Headlines

A bankruptcy court in India has begun insolvency proceedings against Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.’s founder and chairman emeritus Subhash Chandra on a plea by Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. following a loan default, Bloomberg News reported. Chandra stood as a personal guarantor for a loan given to a real estate developer Vivek Infracon Pvt., according to Indiabulls Housing’s lawyer Sumesh Dhawan.

The head of China’s central bank sees debt restructurings among poor countries moving too slow and wants creditors to agree on how to share the burden of debt relief, Bloomberg News reported. Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China, shared the views during a closed-door meeting Friday in Washington on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund spring meetings. China’s role as a major creditor to developing nations has come under renewed scrutiny as billions of dollars in loans over the past decade have soured.

China’s benchmark lending rates were kept unchanged, official data showed on Monday, in line with market expectations after key policy rates were held steady amid signs of economic recovery, the Wall Street Journal reported. The one-year loan prime rate was kept at 3.45%, while the five-year rate was left at 3.95%, said the People’s Bank of China. The hold on LPR was widely expected after the PBOC left its medium-term lending facility rate unchanged last week. The MLF rate is used as a guide for LPR, which is set by 20 major banks in China.

The Bank of England is concerned about the ways that private equity giants value their holdings and how that methodology could amplify any economic shocks in the UK, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank’s Financial Policy Committee is monitoring the risk as part of its ongoing probe into PE investment across the UK and the worry is that if the economy worsens, buyout funds might need to deleverage their investments in order to repay their debts. That could result in healthy portfolio companies being sold at steep discounts.

Germany’s BayWa AG scrapped a euro bond sale Monday, just weeks before one of its existing notes in the currency will mature, Bloomberg News reported. The issuer, which provides trading and logistics services in the agriculture, building and energy industries, had offered €250 million ($266 million) of five-year notes at a yield of around 6.75%, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

With Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC’s filing of chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in federal court on Friday, it stops Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) executive director Andrew Yeom and IPI from completing their proposed settlement, the Saipan Tribune reported. CCC board chair Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero has been acting on behalf of Yeom in the settlement discussion with IPI throughout last week because Yeom’s temporary contract as executive director expired last April 13.

The European Central Bank won’t be swayed from a first interest-rate cut in June by oil price uncertainty, Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said, Bloomberg News reported. According to the Bank of France governor, even if conflict in the Middle East did push up oil costs, policymakers would have to first analyze if such a shock fueled underlying prices and inflation expectations. That means there’s no “mechanical” reaction, he said in an interview with Les Echos published Sunday.

South Africa is seeking potential minority investors and access to capital markets and loan financing for South African Airways for more rapid expansion, following the collapse of a previous equity deal, the national flag carrier’s interim Chairman Derek Hanekom said on local broadcaster eNCA, Bloomberg News reported. The airline had to revise its expansion plans after talks were scrapped and has now delayed opening more international routes to London, Frankfurt and North America, Hanekom said.

China’s $400 million deal with Niger to pay for oil in advance will help the West African nation’s junta pay debt it’s accumulated since a military coup last year, Bloomberg News reported. China National Petroleum Corp. agreed to make an advance payment for crude purchases from Niger’s Agadem field earlier this month, Radio Television du Niger reported on April 13. The junta will use the proceeds to settle debt payments, Ibrahim Hamidou, head of communications for Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine, said by phone from the capital, Niamey, on Monday.

Controversial tax rebate agent Brooksdale has entered liquidation, leaving customers of the firm questioning whether they will receive money claimed on their behalf,ThisIsMoney.com reported. The Manchester-based firm held a virtual meeting of creditors last week, where a creditors voluntary liquidation was approved and insolvency firm Fortis Insolvency appointed to manage it. A creditors voluntary liquidation happens when a company cannot pay its debts, and enough of the firm's shareholders agree that it should happen. It represents the start of the process of winding down the firm.