France

Altice France’s creditors are demanding the return of shuffled assets and a say in future board appointments as part of negotiations with the company over its €23.7 billion ($24.4 billion) debt pile, Bloomberg Law reported. A group of secured creditors in talks with the distressed telecommunications firm is seeking a return of assets to an entity within their reach and the right to appoint independent directors to the company’s board.

Any moves to pursue financial deregulation by the incoming U.S. administration would increase the risk of a financial crisis occurring one day, France's central bank governor warned on Wednesday, Reuters reported. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's return to office has raised the prospect of radical changes to the U.S. regulatory framework built up over decades to oversee financial services and banking, as well as digital currencies.

French factory production recovered a little toward the end of last year in a glimpse of optimism for the beleaguered sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. Manufacturing output rose 0.2% on month in November, figures from French statistics agency Insee showed Friday. That came against expectations for a third-straight month of decline in production, according to economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal.

Atos said that it completed its financial restructuring, resulting in a more sustainable capital structure and much-needed liquidity for the beleaguered group, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The French IT company on Thursday said that the implementation of the transactions in its safeguard plan reduced its gross debt by 2.1 billion euros ($2.17 billion). It now has 1.6 billion euros in new money debt and around 145 million euros of new money equity from a rights issue and an additional reserved capital increase.

Private-sector business activity in France shrank for a fourth month as the fall of the government over a budget dispute sapped confidence, Bloomberg News reported. S&P Global’s Composite Purchasing Managers Index came in at 46.7 in December, staying below the 50 threshold separating expansion from contraction. Still, it’s an improvement from last month and also a bit better than the median estimate among analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Manufacturing and services also stayed in contractionary territory, though the latter exceeded expectations.

Altice France and a group of secured creditors remain at odds over the terms of a deal to cut the company’s €23.7 billion ($24.9 billion) debt pile, including how much equity billionaire owner Patrick Drahi should give up, Bloomberg News reported. The embattled French telecommunications company sent its latest proposal to lenders last week. The size of the equity stake was among points taken issue with by creditors, who had previously also disagreed over the cost of the reinstated debt and the haircut they would have to take, according to company disclosures last month.

France has a debt problem, but the European Union in aggregate does not. French lawmakers last week ousted a prime minister for the first time in more than a half-century, the Wall Street Journal reported. Central to the paralysis that has gripped French politics is the government’s rising debt, which the ousted prime minister was proposing to tame through a combination of tax rises and spending cuts. It would seem like an unusual time for investment manager Pimco to declare its preference for European over U.S. government bonds.

The French government offered to buy Atos SE’s advanced computing assets for as much as €625 million ($653 million) after an earlier offer from the state expired, Bloomberg News reported. The non-binding bid gives the business an enterprise value of €500 million and may include additional payments based on future earnings, the company said in a statement on Monday. The offer, which expires in May, includes Atos’s artificial intelligence business as well as its supercomputers, which are used by researchers, the nuclear power industry and the military.

The sports equipment manufacturer Le Coq Sportif has been placed under judicial restructuring proceedings by the Paris Commercial Court, FashionUnited.uk reported. "Le Coq Sportif is relying on this procedure to respond to the challenges facing the brand while protecting its 330 employees and hundreds of indirect jobs," parent company Airesis said on Friday. The troubled company said in October that it was looking for "financing solutions".

Altice France and a group of secured creditors ended their first round of discussions without reaching a deal over how to restructure the company’s €24.4 billion ($25.7 billion) pile of debt, according to a statement on Thursday, Bloomberg News reported. The discussions between the embattled French telecommunications firm and the steering committee of its secured lenders were about finding ways to cut the company’s leverage.