Headlines
Resources Per Region
Britain proposed weakening the market grip of “Big Four” auditors on Thursday and making company directors responsible for spotting fraud after the collapses of retailer BHS and builder Carillion, Reuters reported. Directors would have to repay bonuses if their company went bust or serious failings came to light, and dividends and bonuses would have to be stopped if firms didn’t have enough cash - a lesson from the Carillion collapse.
Read more
Japan's central bank is poised to carry out monetary policy adjustments designed to increase its flexibility and make life easier for financial institutions, sources told Nikkei. During its two-day policy meeting from Thursday, the Bank of Japan will be looking at measures that would allow long-term interest rates to move in a slightly larger range of about 0.25%, plus or minus, versus 0.2% now. The idea is to maintain low interest rates while encouraging the market to function normally, giving financial institutions a chance to increase revenue.
Read more
Unemployment in Africa’s largest economy surged to the second highest on a global list of countries monitored by Bloomberg. The jobless rate in Nigeria rose to 33.3% in the three months through December, according to a report published by National Bureau of Statistics on its website Monday. That’s up from 27.1% in the second quarter of 2020, the last period for which the agency released labor-force statistics.
Read more
The European Central Bank may need some time before the recently agreed acceleration in the pace of money printing, part of its efforts to cushion the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, becomes apparent, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Investors have been scrutinising the ECB’s weekly purchase data for evidence of the central bank’s effort to stem a rise in borrowing costs on bond markets, largely driven by higher inflation expectations in the United States.
Read more
Spain’s largest hotel chain Melia Hotels has filed a complaint against the government with an administrative court seeking 116 million euros ($138 million) in damages incurred due to last year’s COVID-19 restrictions, the company said, Reuters reported. A spokeswoman for the group said on Wednesday the claim was related to losses suffered as a result of the government-imposed lockdown between mid-March and late June of 2020, confirming a report by the newspaper Expansion.
Malaysia’s high court on Wednesday granted a restraining order for three months on 15 of AirAsia X Bhd.’s creditors over the debt recast talks for the airline, Bloomberg News reported. The order, applied for by AirAsia X to address its obligations in a timely manner, gives the creditors an opportunity for amicable discussions without “extraneous considerations,” according to an exchange filing.
Read more
Avianca Holdings SA plans to add dozens of routes using smaller aircraft as it plots its emergence from bankruptcy later this year, the airline’s chief executive said, Bloomberg News reported. Colombia’s largest carrier is expanding with 50 direct routes between secondary cities in coming years, said CEO Anko van der Werff in an interview. Using narrow-body planes, it will target tourist spots such as Punta Cana, Cartagena and Cancun, offering a new level of cheaper fares to capture demand for leisure travel that’s leading a rebound after the pandemic crippled the airline business.
Read more
The fall in French corporate insolvencies during the coronavirus pandemic reflects extensive government support that has masked disparate performances among SMEs, as has the stability of corporates’ aggregate net debt, according to a Fitch Ratings report. Fitch expects arrears and defaults among SMEs to increase as support is withdrawn and this is reflected in the firm's French SME CLO performance expectations, which already incorporate pandemic-related stresses.
Read more
Bond investors bracing for Czech rate hikes are finding a silver lining in the latest bond selloff, Bloomberg News reported. Primary dealers bid for more than 30 billion koruna ($1.37 billion) of Czech government bonds due in 2030 at an auction on Wednesday, the highest demand for a note with about 10 years in maturity since May. The rush reflects the juicy yield premium that the battered securities now offer over equivalent German bunds.
Pakistan has hired banks for a possible foreign-currency bond offering, Bloomberg News reported. The government has mandated Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse Group AG, Standard Chartered Plc and Emirates NBD Bank PJSC. The South Asian nation is looking to raise funds after reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund on resumption of a $6 billion bailout program that was secured in 2019 to avoid bankruptcy. Pakistan is also separately planning to issue a $500 million green note in the next few months to help boost its development of hydroelectric power.
Read more