Thomas Cook Group Plc’s crisis deepened as the debt-laden travel group warned of another tough summer and said it will get a 300 million-pound ($385 million) rescue loan only if it makes progress with the sale of its airline, Bloomberg News reported. The stock fell to the lowest since 2012 Thursday and the bonds hit a record low after the world’s second-biggest tour operator posted a 1.1 billion-pound writedown at a U.K. arm hurt by the Brexit saga.
The Commercial Court of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area has postponed a bankruptcy case against UTair airline until June 11, according to court records. In April, the air carrier said that it had cleared off a debt to the Financial Company Flash Light Capital, one of the applicants seeking bankruptcy of UTair, RAPSI recorded. In March, the court consolidated four bankruptcy petitions filed by the Financial Company Flash Light Capital, Hydropromenergostroy, Inter and Yugan-Union card companies against the airline into a single case.
Industrial production in the eurozone fell for the second straight month in March, casting doubt on the sustainability of the economy’s first-quarter pickup, The Wall Street Journal reported. Figures released in late April showed economic growth in the currency area picked up in the three months through March from the three months through December 2018, in line with signs of resilience from other parts of the global economy.
Expectations for Germany’s medium-term economic development worsened in May, surprising analysts who had expected an improved positive reading, as doubts rose over the economy’s resilience amid challenging global politics, the Financial Times reported. The Zew indicator of economic sentiment fell to minus 2.1 points this month, down from 3.1 in the previous month and 7.1 points off analysts' expectations of 5.0 for the month. The indicator’s long-term average is 22.1 points.
Landsec, the UK’s largest listed property company by assets, saw the value of its portfolio shed more than half a billion pounds in the year to March as a crisis in the retail sector took its toll, the Financial Times reported. The company, whose holdings include a stake in the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent, said its assets declined in value by £557m to £13.8bn, led by a 15.5 per cent drop in the value of its retail parks and an 11.7 per cent fall for its shopping centres. The value of the group’s assets had slid by £91m in the previous year. The decline in retail, which makes up
British Steel has asked the government for tens of millions of pounds in emergency funding as the UK’s second-largest steel producer battles to avoid a collapse that would lead to thousands of job losses, the Financial Times reported. The company blamed uncertainty caused by Brexit as it confirmed it was in talks with ministers about “a package of additional support”, which one person briefed on the discussions said was for £70m-£80m.
Sales slid and losses continued at Spain’s DIA in the first three months of the year, the supermarket chain said on Tuesday, as investors awaited the next step in a takeover bid by Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman’s investment fund, Reuters reported. Squeezed by tough competition from domestic and foreign rivals who have invested heavily in their stores, DIA has failed to stem a haemorrhage of market share it built up by discounting during a prolonged recession.
Croatia’s ailing shipyard in the northern Adriatic city of Pula was placed into bankruptcy by a commercial court on Monday after an almost year-long effort to keep it afloat, Reuters reported. The shipyard belongs to Uljanik, Croatia’s largest shipbuilding group, which also owns another troubled dock in the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka. A decision on the shipyard in Rijeka is scheduled for June 5. The Pula shipyard has an outstanding debt of 164.8 million kuna ($25 million). Local media reported that it has 1,118 workers left who will now lose their jobs.
Deutsche Bank has received a much-needed boost after initial trading of a new financial product made it significantly cheaper to hedge against doing business with the under-fire German bank, the Financial Times reported. The cost of buying the new credit default swaps — derivatives that pay out if a company defaults on its bonds — has halved compared with the previous benchmark. This is important because Deutsche has been struggling with spiralling funding and transaction costs as investors have worried about dwindling investment bank revenues and low profitability.
The High Court of England and Wales has recognized Singapore’s new moratorium law for companies unable to pay their creditors, Vantage Asia reported. The ruling is positive for debt workouts across different jurisdictions and a boost to the city-state’s ambition to become Asia’s debt restructuring hub.
