Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal is revisiting a plan to set up a steel plant in the mineral-rich eastern Indian state of Odisha with an investment of $6.9 billion, after abandoning an earlier attempt to build a mill in the province, Bloomberg News reported. ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Ltd. has signed an accord to build a steel plant in the state with an investment of 500 billion rupees ($6.9 billion), Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s office said in a Twitter post. Federal Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Twitter earlier this week that he had “good conversations” with Mittal.
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Resources Per Country
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- Cook Islands
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- New Zealand
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- Papua New Guinea
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Thailand’s finance ministry, the largest shareholder of Thai Airways International Pcl, signaled its support for a restructuring plan that includes raising fresh capital, a temporary freeze on repayment of borrowings and slashing its workforce by half to return the debt-ridden airline to profit, Bloomberg News reported. The key elements of the debt rehabilitation plan are “quite acceptable,” Pantip Sripimol, director general of the State Enterprise Policy Office under the finance ministry, said Wednesday.
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Provisions of the Indian insolvency law that protect a corporate debtor from other proceedings will also cover dishonoured cheques, the supreme court ruled, taking a view contrary to two earlier high court verdicts, Bloomberg Quint reported. Moratorium allowed under Section 14 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code will apply to proceedings under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act used to recover an amount for a bounce cheque, the top court ruled. The top court, however, said the protection will be available only to the corporate debtor and not its management personnel.
Lex Greensill’s ambitious plan to transform his arcane trade-finance business into a global lending force is rapidly falling apart, Bloomberg News reported. From Credit Suisse Group AG to SoftBank Group Corp., Greensill’s most ardent supporters have signaled doubts about the loans made by his supply-chain finance business, upending his multi-billion dollar empire. Greensill Capital, which as recently as last year was seeking a valuation of $7 billion and planning to eventually go public, is now discussing options including insolvency.
Asian nations led the world in crushing Covid-19 in 2020. Now some are being hamstrung by border closures and other rules they imposed to stay safe, potentially putting them behind the U.S. and other countries in leading the global economic recovery, the Wall Street Journal reported. Countries such as China, Thailand and Australia virtually halted the coronavirus within their borders by shutting off entry to most outsiders and aggressively quashing infections that slipped in.
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Thai Airways International Pcl is seeking a capital infusion of as much as 50 billion baht ($1.65 billion) under a debt restructuring plan set to be submitted to a bankruptcy court to keep the flag carrier operational, Bloomberg News reported. The fund may be raised through equity, loans or convertible securities, said sources, who asked to not be identified before the debt plan is submitted to the court in Bangkok on Tuesday. The capital infusion plan will need to be backed by the airline’s hundreds of credit-holders and approved by the court, they said.
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About one third of the roughly 150 ships owned by companies controlled by Singapore tycoon Lim Oon Kuin and his family have been sold as part of efforts to repay billions of dollars of debt owed to creditors, Reuters reported. Accounting firm Grant Thornton, court-appointed supervisor of Xihe Holdings, put up several vessels for sale through shipbrokers in September last year. Xihe Holdings is owned by the Lim family and held the bulk of their fleet.
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After plunging into one of the worst recessions of any major economy, India is showing signs of a modest comeback, the New York Times reported. But that recovery is uneven, and the country is still struggling to find ways to sustain growth. Its service sector is vulnerable, and the vast informal economy — which employs farmhands, day laborers, rickshaw drivers and many millions of others — remains weak as well.
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Central banks from Asia to Europe escalated their efforts to calm panicking markets, pledging to buy more bonds and signaling more policy accommodation, after U.S. Treasury yields surged to the highest level in a year, Bloomberg News reported. The Reserve Bank of Australia waded in with more than $2 billion of unscheduled purchases, while Korea announced buying plans for the next few months. European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said more stimulus could be added if the surge in yields hurts growth.
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China is set to reduce local government bond sales and rein in its budget deficit this year, scaling back the pandemic stimulus measures that fueled debt while helping the economy recover, Bloomberg News reported. The government is likely to reduce its quota for special local bonds -- mostly used for infrastructure spending -- to 3.5 trillion yuan ($541 billion) from 3.75 trillion yuan last year, according to the median estimate of 10 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The fiscal deficit target is forecast to be cut to 3% of gross domestic product from 3.6% in 2020.