Hong Kong-based private-equity firm Baring Private Equity Asia has agreed to invest roughly half a billion dollars in Pioneer Corp., likely becoming the controlling shareholder, in another example of overseas investors taking a role in restructuring venerable Japanese brands, The Wall Street Journal reported. Pioneer, a struggling maker of car audio and navigation equipment, is trying to compete in the quickly changing market for internet-connected vehicles with autonomous-driving functions. In June, a group led by U.S.
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Resources Per Country
- Afghanistan
- Armenia
- Australia
- Azerbaijan
- Bangladesh
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- Cook Islands
- Cyprus
- Fiji
- Georgia
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Micronesia
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- New Zealand
- North Korea
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vietnam
It is said that generals often plan to fight the last war. Ten years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, many experts fear a new financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. In fact, the global financial system is much more robust than before 2008, but the global economy is still threatened by excessive debt. The financial crisis began because of dangerous features within the financial system itself. Massively leveraged investment banks engaged in socially useless trading of huge volumes of complex credit securities and derivatives.
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ArcelorMittal shares fell more than 2 percent on Tuesday after the world’s largest steelmaker said it had raised its offer for India’s Essar Steel , prompting concerns that it was overpaying, Reuters reported. ArcelorMittal is forming a joint venture with Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp to bid for Essar in competition with bids from Russian lender VTB and Vedanta Resources. It said on Monday that it had submitted a revised proposal representing a “material increase” on its two previous offers.
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China’s policy makers are stuck with the most bearish equity market in years as their attempts to lift sentiment fail to gain traction, Reuters reported. The Shanghai Composite Index slid Wednesday to within 10 points of its lowest intraday level since 2014, ignoring an article in the Securities Daily expressing support for the market and suggesting value investors should start buying. The benchmark made a brief upward foray mid-morning and then retreated. It was down 0.3 percent as of 11:05 a.m.
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Australia’s Wiggins Island Coal Export Terminal obtained court approval on Tuesday for a $3.2 billion debt refinancing plan, offering respite to its owners who would have had to start repayments this month, Reuters reported. The Queensland-based terminal, known as WICET, is 40 percent owned by miner and commodities trader Glencore and was built to service a consortium of eight coal companies during a period of high commodity prices. It will now have the maturity of $2.6 billion in senior debt extended from this month until September 2026, court documents showed.
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With the Turkish lira having fallen more than 40% against the U.S. currency this year, Ercan Eskikoy needs every dollar he can find to keep his business selling imported photo equipment afloat. Yet, last week, he tapped $1,100 from his savings and swapped them into lira—his patriotic response to calls by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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As a growing number of emerging markets teeter on the brink of crisis, we’re hearing more and more about “original sin.” No, this isn’t about Adam and Eve’s transgressions. The concept, coined by economists Barry Eichengreen and Ricardo Hausmann, refers to the inability of most nations — and their corporations — to borrow abroad in their own currency, a Bloomberg View reported. Instead, they necessarily borrow in other currencies. Turkey, for example, has accumulated significant debts denominated in dollars.
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Second-round bids put in by Russia's VTB Group-backed Numetal Ltd, ArcelorMittal and Vedanta will be opened on Monday, people with direct knowledge of the development said. The Resolution Professional, overseeing the auction of Essar Steel to recover over Rs 49,000 crore of unpaid loans, sent emails to all the three bidders to be present on Monday for the opening of the second round of bids, they said. This follows an NCLAT judgement last week on the eligibility of bids.
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Indian lenders haven’t yet been able to restructure 12 stressed loan accounts in the power sector, people with knowledge of the discussions said, underscoring the risk that these may be referred to bankruptcy courts after $52 billion of debt came under scrutiny following a central bank directive, Bloomberg News reported. It was thought that a resolution was possible in seven of these assets, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Under a central bank directive in February, lenders had until Aug.
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A rare default in India’s corporate debt market may prompt households to scrutinize the fine print on money-market funds, which have grown in popularity over lower-yielding bank savings accounts as inflation concerns spread, Bloomberg News reported. IL&FS Financial Services, a unit of a infrastructure finance firm that helped fund India’s longest tunnel, last month missed a payment on its short-term borrowings, according to a filing.
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