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Unable to balance its budget as required by law, Birmingham placed itself under the protection of "section 114" on Tuesday. This means that only essential expenditure is covered. The news had all the more resonance because the city council has a million people under its umbrella - the largest local authority in the country, since London is divided into boroughs. And because this failure has raised fears of a domino effect on other struggling English cities.

In a filing to the Manhattan bankruptcy court, the firm sought recognition of restructuring talks under way in Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. The world’s most indebted property developer defaulted in 2021 and announced an offshore debt restructuring program in March. Trading of Evergrande shares have been suspended since March 2022. The Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection allows a U.S. bankruptcy court to intervene in cross-border insolvency case involving foreign companies that are undergoing restructuring from creditors. It aims to protect the debtors’ assets and facilitate the rescue of businesses that are in financial trouble. Tianji Holdings, an affiliate of Evergrande, and its subsidiary Scenery Journey, also filed for Chapter 15 protection in a Manhattan bankruptcy court, according to the filing. Source: CNBC, FluentInFinance

This is more than the first half of 2020 when the US went into a full lockdown. It’s the highest number of first half bankruptcies since 2010. Businesses are feeling the pain of higher interest rates. Source: The Kobeissi Letter

Bankruptcy filings by larger corporations in the first half of this year rose to the highest level since the same period in 2010, when they were coming down from the Financial Crisis Source: www.wolfstreet.com, WallStreetSilver