Headlines

Astorg, a private equity firm that manages €22 billion ($24 billion) in assets, is working with Evercore Inc. to explore various financing options as the company prepares for a generational change among its leadership, Bloomberg News reported. The Paris-based firm is assessing funding options, including scenarios that combine debt and equity, it said in an emailed statement Friday. Astorg said an outright sale isn’t being considered.

Peru’s struggling state-owned oil company is asking the government to convert some of its loans into equity and push back deadlines to avoid running out of cash this year, Bloomberg News reported. Petroleos del Peru SA has been navigating a worsening liquidity crisis for years, tied to the construction of a brand new refinery that came in over budget and was repeatedly delayed. “We have to push back the deadlines of previous debts with the government, that’s what will help us afford operating until the end of the year,” Oliver Stark, Petroperu’s new chairman, told Bloomberg in an interview.

The U.K. economy grew a little more than expected in the year’s first quarter, offering a minor boon to the ruling Conservatives’ struggling campaign ahead of parliamentary elections next week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product expanded 0.7% between January and March compared with the previous quarter, according to updated figures released Friday by the Office for National Statistics. Previous estimates had recorded a 0.6% increase on the quarter. On an annualized basis, GDP grew 2.9%, similarly outstripping previous estimates.

The International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the US is running deficits that are too big and is weighed down by too much debt, and it warned of dangers from increasingly aggressive trade policies, Bloomberg News reported. While calling the world’s largest economy “robust, dynamic and adaptable,” the fund leveled unusually harsh criticism toward the US, its biggest shareholder. It also slightly downgraded its estimate for growth this year to 2.6%, down 0.1 percentage point from its April forecast.

Brazilian power company Equatorial Energia SA emerged as the sole bidder to buy a key stake in Sabesp, the water utility that’s being privatized by Sao Paulo state in a multibillion-dollar share offering, Bloomberg News reported. Equatorial submitted a proposal by Wednesday’s deadline to buy a 15% stake in Cia. de Saneamento Basico do Estado de Sao Paulo, as the Brazil company is formally known, according to people with knowledge of the matter. A rival bid from a private utility backed by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Itausa SA, failed to materialize.

The Turkish central bank kept rates on hold for a third meeting straight, setting its stall on lower inflation in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported. The bank’s policy committee said Thursday that it would leave its benchmark one-week repo rate at 50.00%, a decision widely expected by economists. The bank last year embarked on a succession of rate-hikes, marking a divergence from a previous policy—encouraged by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—of keeping rates low despite rapid price inflation in the Anatolian republic.

The International Monetary Fund cut its growth forecast for Ukraine, as Russian strikes on its power infrastructure drag on the nation’s economy, and said talks with bondholders are “intensifying” as a repayment deadline nears, Bloomberg News reported. That outlook came alongside the Washington-based lender’s final approval Friday to release $2.2 billion from Ukraine’s $15.6 billion aid package, an expected step after agreeing to terms late last month. This is the fifth tranche Ukraine has received under the program since it was established in 2023.

Mexico kept borrowing costs unchanged near a record high Thursday, as the combination of still rising consumer prices and peso volatility sidelined the central bank for a second straight meeting, Bloomberg News reported. Banxico, as the central bank is known, held the key rate at 11% in a decision that had been forecast by 25 of 27 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. It was a split decision, with deputy Governor Omar Mejia voting for a quarter-point cut with the other four members of the board voting in favor of the hold.

Argentine President Javier Milei’s administration embarked on what it called the second phase of its economic plan Friday by announcing that it will swap out notes held at the central bank for new Treasury debt that it’s still negotiating the terms of with private banks, Bloomberg News reported. Monetary authorities will phase out its one-day repo notes that currently pay an interest rate of 40% and served as the institution’s policy instrument.

Miguel Gutierrez, the former chief executive officer of Americanas SA, was detained early Friday in Madrid as part of an investigation into a massive accounting fraud at the Brazilian retailer, Bloomberg News reported. Brazil’s federal police confirmed the detention of the “main target” of its operation in Spain early Friday, identifying him only as the former CEO of Americanas, adding that Interpol carried out the arrest. The detention comes a day after police carried out arrest and search warrants in Rio de Janeiro as part of its biggest operation yet into the case.