Headlines

The coronavirus pandemic will reset the balance between private companies and the state in Britain and could in time produce a more productive economy, according to the man leading a 15 billion pound drive to support smaller firms, Reuters reported. Stephen Welton, head of Business Growth Fund (BGF), the most active investor in fast-growing British companies, is talking to the government, insurance companies, pension schemes and other investors to recapitalise businesses and prevent more permanent scarring. Central to any recovery, he believes, is the need to identify which compan

The European Central Bank will decide on Thursday whether its already massive monetary stimulus needs to be boosted even more to help haul the region out of its deepest recession in living memory, Bloomberg News reported. With President Christine Lagarde warning that the ECB’s worst-case predictions for the economy are likely to pan out, most economists expect policy makers to increase their 750 billion-euro ($842 billion) Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program and extend it beyond the end of this year. Policy makers including chief economist Philip Lane have telegraphed their readin

Group of Seven finance ministers on Wednesday said a debt relief initiative for the world’s poorest countries could be extended beyond the end of the year to help deal with economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. In a lengthy joint statement, the G7 finance ministers urged all official creditors to join the initiative, called for strengthened reporting of public debt data, and said all creditors - public and private - should make responsible lending decisions in line with debt sustainability guidelines. In an apparent reference to practices reportedly use

The outsiders that Michael Hintze brought in to his secretive hedge fund firm didn’t last long. Nor did their growth plans. The billionaire’s firm, known as CQS, a bastion of money-making whose flagship fund has returned more than three times the average of hedge fund peers since it opened in 2005, is now headed in reverse. The Hintze-managed fund plunged as much as 45% in March and April -- its worst-ever loss -- missing the rebound that followed the initial shock from the coronavirus pandemic even as peers recovered to post gains in April.

Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd’s administrator has given final bidders Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital Partners until June 22 to lodge binding offers, an extension of 10 days from the original date, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. The additional time will allow the bidders to refine their final offers, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity, adding that the administrator, Deloitte, was still seeking a binding deal with the winner by June 30. Virgin owed creditors nearly A$7 billion ($4.86 billion) when it entered voluntary administration in April,

A privately owned power transmission company accused the Zambian government of taking steps to expropriate its assets, as a dispute over supplies to a key mine in Africa’s second-biggest copper producer escalated, Bloomberg News reported. The feud is centered around electricity provision to Konkola Copper Mines, the Vedanta Resources Ltd. unit that the government placed under liquidation a year ago, and which has a $144 million unpaid power bill.

Lufthansa has pledged a wide-ranging restructuring, from thousands of job cuts to asset sales, as it seeks to repay a 9 billion euro ($10.1 billion) state bailout and navigate deepening losses in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. The pledged cost cuts came as the German carrier posted a first-quarter net loss of 2.1 billion euros on Wednesday, only days after securing the bailout that is intended to help the airline ride out the crisis but will require it to cede some of its prized landing slots to rivals. “In view of the very slow recovery in demand, we must

Comark Holdings Inc said on Wednesday it would restructure under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Canadian apparel retailer’s business, Reuters reported. Apparel retailers have been facing mounting debt and bankruptcies as the economic damage brought on by the pandemic has forced store closures and pressured discretionary spending. The fashion retailer’s Ricki’s, Cleo and Bootlegger websites will remain operational, Comark said, adding it would optimize its store footprint during the restructuring.

Seadrill has written down the value of its oil drilling rigs by $1.2 billion and hired bankers and lawyers to evaluate a financial restructuring that could allow the company to reduce its $7.4 billion debt, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The company on Monday announced its intention to delist from the New York Stock Exchange later this month, while maintaining its Oslo Bourse listing.

China’s central bank is trying to fix one of the domestic economy’s most intractable problems: Poor access to credit by small companies, Bloomberg News reported. Having resisted the kind of large-scale stimulus rolled out by its global peers, the People’s Bank of China instead has been tapping away at small-scale programs designed to improve the ability of small firms to survive the slump.