Headlines

Argentina’s main bondholder groups say they now represent more than 50% of the country’s overseas debt, potentially strengthening their bargaining power at a crucial time in the country’s bond restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. A group of creditors seeking to extract better terms from the government in its $65 billion debt restructuring says they have added large funds to their bloc, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The administrators of South African Airways, the state-owned airline that’s in bankruptcy protection, want the government to set aside 16.4 billion rand ($998 million) that it’s guaranteed to pay creditors, Bloomberg News reported. The Treasury says the current structure of its guarantees should suffice.

Investment firm Eurazeo has asked bidders to submit last-ditch bids in September for French car rental firm Europcar Mobility Group SA as it seeks to avert a painful restructuring, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, Reuters reported. The Paris-listed firm has attracted takeover interest from Volkswagen but a bid has yet to materialise as the German car maker remains wary of the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic on the car rental industry, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

BDO Unibank Inc., the Philippines’ largest lender by assets, posted its first loss in more than a decade after bolstering provisions for bad loans due to the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The bank said its net loss totaled 4.48 billion pesos ($91 million) in the three months ended June, compared with profit of 10.4 billion pesos a year earlier. It booked provisions of 22.4 billion pesos in the first half, in anticipation of potential delinquencies stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.

Bank Indonesia’s unprecedented move to buy about $27 billion in bonds directly from the government may prove to be an exception rather than the norm in emerging markets, Bloomberg News reported. With the world economy in crisis and Modern Monetary Theory gaining attention, governments are being pressured to spend more and turn to their central banks to print money to foot the bill. But when it comes to scooping up that debt, most central banks are doing it in the secondary market. Three weeks on, currency and bond markets appear to have given Indonesia a pass on its direct financing foray.

PizzaExpress stakeholders are under pressure to reach a debt deal this week before a deadline to pay more than 20 million pounds ($26 million) in debt interest, Bloomberg News reported. A group of the company’s bondholders, including U.S. firms Cyrus Capital Partners LP, HIG Bayside Capital and Bain Capital Credit, are seeking to take control of PizzaExpress’s U.K. and Irish business in exchange for providing fresh funding and cutting the debt load. Under their plan, current owner Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital would be left with the overseas restaurants including those in China.

Lebanon had its rating cut to the lowest grade by Moody’s Investors Service, which said that bond investors will likely suffer major losses on their holdings as the government struggles to secure aid to ease a crippling financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Moody’s lowered Lebanon’s credit score to C from Ca, the same level as crisis-ravaged Venezuela. It reflects Moody’s “assessment that the losses incurred by bondholders through Lebanon’s current default are likely to exceed 65%,” the agency said in a statement.

European companies are fending off insolvency as massive support from central banks and governments softens damage from coronavirus lockdowns, raising the prospect of a coming shock when that stimulus ends, Bloomberg News reported. The number of firms seeking court protection from creditors in major European economies such as Britain, Germany and France has slumped since the pandemic hit the region this year, even as growth took a battering. U.K.

Zambia was once a model in Wall Street’s rush to issue debt for the world’s poorest nations, attracting bigger orders and lower interest rates than some more-developed countries. Less than a decade later, the Southern African nation is straining to pay back more than $11 billion in loans, The Wall Street Journal reported. The world is gearing up for a battle over developing-country debt like few it has seen before.

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. agreed to release some funds to a municipality in South Africa’s Free State province to help it cover running costs, after seizing its bank accounts earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported. The Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality owes 5.3 billion rand ($318 million) in unpaid electricity bills and must reach an agreement to service the debt and its current account by Aug. 7, Eskom said in a statement Saturday.