Rich countries’ governments borrowed $18 trillion from bond markets in 2020—more than ever before—but their borrowing costs hit a record low, due to a big rise in bond purchases by central banks, as well as a lack of concern about public debt levels among private investors, the Wall Street Journal reported. The jump in government bond sales during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic was almost twice that recorded when the global financial crisis struck, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development research body.
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Resources Per Country
- Albania
- Austria
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guernsey
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Italy
- Jersey
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
Britain will resist “very firmly” any European Union attempts to arm-twist banks into shifting trillions of euros in derivatives clearing from Britain to the bloc after Brexit, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Europe’s top banks have been asked by the European Commission to justify why they should not have to shift clearing of euro-denominated derivatives from London to the EU, a document seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed.
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Ferry operator Moby SpA is suing a number of bondholders including Sound Point Capital Management in a New York court, alleging they made unlawful attempts to take control of the firm in a debt dispute, Reuters reported. Moby, which runs routes between the Italian mainland and islands such as Sardinia, says a bondholder group which also includes BlueBay Asset Management, and Cheyne Capital Management, attempted an “egregious tortious interference” to “unlawfully” take control of the company, according to documents filed on February 22. It’s now seeking damages from the funds.
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London-based crypto custody and settlements infrastructure provider Koine has gone into insolvency, CoinDesk.com reported. Koine, whose clients included Bitfinex and brokerage GCEX, was helmed by CEO and chairman Hugh Hughes, the former CEO of Societe Generale Securities. Koine had investment commitments with two parties that were due to provide a total of around £15 million (US$21.2 million) at the end of January, Koine co-founder Phil Mochan told CoinDesk via email. “One of those parties was unable to complete on schedule and so the other party pulled out,” Mochan said.
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Gas-station and convenience-store operator EG Group, owned by British brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa, is readying another massive debt sale, this time to fund its purchase of the remaining assets of U.K grocer Asda, Bloomberg News reported. EG Group approached investors this week to test appetite for the equivalent of 1.5 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) of high-yield bonds and leveraged loans. The deal, which will be led by Barclays Bank Plc, is expected to launch as soon as this week following EG’s earnings results due Thursday.
Boeing is not engaging with Norwegian Air’s restructuring proceedings in Ireland or Norway, a lawyer for Norwegian said on Wednesday, a decision that may complicate the airline’s efforts to recover from the brink of collapse, Reuters reported. Norwegian was given protection from bankruptcy in both Norway and Ireland, where most of its assets are registered, late last year and is aiming to emerge from the process with fewer aircraft and less debt. Boeing “to date hasn’t engaged in the examinership process, or the Norwegian reconstruction ...
Member countries of the World Trade Organization are aiming to resurrect a dormant system for resolving trade disputes that has been a point of friction between the U.S. and other nations, the Wall Street Journal reported. The WTO’s Appellate Body, the apex of the Geneva-based group’s dispute-settlement system, has been effectively shut down since 2019 after the Trump administration blocked the appointment of new judges. U.S. complaints about the system, which predate the Trump presidency, center on Appellate Body rulings against tariffs and other remedies, limiting what U.S.
Serbia's Bankruptcy Supervision Agency said it is offering for sale insolvent confectionery producer Dunja at an auction on March 30, SeeNews.com reported. The starting price is set at 187.9 million dinars ($1.9 million/1.6 million euro), the Bankruptcy Supervision Agency said in a notice on Tuesday. A deposit of 75.2 million dinars which should be paid by March 23 is required in order to participate in the auction. Dunja owns the Simka chocolate factory in Vranje. The factory, which covers an area of 5,284 sq m, was established in 1997.
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Renewable energy group Abengoa SA filed for insolvency late on Monday, after its latest attempt to restructure its debts fell apart, Bloomberg News reported. The parent company of the renewable-energy producer, which is the entity that filed for insolvency, had around 1 billion euros ($1.22 billion) of liabilities in 2019. The group as a whole had 7.9 billion euros in liabilities as of March 31, according to its latest earnings statement.
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Unemployment in the UK edged higher to 5.1% in December as the government’s furlough scheme continued to prevent a steep rise in job losses in the run-up to Christmas, The Guardian reported. With much of the economy still in enforced hibernation, the unemployment rate in the three months to December increased from 5% in November and was up by 1.5 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.
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