Headlines

Argentina has undone a huge amount of positive work done in reaching an agreement to restructure its debt through its financial mismanagement and the government only has itself to blame, according to Raphael Kassin, Citywire reported. Emerging market debt veteran Kassin made the comments during the most recent episode of our sister publication Citywire Selector’s EM Insider podcast.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it needs to double operations from current levels if it’s to stem losses, delivering a stark assessment of the challenge facing carriers as European governments limit flights with a new wave of coronavirus lockdowns, Bloomberg News reported. Capacity deployment must increase from 25% of year-ago levels at the moment to about 50% in order to meet a goal of returning to positive operating cash flow some time next year, Lufthansa said in an earnings release Thursday.

The EU’s path to recovery from the economic effects of Covid-19 has been set back by the pandemic’s second wave and it will take at least two years for the bloc’s economy to return to pre-pandemic levels, Brussels has warned, the Financial Times reported. The recovery from the EU’s deepest downturn in history will be slower than previously expected, according to new forecasts published by the European Commission on Thursday, as the resurgence in the virus has forced most member states to impose fresh restrictions on activity in recent weeks.

Money owed to aircraft lessors and some creditors of South African Airways is not covered by a 10.5 billion rand ($665 million) government bailout, SAA’s administrators said, Reuters reported. South Africa’s government allocated the latest cash injection for SAA in last month’s mid-term budget, but says it will not put further money into the airline. SAA’s administrators told Reuters on Thursday that 1.7 billion rand owed to lessors and 600 million rand which it owes to creditors from before the airline went into administration nearly a year ago would not be covered.

Lebanon’s caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni announced on Thursday a three-month extension of a deadline to provide all data required for a forensic audit of the central bank after it declined to submit some information, citing bank secrecy laws, Reuters reported. The caretaker prime minister and three sources familiar with the matter have said that Banque du Liban (BDL) was withholding information needed by restructuring consultancy Alvarez & Marsal to begin the audit, which is a key demand for foreign financial assistance to help Lebanon exit a financial meltdown.

Germany's Commerzbank swung to a third-quarter loss, it said on Thursday, as it dealt with fallout from the coronavirus crisis and continued a restructuring programme, Reuters reported. Germany’s No. 2 bank, which is waiting for new chief executive Manfred Knof to take the helm in January before deciding on a new strategy, confirmed earlier warnings that it was on course for a full-year loss. Its shares had tumbled around 6% by midmorning in Frankfurt after a slightly bigger than expected third-quarter loss. The shares are down around 27% this year.

Czech lender Komercni Banka reported a larger-than-expected 57% drop in third-quarter net profit on Thursday as bad loan provisions grew amid the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. The Czech Republic, like other European nations, is facing a strong second wave of coronavirus infections, forcing the government to shut many retail shops, services and public venues. Banks face the prospect of rising loan defaults as repayment moratoriums expire and the economy struggles to recover.

The number of insolvency filings in Canada jumped in September to the highest since the pandemic began, in what may be the first sign of long-anticipated strains in household finances from the crisis, Bloomberg News reported. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada reported 7,658 consumer insolvency filings, up 18.5% from August. That’s the biggest monthly increase since 2017, and the most since March when widespread lockdowns were imposed to control the spread of Covid-19.

Malaysia's AirAsia X Bhd AIRX.KL on Wednesday said it has revised its $15.3 billion debt restructuring plan to re-categorise its creditors in a bid to address concerns raised by a creditor, Nasdaq reported. The budget carrier is seeking to reconstitute the $15.3 billion of unsecured debt into a principal amount of 200 million ringgit ($48 million) and have the rest waived.

The insolvency law committee and a group of ministers are considering various amendments to the four-year-old Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), some of which are likely to be introduced in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament, a senior government official told Business Standard, Business Standard reported.