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Argentina is said to be preparing to extend the deadline to its debt offer to May 22, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg News reported. The government will publish an extension to its debt offer in the official Gazette on Monday, said the people, who couldn’t be named because the matter is private. The extension is part of President Alberto Fernandez’s next steps in its debt restructuring after extending a deadline over the weekend for creditors to accept an initial offer to exchange $65 billion in overseas bonds.
Asian governments have turbocharged their issuance of dollar bonds as they seek to fortify their balance sheets and fund relief efforts during the coronavirus pandemic, the Financial Times reported. Sovereigns, supranationals and government agencies in the region, excluding Japan, raised $18.7bn in dollar bonds in April, their fastest rate in 10 years, according to Dealogic data. Asian governments have issued more than $30bn in dollar bonds in 2020 so far, double the total in the same period last year.
Phoenix Commodities Pvt Ltd, a trader of agricultural products with offices in Dubai and Singapore, is being liquidated after amassing more than $400 million in potential trading losses, according a document prepared by the liquidators seen by Reuters.
Germany is working on a “concrete model” to aid Lufthansa, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Sunday, amid a political row over whether the state should take a strategic shareholding and play an active role in the stricken airline, Reuters reported. Altmaier’s comments followed calls by the Social Democratic Party, junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition, to tie aid for Lufthansa to protecting jobs, cutting the dividend and giving the government a say on strategy. “For me it’s important that we don’t exert any influence on business decisions.
South Africa’s Phumelela Gaming and Leisure on Friday joined a slew of distressed firms to file for business rescue - a local form of bankruptcy protection - after a nationwide lockdown suspended activities in the horse racing industry, Reuters reported. Phumelela, of which former Steinhoff International CEO Markus Jooste was a director and among its largest shareholders, has not been able to stage race meetings since the end of March due to the lockdown. This has hurt its revenue from racing and betting, the company said in statement. “...
The Israeli government will demand that El Al Israel Airlines carries out an overhaul, including layoffs, before agreeing to throw a lifeline to the cash-strapped airline, officials said on Sunday, Reuters reported. El Al, Israel’s flag carrier, is seeking state-backed loans of $400 million to help it through the coronavirus crisis, as foreigners are barred from entering the country and incoming Israelis must enter quarantine. The airline suspended passenger flights until at least the end of May while about 6,000 of its workers are on unpaid leave until June 30.
Avianca Holdings, Latin America’s second-largest airline, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, after failing to meet a bond payment deadline, while its pleas for coronavirus aid from Colombia’s government have so far been unsuccessful, Reuters reported. If it fails to come out of bankruptcy, Bogota-based Avianca would be one of the first major carriers worldwide to go under as a result of the pandemic, which has crippled world travel. Avianca has not flown a regularly scheduled passenger flight since late March and most of its 20,000 employees have gone without pay through the crisis.
German minerals firm K+S is preparing a potential application for state aid as the company grapples with a high debt load and the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, people close to the matter said, Reuters reported. The potash and salt company has no liquidity issues but wants to secure several hundreds of millions of euros in state-backed loans should financing via the capital markets remain difficult in the wake of the pandemic, the people said. No final decision on whether the company will actually apply for a bailout has been taken, one of the people added. K+S declined to comment.
Norway’s central bank cut interest rates to a record low of zero but said it was unlikely to go negative as the rich Scandinavian country faces up to the twin shocks of coronavirus and an oil price collapse, the Financial Times reported. Norges Bank said on Thursday that the 0.25 percentage point cut would not prevent Covid-19 from having “a substantial impact on the Norwegian economy but can help dampen the downturn”, including by stopping high unemployment becoming entrenched.