Headlines

The European Union set out plans on Wednesday to help banks to jettison soured loans more easily and continue lending to households and business hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. A lesson from the previous financial crisis was that failing to tackle unpaid or so-called non-performing loans (NPLs) left banks unable to keep lending, which is the lifeblood of recovery in a region that relies heavily on banks for corporate funding.

Spanish blue-chips including Telefónica, Iberdrola and Seat are positioning themselves for tens of billions of euros in EU coronavirus aid they hope will transform their industries and benefit their bottom lines, the Financial Times reported. Spain expects to receive some €140bn from the €750bn EU coronavirus recovery fund, which leaders approved last week, making Madrid one of the biggest beneficiaries of the programme, along with countries such as Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal and Romania.

The Commercial Court of Marseilles approved the recovery plan for Bourbon Maritime after an agreement was reached with the creditors, The Maritime Executive reported. The decision completed the reorganization proceedings that began nearly 18 months ago. The company expects to complete the financial and capital restructuring of the group by the end of the year as it continues to overhaul its business. Bourbon’s recovery is based on the continuation and deployment of its strategic action plan.

China’s central bank is striking out on its own with signals of tighter monetary policy, widening a divergence with other large economies that will shape global capital and trade flows next year, Bloomberg News reported. With most of the world’s major nations still battling the pandemic and struggling to recover from deep recessions, China’s economy is on track to grow by about 2% this year and more than 8% in 2021.

Ireland’s EU commissioner Mairead McGuinness has launched a plan to make it easier for banks to sell non-performing loans to third parties in a bid to prevent bad debt dragging on the euro zone economy, The Irish Times reported. It comes amid concerns that the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic could cause loan defaults to double by the end of the crisis as state supports to sectors and employees are withdrawn.

How Irish is Norwegian Air Shuttle? A High Court judge wanted to know last week. Enough to grant protection from creditors, it turned out. A few weeks earlier the Norwegian government was asking the low-cost airline how Norwegian it really was. Not enough to get a second bailout was the government’s conclusion, The Irish Times reported in a commentary. The nationality of a company can often seem unimportant. Businesses are founded in one country, move to a second and can list on the stock exchange in a third, all while their main business could be in a fourth.

Premier Oil will be renamed Harbour Energy Plc after a reverse takeover by private equity-backed Chrysaor due to complete in the first quarter of 2021, Premier said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Struggling to deal with heavy debt after its profits were slashed by a drop in oil prices during COVID-19 lockdowns, Premier struck a deal with Chrysaor in October to create the British North Sea’s largest oil and gas producer. Premier’s shareholders will vote on the transaction on Jan. 12.

Administrators at struggling South African Airways (SAA) said on Wednesday they have issued a 48-hour notice to prevent nearly 400 pilots from accessing the company’s premises until they agree to new employment terms and conditions, Reuters reported. SAA entered a local form of bankruptcy protection in December of 2019 after roughly a decade of financial losses, and its fortunes worsened after it grounded flights because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts to rescue the state airline face resistance from trade unions, who are at loggerheads with the government over wages.

A new law which moves HMRC ahead in the queue when a company becomes insolvent could cause more businesses to fail, it is claimed, the Hampshire Chronicle reported. Under the new rules, which came into effect this month, HMRC will be repaid ahead of unsecured creditors, including pension schemes, trade creditors and suppliers in corporate insolvency procedures.

The number of individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) – an alternative to bankruptcy – are on the rise, Insolvency Service data shows, Peer2Peer Finance News reported. The Insolvency Service said the number of company and individual insolvencies remained low in November 2020, in part due to government emergency support and payment breaks during the pandemic. However, on a rolling three-month basis, IVAs are up three per cent to 7,057 as of November 2020 compared with the same period last year.