) to acquire Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ SVB says CEO, CFO resigned this week
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 21 (Reuters) - SVB Financial Group CEO Gregory Becker and financial chief Daniel Beck resigned this week, the collapsed lender said in a regulatory filing on Friday. Becker resigned on April 19, while Beck left the company on April 18, SVB said. The two top executives were sued in March by shareholders who accused them of concealing how rising interest rates would leave its Silicon Valley Bank unit "particularly susceptible" to a bank run. The restructuring committee appointed Nicholas Grossi of A&M as the company's interim chief financial officer on April 20, according to the filing. The regulators then agreed to backstop a deal for regional lender First Citizens BancShares (FCNCA.O) to acquire Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ Swiss government awards $9.7 mln contract related to Credit Suisse - UBS merger
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Oliver Hirt | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] The logo of Credit Suisse is pictured in front of the Swiss Parliament Building, in Bern, Switzerland, March 19, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File PhotoZURICH, April 17 (Reuters) - The Swiss government has awarded an advisory mandate worth up to 8.7 million Swiss francs ($9.70 million) to Alvarez & Marsal Switzerland, linked to the rescue of Credit Suisse (CSGN.S), according to state procurement platform Simap.ch on Monday. Swiss authorities last month engineered a takeover of struggling Credit Suisse by rival UBS (UBSG.S) that included over 200 billion francs in financial guarantees. The Ministry of Finance will pay up to CHF 10.3 million for this service. ($1 = 0.8965 Swiss francs)Writing by Noele Illien; Editing by Sharon SingletonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

By offloading some of the risk on their loans, the banks can significantly reduce how much capital they need to set aside to cover potential losses, according to law firm Clifford Chance. A bank can normally transfer risks of losses equivalent to around 7% to 12% of a loan portfolio, two market sources said. With synthetic structures, a bank transfers the risk via credit derivatives or guarantees but keeps holding the underlying exposures. The IFC sold BNP a $50 million guarantee on $1 billion of loans to emerging markets, they said, without disclosing terms. While Europe has been at the forefront for risk transfers, the stock of loans covered by SRTs is small relative to European banks' balance sheets.

☆ Investing in Space: The latecomer
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

CNBC's Investing in Space newsletter offers a view into the business of space exploration and privatization, delivered straight to your inbox. A small group of Virgin Orbit employees are rolling back into the company's Long Beach, California, headquarters today. Virgin Orbit this week announced a partial resumption of operations, potentially bolstered by a surprising new backer: private investor Matthew Brown. A person close to the Virgin Orbit deal described Brown as a "latecomer" and said company leadership initially considered his bid "super fringe." From another investor's perspective, Virgin Orbit was "the most likely to succeed after Rocket Lab " in the small satellite launch market.

☆ Virgin Orbit scrambles to avoid bankruptcy as deal talks continue
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Virgin Orbit is scrambling to secure a funding lifeline and avoid bankruptcy, which could come as early as this week without a deal, CNBC has learned. Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart and other senior leadership held daily talks with interested parties through the weekend, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss internal matters. At the same time, Virgin Orbit is bracing for a potential bankruptcy filing as soon as this week, one person said. A Virgin Orbit spokesperson declined to comment. Shares of Virgin Orbit have continued to fall since its pause in operations, with its stock slipping to near 50 cents a share in Monday trading.

☆ Virgin Orbit starts to plan for insolvency amid rescue talks, Sky News reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 19 (Reuters) - Aircraft engineering company Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc (VORB.O) has begun drawing up detailed contingency plans for its insolvency days after halting its operations and furloughing its workforce, Sky News reported on Sunday. Richard Branson's Virgin Group is working with restructuring firms Alvarez & Marsal and Ducera about fallback plans if they cannot secure new funding, the report added. Last week, Reuters reported that Virgin Orbit Chief Executive Dan Hart told staff in a meeting that the furlough was intended to buy the company time to finalize a new investment plan to help pull it out of its financial woes, while the duration of the furlough remained unclear. Virgin Orbit did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Silicon Valley Bank's CEO and CFO were ousted but other bank executives still have their jobs — and they're wooing new customers, acting CEO told clients.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Kali Hays | Darius Rafieyan | Dakin Campbell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Clients were told that the CEO and CFO are out of SVB, while other managers remain. His message to them: Silicon Valley Bank was fully operational, protected by unlimited FDIC insurance even for new deposits, and all business was functioning normally, as if the bank run on Friday never happened. In this case, Silicon Valley Bridge Bank is a full-service bank." Retaining management is, perhaps, a good outcome for the moment for SVB employees who have been cast in a pall of uncertainty since last week. SVB employees now seem to fall into three groups, according to the recruiter, who has spoken with SVB employees in recent days.

☆ SVB is still looking for a buyer. Here is what we know so far.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The weekend came and went without a buyer for SVB Financial Group, the parent company of the failed Silicon Valley Bank. SVB Capital focuses on venture capital and credit investing and SVB Securities is its investment banking arm. Axios reported Monday morning that JPMorgan and PNC were in talks to acquire SVB Financial Group but not the failed commercial bank. SVB Securities, better known as SVB Leerink, the investment banking arm born out of SVB's 2018 acquisition of Leerink, is a very desirable business, he added. "SVB Leerink is a well-known name in the tech and healthcare space that will be attractive to someone," said Healy.

☆ FTX's lawyers and advisers cost $38 million for a month of work - and the bankrupt crypto exchange's new CEO charged $305,000 for February
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The army of professionals working with FTX billed $38 million in expenses for January. FTX CEO John Ray III submitted a bill for $305,565 for the month of February. Those three firms have over 180 lawyers and over 50 other staffers working on the FTX case, per the CoinDesk report. Sullivan & Cromwell billed 14,569 hours of work in January for a total of $16.8 million. Meanwhile, FTX's trading arm sued Grayscale this week in a bid to claw back $250 million to repay customers.

☆ Bed Bath & Beyond to wind down Canada operations
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 10 (Reuters) - Bed Bath & Beyond's Canadian operations are going out of business, according to a court filing on Friday, two days after the retailer quickly raised cash to stave off a U.S. bankruptcy. The Canadian division, which operates 54 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and 11 buybuy BABY stores, is insolvent, the filing posted on the website of consultancy Alvarez & Marsal showed. Bed Bath & Beyond in January had raised doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern just months after it announced more than $500 million in new financing, as well as job cuts and 150 store closures. As of Nov. 26, the Bed Bath & Beyond banner in Canada had total assets of about $427.4 million and total liabilities of about $342.8 million, the filing showed. Buybuy BABY Canada had assets worth $52.7 million and liabilities of about $86.9 million.

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The law firms that billed FTX are Sullivan & Cromwell, Landis Rath & Cobb, and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Landis Rath & Cobb and Sullivan & Cromwell, FTX's primary legal firms, billed the company a combined $10.7 million for over 8,400 hours of work. Landis Rath & Cobb billed $1.16 million for work done between Nov. 11 and Nov. 30. Full compensation for legal and advisor fees will not occur until a final fee application is filed, whenever FTX's bankruptcy saga concludes. Lawyers for Sullivan & Cromwell did $40,000 worth of work just to appear in FTX's first bankruptcy hearing on Nov. 22, based on court filings of hours billed and hourly rates.

☆ Outlook for emerging markets deteriorated sharply over the past 2 years, consultancy says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailOutlook for emerging markets deteriorated sharply over the past 2 years, consultancy saysReza Baqir of Alvarez and Marsal, formerly governor of Pakistan's central bank, says that's because of the "rapid rise in public debt."

☆ Debt restructuring framework must improve to help distressed countries, Pakistan's ex-central banker says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Sumathi Bala | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Global bodies like the IMF need to step up and improve the framework for sovereign debt financing so that emerging market economies, like Sri Lanka, can get out of their debt distress problems faster. That's according to the former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, the country's central bank. Reza Baqir, currently the global head of sovereign advisory services at Alvarez and Marsal, pointed out that Sri Lanka is still waiting for the International Monetary Fund debt relief to help restore stability as the country grapples with dire economic conditions. Sri Lanka "stopped paying its creditors in spring of last year and it's been close to nine months, and we are still waiting for a meeting of the IMF board," noted Baqir. "We need a more proactive response from the international financial community."

☆ Venator Materials' investor pushes for board change amid plummeting stock price
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

J&T wrote that it has tried to work constructively with the Venator board since May 2022 but has encountered "apparent delay tactics and gamesmanship." "We strongly urge you to immediately add myself and another independent director to be nominated by us to the Board," the letter said. Venator said it has an open dialogue with all shareholders and has worked to engage in "constructive conversations" with J&T. Venator was spun off from chemical company Huntsman Corp (HUN.N) and its share price tumbled 71% in the last 52 weeks. While Venator rivals have directors with broad experience, the Venator board's skills are focused mainly on the chemicals industry and have prevented it from creating "a go-forward strategy to restore confidence among investors," the J&T letter said.

☆ To make cheap EVs work, automakers are replacing decades of know-how with a move from Tesla's playbook
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Auto companies need EV battery supply more than ever, but the costs are adding up. Prices and a push to use local materials have carmakers investing in in-house battery supply. That means car companies are seeking an alternative and racing to secure their battery supply in the US. But the pandemic — and other disruptions, like natural disasters — shed a light on just how vulnerable that can also make auto companies. It's complicated and time-consuming, but may ultimately be the best way car companies can get closer to lowering the cost of new EVs.

☆ The chip shortage could be just about done pummeling the auto industry, experts say — so cars may get a whole lot cheaper in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The chip shortage has been hurting the auto industry for more than two years. The chip shortage has pummeled the global auto industry for years, depressing dealership inventory levels and driving up new and used vehicle prices. Since 2020, auto companies have sacrificed production levels and valuable features like heated seats, while prioritizing money-making vehicles. In 2021, automakers built 3.23 million fewer vehicles than expected in North America because of the chip shortage. Next year's potential chip shortage respite could bring relief to car shoppers if inventory levels recover, pushing down prices.

☆ Stablecoins fall few cents short of respectability
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

That will reignite the debate over how to regulate digital assets – especially when it comes to stablecoins, the most money-like part of the cryptoverse. Stablecoins are digital assets designed to have a steady value, usually by being pegged to a real-world currency like the U.S. dollar. For each dollar of stablecoin a user holds, there’s supposed to be a dollar, or something like a dollar, sitting in a metaphorical vault. And in the case of some so-called algorithmic stablecoins, what backs the stablecoin might be another digital token with no fundamental value. The total sum of major U.S. dollar stablecoins outstanding is just under $145 billion, according to CoinGecko.

☆ Collapsed crypto exchange FTX has about $1.24 billion of cash in total — but still owes at least $3.1 billion
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

FTX's vast web of entities had a total of around $1.24 billion in cash balances as of Nov. 20, according to a new court filing out late Monday. The filing was penned by Alvarez & Marsal North America, which is advising FTX on restructuring efforts after the exchange filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month. The balances include FTX and its various "silos," ranging from the trading group Alameda Research to international subsidiaries. FTX's Japanese unit, FTX Japan K.K., has about $171.7 million in cash on its books, making it the third-biggest source of cash for the company. The cash is held by FTX and its affiliates with banks and other financial institutions, Mosley said in the filing.

☆ Holiday shoppers aren’t in a rush. What that means for retail stocks
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Christina Cheddar Berk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

If you're a retailer, and it's the holiday season, the thing you most want consumers to feel is a sense of urgency. Unlike last year, holiday shoppers don't need to fear empty shelves at the store. Walmart said it saw more shoppers with incomes above $100,000 ring up items in its stores, drawn in by less expensive groceries. He suggests investors position themselves in discounters like Walmart or Family Dollar or in luxury stocks like RH or Lululemon . She explained that many shoppers perceive Target as a place where "you go in for two items and come out $150 later."

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