Headlines

Congo Republic aims to reach a deal with energy traders Glencore and Trafigura to restructure a $1.7 billion debt before a meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April, the head of the national oil company, told Reuters. Maixent Raoul Ominga, director general of state-owned SNPC, said lawyers for Congo Republic were working with representatives of Glencore and Trafigura to get all the parties talking, Reuters reported. Glencore and Trafigura declined to comment.

Norway risks sinking into a recession for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008, after a collapse in oil prices added to the fallout of the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported. The government of western Europe’s biggest petroleum producer, which is also the richest Nordic economy, is preparing emergency stimulus measures to fight the effect of the virus on trade and travel. Prime Minister Erna Solberg said she’s also ready to counter the potentially more damaging fallout of an oil crisis if necessary. “If the economy is lower, there could be room to spend more money.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Italy is negotiating with banks to provide breaks from debt payments including mortgages as it seeks to soften the impact of a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus. The government is considering unprecedented steps to inject money into companies and ease family debt burdens, Deputy Finance Minister Laura Castelli said in a radio interview. It’s also looking to aid those who experience temporary layoffs, she said, adding that a new decree on economic relief will be announced soon.

European officials are considering loosening some bank rules as efforts to combat the coronavirus threaten to hurt lenders still weakened by years of negative interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. Germany’s banking watchdogs on Monday discussed easing a planned rule that banks bolster reserves in good times. France is pushing regulators to go easy on lenders whose customers face difficulties repaying loans. The issue may also be on the agenda when supervisors at the European Central Bank meet later this month, according to one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The coronavirus epidemic is accelerating a shakeout in China’s property sector as a cash crunch forces distressed developers to throw in the towel, Bloomberg News reported. With lockdowns across the world’s most-populous nation entering their third month, smaller home builders are being pushed to the brink because they can’t get enough money from pre-sales of apartments to cover their costs. In the first two months of this year, around 105 real estate firms issued bankruptcy filing statements, after almost 500 collapses in 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Investors in Lebanon’s dollar debt are nursing big losses after the government failed to repay a $1.2bn bond due on Monday, triggering the country’s first ever sovereign default, the Financial Times reported. Lebanese dollar bonds have since lost half of their value, with the March bond trading at roughly 28 cents on the dollar on Tuesday, down from 57 cents on Friday. London-based asset manager Ashmore owned more than 25 per cent of the bond at the end of last year, according to fund filings compiled by Bloomberg.

NMC Health has discovered almost $3bn of debt hidden from its board that has been used for unknown purposes, in the latest disastrous revelation to hit the Middle Eastern-focused healthcare group, the Financial Times reported. The company, which until its suspension last month traded in the FTSE 100, said it had identified more than $2.7bn in debt facilities that had previously not been disclosed to, or approved by, the board. This takes its group debt to more than twice as much as the reported $2.1bn.

Argentina said it intends to restructure as much as $68.8 billion in bonds issued under foreign law, a formal step in negotiations with creditors, Bloomberg News reported. It’s the first time President Alberto Fernandez’s government has explicitly stated the nominal value of debt held by foreign bondholders it plans to restructure. The two sides are in fast-paced negotiations that Economy Minister Martin Guzman intends to conclude by the end of March. The midnight government decree came hours after Argentine bonds plunged to record lows amid falling oil prices and coronavirus fears.

The Rome government is considering a state guarantee scheme to support banks offering debt moratoriums to firms and households grappling with the economic fallout from Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, one of the world’s worst, Reuters reported. Deputy Economy Minister Antonio Misiani said in an interview with Radio24 on Monday that the government was discussing the measure with Italy’s central bank. Such a move would address requests by Italian banks, which fear a new surge in problem loans just as they are emerging from a long restructuring to tackle the legacy of previous downturns.

Indian criminal investigators have accused Yes Bank’s co-founder Rana Kapoor of receiving illicit kickbacks in 2018 to provide funds to a now bankrupt housing finance company, raising new questions about the troubled institution’s lending practices, the Financial Times reported. Mr Kapoor — who was forced to stand down as Yes Bank chief executive and managing director in early 2019 amid growing governance concerns — was arrested on Sunday morning, just days after the Reserve Bank of India seized control of the lender he founded.