Headlines

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Tuesday reserved its order over a batch of petitions over Bhushan Power and Steel''s sale to JSW Steel under the insolvency process, Outlook reported. An NCLAT bench headed by Justice S J Mukhopadhaya concluded its hearing as arguments in all seven petitions, including JSW Steel and former promoters of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL), are over.

RT Briscoe (Nigeria) Plc is finalising arrangements to raise new capital to pay its burgeoning debts and improve working capital as the automobile company struggles to stave off insolvency, The Nation reported. In a regulatory filing at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the board of the company stated that it was finalising arrangements for an open-ended actively managed fund to raise funds from the capital market. The net proceeds of the fund raising will be used to settle existing liabilities and increase working capital.

Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht SA has agreed to extend the monitorship and other terms of its plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department for almost nine months, according to court filings, The Wall Street Journal reported. Odebrecht pleaded guilty in 2016 to a criminal charge of allegedly conspiring to violate U.S. foreign bribery laws and entered into a plea agreement with the DOJ.

The government notification stating that third-party assets, or loan pools sold by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), must be serviced even when the company is under insolvency proceedings will give a boost to securitisation transactions, rating agency Icra said on Tuesday, The Financial Express reported. The notification was issued after defaults on securitisation transactions originated by troubled mortgage lender Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) following a court-ordered moratorium on repayments to creditors.

Fidelity Investments scored a victory over the province of Buenos Aires by compelling officials there to make good on a $250 million payment they had threatened to withhold, Bloomberg News reported. The Boston-based fund manager rejected the province’s demands for a three-month delay for the payment originally due in January, even as officials said there was no way the cash-strapped province could make good on its obligations. Fidelity’s outsize stake means it was effectively able to block the proposal, and in the end the province agreed to pay.

Germany’s government has proposed a clampdown on anti-competitive behaviour by digital platforms, putting Berlin in the vanguard of European efforts to regulate companies including Google and Amazon, the Financial Times reported. The draft “digital law” will strengthen the intervention powers of Germany’s competition watchdog, the Federal Cartel Office. Peter Altmaier, the economy minister, said the measures would “toughen control of abusive practices for big market-dominating digital companies”.

China’s biggest health crisis since at least 2003 has worsened the outlook for defaults in the world’s second-biggest bond market, likely tipping a raft of distressed borrowers over the edge this year, Bloomberg News reported. With scores of millions of citizens barred from travel, and companies, factories and retail outlets shuttered for a period of weeks, strains on cash flow add an unexpected layer of stress on Chinese borrowers. Market participants had already anticipated that defaults in 2020 would be on par with 2019, which saw a second straight annual record high.

Argentina’s province of Buenos Aires narrowly avoided defaulting on its debt on Tuesday, agreeing to make good on an overdue payment originally due in January and announcing it would begin restructuring its debt burden, the Financial Times reported. Axel Kicillof, the governor of Argentina’s most populous province, said his government would pay holders of a bond maturing in 2021 the $250m they were owed, and start the process of restructuring its remaining stock of foreign debt.

Private equity firm Kuramo Capital risks losing a total of Sh699 million worth of loans it had advanced to TransCentury, the parent company of East African Cables, which is facing a liquidation suit, Business Daily reported. Kuramo provided the loans between 2017 and 2018 and they were mostly secured by 56.7 million shares of the cables manufacturer with a current market value of Sh124 million. The PE firm gave the loans in its capacity as the controlling shareholder of TransCentury where it holds a 25 percent equity.

Aqua Munda, the little-known investor looking to purchase about S$1.8 billion worth of Hyflux’s debts, has extended the deadline of its offer for the second time, CNA reported. It is giving eligible creditors about three more weeks until 5pm on Feb 22 to submit their bids, Aqua Munda said in a press statement on Monday (Feb 3), citing “significant additional concerns” about Hyflux’s situation following a change of legal advisers at the embattled water treatment firm.