A 200 basis-point increase in interest rates could spark a sharp rise in the proportion of emerging market corporate debt issues at risk of default, with Brazilian and Indian firms most vulnerable, a report from McKinsey Global Institute showed. Following a decade of loose monetary policy and historically low interest rates aimed at boosting economic growth after the 2008-9 financial crisis, global central banks including the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are either raising interest rates or signalling an end to accommodative policies, Reuters reported.

China’s top leaders have agreed to help debt-laden conglomerate HNA Group Co raise funds, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. A senior official at the People's Bank of China, on Tuesday, led a meeting with three regulators, the Hainan provincial government, HNA's co-chairman Chen Feng and the company's biggest creditor, asking the attendees to support HNA's future bond issues, Reuters reported on a Bloomberg News story.

Bankrupt Adhunik Metaliks has received an additional 20 days to complete the ongoing insolvency resolution process, the Financial Express reported. The Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Friday ordered exclusion of 20 days from the mandated 270-day deadline under the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) for the company, the flagship of the Adhunik Group.

MK Shrawat, a judicial member of the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai bench has permitted a promoter of an insolvent company to do what the amended Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 explicitly disallows, Bloomberg Quint reported. Were his ruling to apply widely, the Ruias could bid for Essar Steel Ltd., Singhals for Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd., and Manoj Gaur would be eligible to submit a resolution plan for his family-owned Jaypee Infratech Ltd.. Section 29A of the IBC specifically bars such promoters from bidding for their companies.

Engineering and construction firm Punj Lloyd today expressed hope that the insolvency plea against the company by ICICI Bank would not be admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), The Economic Times reported. According to the company, 90 per cent of its lenders are supporting a resolution plan under the leadership of the State Bank of India for restructuring the outstanding debts of the company.

China’s government has been trying to break the country’s addiction to ever-rising debt, but its effort to crack down on easy money is starting to hit growth in the world’s second-biggest economy, the International New York Times reported. Beijing has been concerned in recent years about the increased reliance on credit to keep the economy expanding briskly, worrying that it could lead to a financial crisis, or to a long period of stagnation like the one in Japan after the real estate market burst in the early 1990s.

Germany’s ThyssenKrupp, under increasing pressure from the activist hedge fund Elliott Management, is scrambling to renegotiate the terms of a proposed European merger with Tata Steel, according to people familiar with talks between the companies. The industrial group and its Indian rival are in the final stages of creating a steelmaking powerhouse with revenues of €15bn that would be Europe’s second-largest producer of the metal, behind ArcelorMittal, the Financial Times reported.

Before it led a buyout deal for one of Li Ka-shing’s Hong Kong skyscrapers last year, few had heard of China Energy Reserve & Chemicals Group Co. Now it’s getting famous for the wrong reasons, roiling the $1 trillion Asian dollar-bond market with a default, Bloomberg News reported. China Energy blamed the delinquency on about $2 billion of notes on a “tightening in credit conditions” that most other borrowers have so far weathered while making their payments.

As Angola seeks to attract foreign investors to help diversify its oil-dependent economy, the country’s biggest trading partner, China, looks set to take a leading role, but the considerable leverage it is able to wield may leave Africa’s third-largest economy short-changed, the Financial Times reported. With Angola heavily indebted to China, Beijing may drive some hard bargains, as has happened in south Asian countries deeply in hock to the Chinese.

Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk, which is battling a shareholder attempt to remove its board, has agreed to provide a last minute bridge loan to a Hong Kong iron ore company in which it owns a 31 per cent stake, the Financial Times reported. The London-listed company said it would provide $29.75m to IRC to enable it to meet a June payment on a loan to ICBC, which was used to fund a mine near the border of China. Petropavlovsk also said it is in “advanced” talks with a major Russian bank to refinance the entire $340m project loan.