Headlines

The U.S. government is preparing to downgrade Mexico's aviation safety rating, a move that would bar Mexican carriers from adding new U.S. flights and limit airlines' ability to carry out marketing agreements, Reuters reported. The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) planned move is expected be announced in the coming days and follows a lengthy review of Mexico's aviation oversight by the agency. One airline industry source said the FAA's concerns did not involve flight safety issues but rather Mexico's oversight of air carriers.

Even by the standards of a record-breaking global credit binge, China’s corporate bond tab stands out: $1.3 trillion of domestic debt payable in the next 12 months, Bloomberg News reported. That’s 30% more than what U.S. companies owe, 63% more than in all of Europe and enough money to buy Tesla Inc. twice over. What’s more, it’s all coming due at a time when Chinese borrowers are defaulting on onshore debt at an unprecedented pace. The combination has investors bracing for another turbulent stretch for the world’s second-largest credit market.

Financially troubled insurers will be offered more flexibility and clarity on the process of writing down debts to avoid insolvency, under HM Treasury proposals, Insurance Insider reported. The proposed reforms are set out in a consultation now open that would change the existing insolvency arrangements for insurers operating outside the Lloyd’s market. The changes aim to provide greater clarity on the process of writing down debts owed by carriers, to cut costs for the industry and offer greater protection to policyholders.

Britain’s main opposition Labour Party said it will push for a vote in parliament on Monday over support for U.S. plans to introduce a global minimum corporation tax rate, Reuters reported. The U.S. Treasury Department earlier this week said that it would accept a floor of at least 15% during international negotiations, a rate significantly below its proposed 21% minimum for U.S. multinational firms.

India’s Oyo Hotels is looking to raise $600 million in debt to bolster its finances after a fresh coronavirus surge decimated travel demand and hurt the company’s recovery effort, Bloomberg News reported. The board of Oyo, or Oravel Stays Pvt as the parent company is officially called, approved a plan for an institutional term loan at meetings over Wednesday and Thursday. Oyo is one of the larger startups in Softbank Group Corp.’s portfolio and its headlong global expansion was backed and fostered by the investor’s billionaire founder, Masayoshi Son.

One of Germany’s wealthiest families is selling down the last major investment of Heinz Hermann Thiele, three months after the billionaire patriarch’s death, Bloomberg News reported. The Thiele family’s KB Holding GmbH sold more than half its stake in Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe’s biggest airline, disposing of 33 million shares at a 9.80 euros each. While that’s a 9.8% discount to the stock’s closing price the previous day, the heirs likely broke even on the transaction given the original purchase price.

Qantas Airways Ltd. and Singapore Airlines Ltd. are traveling in opposite directions when it comes to the coronavirus crisis, with the former emerging strongly thanks to its buoyant home market and the latter mired in trouble with record losses as it can barely fly anywhere, Bloomberg News reported. While not out of the woods just yet, Qantas said Thursday it expects revenue from routes within Australia to almost double in the six months through June from the second half of last year.

European Union antitrust regulators fined UBS, UniCredit and Nomura 371 million euros ($452 million) on Thursday in connection with a European government bond trading cartel, Reuters reported. The penalties are the latest to punish the financial industry for alleged involvement in foreign exchange cartels, Euribor and Libor benchmark cartels, and bonds cartels. The three banks said in statements that they would appeal or were considering doing so.

Colombia’s dollar bonds dropped and the peso led losses among emerging-market currencies after S&P Global Ratings cut the country’s credit rating to junk amid a political crisis and mass unrest, Bloomberg News reported. The nation’s dollar-denominated bonds due 2031 dropped 0.4% to 96.7 cents in early New York trading Thursday, sending their spread over U.S. Treasuries up to 1.84 percentage points. The peso weakened 2% to 3,760 per dollar.

Offshore drilling rig contractor Maersk Drilling said on Thursday it saw some signs of market recovery as it reported that orders in the first quarter were at the highest level in more than three years, Reuters reported. The company, which had already on Wednesday lifted its 2021 earnings guidance, said it added $730 million in new contracts in the first quarter, including a $370 million contract awarded by Tullow off Ghana. That was the highest level of new contracts since the fourth quarter of 2017. Maersk Drilling's shares, which have risen 40% this year, rose 2% on Thursday.