Headlines

A Chinese program providing state guarantees to developer bonds will be put to the test this week, when payments come due from one of the most indebted builders, Bloomberg News reported. The sum owed by Country Garden Holdings Co. is relatively small — 65.95 million yuan ($9.1 million) for two interest payments. Both notes are guaranteed by China Bond Insurance Co., a state-owned credit-support provider at the heart of a program introduced by authorities in August 2022 to help private developers avoid liquidity crunches.

One of China’s most-watched developers has told some investors that it readied cash for an upcoming yuan bond payment, a move that may boost a firm that’s faced concern about its liquidity amid a broader property debt crisis. State-backed builder China Vanke Co. told some investors recently that it has readied cash to repay its 1.45 billion yuan ($201 million) note due May 25, according to people familiar with the matter.

IndusInd International Holdings (IIHL) has set its sights on a new Rs 4.2 lakh crore target that it plans to fulfil by 2030, the Economic Times of India reported. Under the new plan, IIHL is looking to set up a banking, financial services, and insurance portfolio worth $50 billion (Rs 4.2 lakh crore) by 2030. This is including its investment in IndusInd Bank, apart from the new businesses under Reliance Capital, which IIHL won in insolvency proceedings.

The American investment firm 777 Partners, whose bid to buy the English Premier League soccer team Everton has been on hold for months amid doubts about the company’s finances, was accused by one of its lenders on Friday of running a yearslong fraud scheme worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the New York Times reported. The accusation came in a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in New York by Leadenhall Capital Partners, a London-based asset management company.

The Swiss National Bank is examining the best way that financial assets can be digitally tokenised as a way of making payments more secure and efficient, Chairman Thomas Jordan said on Monday, Reuters reported. Jordan said that central banks needed to decide how best to engage in the developments which advocates say will speed up and make payments cheaper. Tokenisation means the digital representation of claims on financial assets on a programmable platform which typically relies on distributed ledger technology.

Japan’s labor shortage remains a serious issue with 51% of companies reporting that they did not have enough employees, according to survey results released last week, the Japan Times reported. As the labor market continues to shrink, companies have raised worsening labor shortages as one of the biggest concerns that could cause their performances to decline, with 313 companies having gone out of business in the fiscal year of 2023 as a result.

CaixaBank SA is exploring the sale of €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) in non-performing loans as it seeks to improve its asset quality, Bloomberg News reported. The Spanish lender is marketing two NPL portfolios that have already attracted potential bidders, according to documents seen by Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter. One is code named Oxygen and it has an outstanding balance of €610 million on about 7,000 unpaid mortgages.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has limited scope to cut interest rates this year and shouldn’t ease policy until it’s sure inflation will return to target, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Bloomberg News reported. "Inflation is likely to be persistent,” the OECD said in its Economic Surveys: New Zealand 2024 report published Monday in Wellington.

Egypt’s credit rating outlook was raised to positive from stable by Fitch Ratings, after the North African nation secured an international bailout of $57 billion for its cash-strapped economy, Bloomberg News reported. Fitch affirmed Egypt’s B- rating, leaving it six notches below investment grade. It also came weeks after authorities agreed to a landmark $35 billion investment deal with the United Arab Emirates and additional support from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Hong Kong’s securities regulator has started criminal proceedings against hedge fund management firm Segantii Capital Management, the firm’s founder and a former trader over insider dealing, the Wall Street Journal reported. The city’s Securities and Futures Commission said Thursday that it had begun proceedings against Segantii founder Simon Sadler and Daniel LaRocca, a former trader for the firm. It said no plea was taken by defendants in an appearance before a Hong Kong court, with the case subsequently adjourned to June 12.