Headlines

British supermarket group Morrisons has rejected a proposed 5.52 billion pound ($7.62 billion) cash offer from U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), saying that it is far too low, Reuters reported. Britain's fourth largest grocer by sales after Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda, said it received the "unsolicited, highly conditional non-binding" proposal of 230 pence a share on Monday. The board of Bradford, northern England-based Morrisons rejected the proposal on Thursday.

The International Monetary Fund privately estimates that a deal allowing Argentina to reschedule payments on $45 billion owed to the lender will be pushed into 2022 as President Alberto Fernandez has little incentive to quickly agree on the basis of a new program, Bloomberg News reported.

President Joe Biden’s administration rejected Nicolas Maduro’s call for relief from U.S. sanctions, saying the Venezuelan leader needs to do more toward restoring democracy before penalties would be lifted, Bloomberg News reported. Maduro, a target of crippling U.S. sanctions under former President Donald Trump, reached out to Biden in an exclusive Bloomberg interview last week, calling on him to lift sanctions, normalize relations and end the “demonization of Venezuela.” Responding to Maduro’s comments, a State Department spokesman said a U.S.

European Central Bank policymakers meeting this weekend made “good progress” in reshaping the ECB’sstrategic goals, including the role it plays in fighting climate change and a revised approach to inflation, President Christine Lagarde said yesterday, Reuters reported. The 25 members of the ECB's Governing Council gathered in a hotel near Frankfurt to add impetus to the bank's first review of its approach to monetary policy in nearly two decades, which it aims to conclude in the second half of the year.

An Egyptian court on Sunday adjourned until July 4 the case of a hulking cargo vessel that blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week earlier this year, the Associated Press reported. The decision came after both legal teams of the Suez Canal and the vessel’s owners asked for more time for negotiations that aim at resolving their financial dispute. The dispute centers on the compensation amount the Suez Canal Authority is claiming for the salvage of the vessel Ever Given, which ran aground in March, blocking the crucial waterway for six days.

With fiscal spending booming and households flush with cash, investors are betting that the Bank of Canada's next tightening cycle, expected to begin in 2022, will result in interest rates climbing above the previous peak for the first time in decades, Reuters reported. In four major tightening cycles since the early 1990s, the Bank of Canada's key interest rate has peaked at a level that was lower than the preceding endpoint.

A group of creditors that bought Etihad Airways PJSC-linked bonds are preparing to auction $463 million of claims against insolvent airlines Alitalia and Air Berlin to recover some of their investment, Bloomberg News reported. The trustee of bonds issued by EA Partners I and II -- two special purpose entities set up by the Abu Dhabi-based carrier -- hired Barclays Bank Plc to arrange the sale, according to a statement. Potential buyers will be able to access documentation on June 21 and the auction will take place within two weeks, it said.

Philippine Airlines Inc.’s parent company posted a record loss last year, reflecting the “extraordinary” impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the carrier, Bloomberg News reported. PAL Holdings Inc. reported a 71.8 billion pesos ($1.48 billion) loss in calender 2020, compared to a 10.3 billion peso shortfall the year before, the company said in a stock exchange filing Thursday. In the first quarter of this year, its loss narrowed to 8.6 billion pesos from 9.4 billion pesos a year earlier.

Troubled flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia put off the payment on its Islamic debt once again, highlighting its financing crunch as the firm tries to avoid bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The Southeast Asian airline, struggling as the pandemic depresses air travel worldwide, said it “will continue to defer the periodic distribution amount due June 3,” in a filing to the Singapore stock exchange on Thursday. The state-owned company missed the distribution payment on a $500 million sukuk on June 3, and a 14-day grace period ended on Thursday.

EAGLE Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (EH-Reit), which is part of Singapore-based Eagle Hospitality Trust (EHT), has received net proceeds of about U.S. $153.9 million following the sale of five chapter 11 properties, the Singapore Business Times reported. The net proceeds have been partially used to repay the debtor-in-possession facility and the stalking horse "break up" fee, EH-Reit trustee DBS Trustee said in a bourse filing on Thursday. The balance remaining is around $109.7 million, which will go to repaying ongoing post-petition expenses and pre-petition creditors.