Headlines

Canada unveiled a loan program for large firms that have been hit by Covid-19 and can’t get financing by conventional means. The Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility is for companies and non-profit organizations with annual revenue of C$300 million ($214 million) or more, Bloomberg News reported. Firms in all sectors can apply for the funding except the finance industry. Companies that receive money will have to accept limits on executive pay, dividends and share buybacks.

African finance ministers started talks with private creditors to find a way to temporarily suspend debt payments without triggering defaults, Bloomberg News reported. At least a dozen African finance ministers spoke during the hour-and-half virtual meeting with more than 100 creditors on Monday, according to a representative of private creditors who attended the gathering.

Deutsche Bank AG is offering a subordinated bond to boost its capital ratio as the bank girds itself for the deepest recession in almost a century.

Avianca Holdings SA expects the Colombian government to play a key role in its restructuring efforts after widespread travel bans forced it to declare bankruptcy, according to court documents, Bloomberg News reported. Latin America’s second-largest air carrier, which filed for Chapter 11 protection Sunday, said that due to its importance in the Colombian domestic air travel network, the government “may be one of the key stakeholders” as it reorganizes.

Argentina’s bondholders need to present a reasonable counteroffer to avoid another debt default by the South American nation, according to Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, Bloomberg News reported. The Columbia University professor, who has mentored Argentina’s Economy Minister Martin Guzman, praised the government of President Alberto Fernandez for coming up with a plan that would put the country’s debt on a sustainable path.

Since surviving an IMF bailout and violent change of government during the Asian financial crisis, Indonesia has shown an uncanny resilience in bouncing back from global selloffs, Bloomberg News reported in a commentary. As soon as the dust settles, investors are lured by higher yields and the promise of a young and vibrant population. Foreigners now own more than 30% of the country’s sovereign debt. This time, they may not return. The key reason is the pile of debt at state-owned enterprises that President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, has built up since taking office in 2014.

Plastic car parts maker Novares went into temporary receivership at the end of April, one of the first big French firms to seek protection from creditors due to the coronavirus crisis, despite government bailout schemes and loan guarantees, Reuters reported. Novares, whose sales have collapsed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, said on Monday it had taken the step after struggling to find a rapid agreement with its banks and shareholders and solve a coronavirus-related cash crunch.

Singapore-based ZenRock Commodities Trading Pte Ltd, hit by tumbling oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic, owes more than $600 million to creditors, the company said in a court filing seen by Reuters on Monday. In the application for “moratorium relief”, a form of bankruptcy protection, filed last Wednesday, the company said it owed at least six banks a total of $166.1 million and had outstanding balances of about $449 million in total with at least 10 unsecured creditors, Reuters reported. ZenRock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Retail and property chiefs have warned that the government’s business bailout package of reliefs, grants and loans will not be sufficient to stop the “imminent collapse of many businesses,” the Financial Times reported. In a letter to small business minister Paul Scully and chancellor Rishi Sunak, the British Retail Consortium said the crisis “facing parts of the retail sector . . . must be addressed urgently ahead of the June quarter [rent] day”. The letter was also signed by the British Property Federation and Revo, which represents the top shopping centre owners.

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, has implored eurozone governments to come up with a more powerful common fiscal response to the economic slump caused by coronavirus, warning of the dangers of divergence between the bloc’s members, the Financial Times reported. Addressing the State of the Union conference, organised by the European University Institute in Florence, on Friday, Ms Lagarde said a “common European fiscal response is highly desirable”, adding that it needed to be “swift, sizeable and symmetrical”.