Headlines

Coronavirus-triggered cash-flow problems could exacerbate long-standing issues for Italian energy retailers, warned Paolo Ghislandi, secretary general at the Italian association of energy wholesalers and traders (AIGET), ICIS reported. This could cause insolvency for smaller retailers, reducing competition in the market. “If regulator ARERA fails to address these issues, energy suppliers will find themselves operating in with an increasingly volatile and risky sector,” he told ICIS.

The Indian Supreme Court has asked, in a recent hearing, a question that does not appear to have occurred to India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT): how does it plan to recover adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-related dues from telecom companies facing insolvency? In addition the court wants to ascertain the bona fides of the telecom companies that have initiated insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) – that is, why some of these companies have done so and what their liabilities are, Developing Telecoms reported.

The resignation of Lebanon’s government after last week’s devastating explosion in Beirut threatens to upend any prospect of a debt restructuring deal in the next few months, Yahoo! Finance reported. Senior officials will continue in a caretaker capacity until a new administration is formed. It’s unclear how long that process will take. The Middle Eastern nation defaulted on about $30 billion of Eurobonds in March. Since then, its talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout have stalled.

Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) on Tuesday posted a 44% slump in second-quarter profit, largely due to the economic impact of the pandemic in the countries in which it operates, but confirmed its 2020 targets, Reuters reported. The Austrian lender, which does business across central and eastern Europe, said consolidated net profit came in at 192 million euros ($226 million) in the three months per end-June, beating analyst expectations of 143 million euros.

Brazilian airline Azul SA said on Tuesday it had reached an agreement with its aircraft lessors that would help it save some 3.2 billion reais ($594.61 million) in working capital through 2021 and be repaid beginning in 2023, Reuters reported. The airline has been in negotiations with lessors as the coronavirus crisis derailed Latin America’s air travel industry in March. Azul hired a restructuring firm when the crisis set in and said it was renegotiating its debts out of court to avoid a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

After reaching a $65 billion restructuring agreement in principle with its creditors earlier this month, Argentina must now turn to relief from the International Monetary Fund to free up cash in the near term, the IIF said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. “We think external financing will be comfortable if the IMF rolls over its exposure,” the Institute of International Finance said in a note. The agreement with creditors gives Argentina much-needed breathing space.

A one-time debt restructuring allowed by India’s central bank to help lenders and borrowers amid the COVID-19 pandemic will prolong uncertainty about the banking sector’s asset quality, Fitch Ratings said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. India’s central bank said last week it will allow restructuring of corporate and personal loans to ease debt strains on companies and lenders, a move widely awaited by the banking industry.

Corporate insolvencies may increase this winter, with new research from the insolvency and restructuring trade body R3 indicating that a steep rise may start as early as this October, Scottish Legal News reported. The R3 research – based on a member survey of insolvency and restructuring professionals – highlights that an overwhelming majority (93.7 per cent) of respondents expect corporate insolvency numbers to rise over the next year, with nearly six-in-ten (56 per cent) predicting that the increase will occur between October and December 2020.

The national college for High Speed 2 looks set to be taken over by a university as part of a government review initiated after the FE commissioner warned it faced potential insolvency, FE Week reported. The University of Birmingham has been announced as the preferred bidder to take on the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (NCATI), as part of a structure and prospects appraisal (SPA) of the college.

The Supreme Court on Monday asked Department of Telecom (DoT) to apprise it as how it plans to recover Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) related dues from telecom companies facing insolvency proceedings and whether spectrum given to these companies can be sold, Business Standard reported. DoT told the top court that their stand is that the spectrum cannot be sold by the telecom companies facing insolvency proceedings as it not their property.