Headlines

Financial engineering, like life, moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it. Few companies have had to move faster this year than Tui, whose AGM presentation in mid February mentioned coronavirus only once, the Financial Times reported. “At present, we do not see any significant impact from the virus on our outlook,” chief executive Fritz Joussen told shareholders.

Chinese government entities responsible for funding hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure projects are struggling to raise cash after a series of defaults by state groups rocked the country’s credit markets, the Financial Times reported. Executives from several local government finance vehicles (LGFVs) have told the Financial Times that they have abandoned bond sales or loan applications after debt-saddled state-owned enterprises, led by Yongcheng Coal & Electricity Holding Group, defaulted in November. Other LGFVs are paying much higher rates of interest to borrow.

Banks have sought the Reserve Bank of India’s permission to keep accounts of borrowers who are eligible for relief under the August 6 circular in a standstill until the date of invocation of restructuring, multiple people aware of the talks told CNBC-TV18. The Indian Banks Association wrote to RBI on behalf of banks on Wednesday, requesting the regulator to allow standstill status for eligible borrowers, said people in the know, CNBC-TV18 reported.

The European Central Bank has launched a fresh burst of stimulus to help the eurozone economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic, promising to buy €500bn more bonds over a longer period and providing extra cheap funding for banks, the Financial Times reported. The ECB increased the size of its pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) from €1.35tn to €1.85tn and pushed back the end of its main crisis-fighting tool from next June until at least March 2022, while reinvesting any proceeds until at least the end of 2023.

An application by bankrupt businessman Sean Dunne to vary an order requiring him to pay €7,000 a month for the benefit of creditors in his Irish bankruptcy was heard in private at the High Court on Thursday, The Irish Times reported. The private hearing was sought by Edward Farrelly SC, for Mr Dunne’s Irish bankruptcy trustee, arising from matters referred to by Mr Dunne in a sworn affidavit. Mr Dunne, representing himself, opposed the matter being heard in camera.

Private debt funds that lent to UK high street companies including Debenhams and Casual Dining Group have endured losses after the pandemic sent tremors through the leisure and retail sectors, the Financial Times reported.

The Portuguese government’s draft restructuring plan for ailing flag carrier TAP projects it may need around 2 billion euros of additional state aid by 2024, while thousands of jobs will be terminated to turn the airline around, three sources said, Reuters reported. One of the sources familiar with the document told Reuters it envisaged that TAP, which had a loss of 701 million euros in the first nine months of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic slashed its passenger numbers by 70%, should break even in 2025. The plan still needs to be approved by the European Commission.

China’s Unigroup International Holdings Ltd said Thursday that it was unable to repay a maturing $450 million bond by a Dec. 10 deadline, triggering cross defaults on dollar bonds worth an additional $2 billion, Reuters reported. In a statement on the website of the Hong Kong stock exchange, Unigroup International said neither it nor its guarantor Tsinghua Unigroup International Co Ltd would be able to make the principal or the final interest payment on the maturing bond.

Insolvency and restructuring activity remained low across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), since the beginning of the pandemic, except Romania, which has recorded an increase in the number of insolvencies, and Czech Republic, which saw an increasing trend in restructuring, according to PwC ”Global Restructuring Trends” report, Business Review reported…According to the report, insolvencies are expected to increase in Q4 2020 and into 2021 globally, especially for those companies that operate in heavily COVID-19-affected industries that may take much longer to recover, such as leisure, trave

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Mozambique's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'CCC'. The 'CCC' rating reflects limited financing options combined with high fiscal and external financing needs that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus shock, high general government (GG) debt and ongoing unresolved public-sector debt liabilities, Fitch Ratings reported. Fitch expects real GDP to contract by 1% in 2020, after muted GDP growth in 2019 of 2.2% due to the damage caused by two cyclones.