Headlines

Brazilian telecoms firm Oi SA announced late on Monday a proposed plan that, if approved by creditors, would allow the company to exit a long bankruptcy restructuring process that began in 2016, Reuters reported. Under the plan, Oi hopes to sell its mobile unit for at least 15 billion reais to refocus the company on its fiber network. Brazil’s largest fixed-line carrier had approximately 65 billion reais ($12.65 billion) of debt when it filed for bankruptcy protection.

Bankers in Sweden are positioning for a wave of debt deals from real estate issuers, as the industry tries to move out of increasingly costly borrowing arrangements, Bloomberg News reported. Catella AB, a Swedish boutique advisory firm specializing in the property sector, has been hiring to make sure it has enough bankers to handle the development. “The demand for different sources of debt financing will increase in the Swedish real-estate market going forward,” Carl Wingmark, head of property advisory at the firm, said in an interview.

Telia Co. AB is in talks to sell its indirect stake in Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Turkey’s biggest mobile-phone carrier, to the country’s sovereign wealth fund for about $530 million, Bloomberg News reported. Negotiations are still ongoing and are in an advanced stage, but no agreement has yet been reached, Telia said in a statement. Telia is the largest shareholder in Turkcell via the holding company Turkcell Holding AS.

The Swiss economy is expected to suffer its biggest contraction since the mid-1970s this year, with financial stability risks increasing globally due spiraling corporate and state debt, Bloomberg News reported. “The risk of upheaval on the financial markets and further upward pressure on the Swiss franc is high,” Switzerland’s the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday. Like many advanced economies, momentum in Switzerland tanked after theaters, shops and restaurants got shut down in a bid to control the outbreak.

With countries across Africa shedding long-held taboos to seek International Monetary Fund help, Algeria is a rare holdout, Bloomberg News reported. It may need a quick recovery in oil prices or Chinese backing to stay that way. On a continent where a checkered experiences with the IMF or distaste for foreign interference has meant trepidation toward the lender, the economic havoc wreaked by the coronavirus is sparking some sudden turnarounds.

Farmers are lobbying against the Argentine government’s proposal to sweeten an offer on its overseas debt with payments tied to agriculture exports, Bloomberg News reported. Economy Minister Martin Guzman, who’s leading talks to restructure $65 billion of foreign debt, has put the idea on the table, though some creditors favor coupons linked to economic growth.

The South African government would need to find at least 10 billion rand ($580 million) in new bailout funds if it wants to rescue South African Airways (SAA) with most of its routes intact, a long-delayed rescue plan showed, Reuters reported. State-owned SAA’s longstanding frailties have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has pushed even previously profitable airlines into financial distress. SAA suspended commercial passenger flights in March, when the government imposed one of Africa’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns.

Latin America’s No. 2 carrier Avianca Holdings reported a $121 million loss for the first quarter late on Monday, accounting for just two weeks of severe impact from the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reported. The airline was the first in the region to file for bankruptcy protection in the United States and spent a full three months grounded without operating any regular flights. It has since restarted some operations in Ecuador, but its hubs in Colombia, El Salvador and Peru remain closed.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz will ask parliament to increase new borrowing by a further 62.5 billion euros ($70.5 billion) to a record 218.5 billion this year for measures to boost recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, two people familiar with the plans said on Monday, Reuters reported. The plan, to be presented in Scholz’s second supplementary budget in three months, underlines Germany’s shift from Europe’s austerity champion to one of the biggest spenders in the euro zone’s efforts to rebound from the pandemic.

The High Court in Ireland has granted a restriction order against the directors of an insolvent company, Winning Ways Ltd, Pinsent Masons reported. The order was requested by the liquidator of the business at the request of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE). The judgment confirms that the onus is on directors to prove that they acted honestly and responsibly when raising a defence against a restriction order under section 819 of the Companies Act 2014.