In an unexpected move, Standard & Poor’s cut its sovereign debt rating on Turkey further into junk territory on Tuesday, citing widening concern about the outlook for inflation amid a sell-off in the Turkish lira currency, Reuters reported. S&P said the ratings decision, cutting Turkey to “BB-/B” from “BB/B,” was not part of its regularly scheduled reviews, reflecting what it said were growing concerns. “The downgrade reflects our concerns over a deteriorating inflation outlook and the long-term depreciation and volatility of Turkey’s exchange rate,” S&P said in a statement.
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The observations and conclusions in the Essar Steel Ltd. and Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd. insolvency cases are likely to impact the insolvency process considerably, Bloomberg Quint reported. The Delhi and Ahmedabad benches of the National Company Law Tribunal have pointed out lapses in the process carried out by the resolution professionals and the committee of creditors. On those grounds, the NCLT allowed Numetal and ArcelorMittal’s bid to be considered for Essar Steel and Liberty House’s bid for Bhushan Power.
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The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has invited comments from public on the broad range of regulations it has already notified under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), as it seeks to ‘crowdsource’ ideas to further strengthen the ecosystem. The comments from the stakeholders, received between April 30 and December 31, will be processed together and following the due process, regulations will be amended to the extent considered necessary, the IBBI said.
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China is setting up a special court in Shanghai to deal with the complex financial cases that are rising apace with the deepening of the country’s financial system, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Shanghai Financial Court is expected to start operations by the end of August after Chinese lawmakers on Friday gave their approval. The court will merge special financial tribunals in the current Shanghai court system that have handled a spiraling number of finance-related civil cases—179,000 last year, after rising an average of 51% each year since 2013—officials said.
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Lenders to Essar Steel Ltd. have decided to assess bids submitted by Numetal Mauritius and ArcelorMittal India on their individual merit, Bloomberg News reported. The committee of creditors will not challenge an order passed by the National Company Law Tribunal last week, directing them to review bids submitted by the two companies. The CoC decision was taken at the end of deliberations that spanned over two days as lenders assessed the tribunal’s order, three people in the know told BloombergQuint on the condition of anonymity.
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General Motors and South Korea have agreed to inject $4.35 billions into the carmaker’s loss-making local arm to keep it afloat after it came close to seeking bankruptcy protection, Reuters reported. GM has been struggling to turn round the debt-laden unit, which has been hit by GM’s exit from Europe where it used to export many of its cars. GM Korea has announced plans to close one of its four South Korean plants and let go 2,600 workers.
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A Chinese property developer whose owner bought a stake in SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. is piling up overdue loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars, as a government campaign to control debt starts to squeeze China’s property sector, The Wall Street Journal reported. Zhonghong Holding Co. disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday that it defaulted on more than 1.1 billion yuan in borrowings, doubling in the past five weeks a pile of overdue debt that totaled 2.27 billion yuan ($360 million).
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One of Noble Group’s largest shareholders is suing the troubled commodity trader in a last-ditch bid to stop its chairman pushing through a controversial restructuring, the Financial Times reported. Abu Dhabi-based Goldilocks Investment, which took a 8.1 per cent stake in the company last year, said on Wednesday it had filed two lawsuits in Singapore to block Noble from progressing the restructuring — which would see existing shareholders retain just 15 per cent of the company — as well as seeking an injunction against its April 30 annual general meeting.
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HNA Group Co.’s bonds are rebounding as the Chinese conglomerate steps up asset sales. But its debt remains large despite efforts to pay it down, prompting some observers to recommend selling the notes. HNA and its subsidiaries face record bond repayments in the second half. That puts even more of a focus on the group’s total debt, which rose to at least 637.5 billion yuan ($101 billion) by November, as it releases results as soon as this week, Bloomberg News reported.
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How bad would liquidity have to get for one of China’s largest companies to dump about $13 billion in assets in less than four months? Investors may find out and get a sense of whether the disposals are enough when debt-laden HNA Group Co., the once-high-flying conglomerate, releases its results as soon as this week, Bloomberg News reported. The 2017 annual report will provide the most extensive details yet of HNA’s financial distress before it began offloading property from Hong Kong to New York, and selling shares in companies from Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. to Deutsche Bank AG in 2018.
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