RattanIndia Power Ltd., a electricity generator backed by hedge fund Farallon Capital Management, is close to restructuring about $500 million of stressed loans, Bloomberg News reported. The company, which is building coal-fired power plants to produce 5,400 megawatt of electricity -- enough to light up 7 million rural homes in India -- has offered to pay banks 52 percent of the obligations of its project in Amravati in Maharashtra state. The talks with creditors are on-going and there’s no certainty they will result in a transaction.

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Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s credit rating was cut by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the drugmakers’ ballooning debt level following its $62 billion acquisition of Shire Plc, Bloomberg News reported. Moody’s cut Takeda’s credit rating three notches to Baa2 from A2, according to a statement Monday. That’s still investment grade, and Moody’s said the outlook is stable based on expectations that Takeda will reduce its leverage through cost synergies and growth from key products.
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India’s state-run banks sought an easing of rules related to bad loan recognition in a meeting with newly-appointed central bank Governor Shaktikanta Das, people familiar with the matter said. The heads of seven banks also asked for a liquidity boost for the financial system to help non-bank financiers tide over a cash crunch, the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private, Bloomberg News reported. An easing of lending curbs on 11 weak state-run lenders was also discussed, they said. Regulations have limited banks’ ability to extend credit.

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A deluge of misfortunes has left China’s equity investors with their biggest losses in years, wherever you look. Stung by everything from a national vaccine scandal to a decline in consumer spending, the Trump administration’s crackdown on Chinese tech and Beijing’s tightening grip on education, gaming and drugs, the country’s stock market has lost $2.1 trillion in value in 2018, Bloomberg News reported.

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Default risk for Chinese companies has climbed to the highest in 13 years as Beijing seeks to rein in its post-crisis construction boom, according to Moody’s Analytics. The research group’s measure of expected default frequency has risen above early-warning levels for about 25 percent of corporate borrowers, Bloomberg News reported. Moody’s Analytics, a separate entity from the ratings agency, uses the gauge to isolate companies and sectors that merit further investigation for financial distress.

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Mutual funds in India can separate distressed and illiquid assets in their portfolios to deal with any potential credit crisis, the market regulator said on Wednesday. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was in talks with the industry to allay fears of contagion effect on mutual funds due to a liquidity crisis faced by the country’s non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), its chief had said last week, Reuters reported.

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Jaypee group’s homebuyers on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking modification of its August order which remanded the insolvency case against Jaypee Infratech (JIL) to the National Company Law Tribunal’s Allahabad bench to be started afresh. The homebuyers want the apex court to declare them “secured financial creditors” on a par with banks, the Financial Express reported. A bench led by Justice Madan B Lokur said it would come up for hearing before an appropriate bench.

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The Turkish economy slowed sharply this fall and looks set to contract this winter, presenting an immense political challenge for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has overseen a debt-fueled boom that had made Turkey one of the world’s fastest-growing countries, The Wall Street Journal reported. Monday’s figures also present a conundrum for the country’s central bank, which defied Mr. Erdogan by sharply raising rates in September in an attempt to curb runaway inflation.

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Indian stocks are still holding on to gains for the year, but they’re evaporating fast. Exit polls last week from state elections were the latest hit to the market, sending the S&P BSE Sensex Index down as much as 1.8 percent on Monday, the most intraday since Oct. 19, Bloomberg News reported. The results showed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party is set for tight electoral contests in key states before next year’s general election, adding to uncertainties in a market already hurting from fluctuating oil prices and defaults at an infrastructure financier.

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The head of India’s central bank abruptly resigned on Monday in the midst of a bruising battle with the prime minister over the institution’s independence and the future direction of the country’s financial sector, the Financial Times reported. Urjit Patel’s exit comes just days ahead of what was likely to be a contentious meeting of the Reserve Bank of India’s governing board, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demands for looser financial and monetary policies were scheduled for debate.

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