Headlines

Creditors of corruption-ensnared conglomerate Odebrecht SA have delayed discussion of the restructuring of 51 billion reais ($12.2 billion) in debt to March 18, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter, Reuters reported. A vote on the plan had been expected for Wednesday, but creditors agreed to delay discussions following a decision by creditors of one of Odebrecht’s units, Atvos, to postpone their vote to March 27.

The aluminium smelter in the Bosnian town of Mostar has fallen eerily silent since its electricity was cut in July, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The only visitors to what was once a model factory in former Yugoslavia are staff filling in redundancy papers. The closure of debt-laden Aluminij Mostar is symptomatic of the challenges facing countries across the Balkans as they try to keep loss-making state-owned businesses inherited from the communist era afloat in market economies.

South African Airways finally secured the funding it needs to keep flying for the time being, yet there’s still a long way to go before the state-owned carrier can claim to be stable, Bloomberg News reported. SAA probably has enough cash to keep operating for as long as eight months after the Development Bank of Southern Africa stepped in with a 3.5 billion rand ($240 million) injection, according to Joachim Vermooten, an independent aviation consultant.

The administrators to collapsed electricals retailer Comet Group have been handed a record UK insolvency fine of £1m for failures related to their independence, the Financial Times reported. Deloitte and two of its former partners, Neville Kahn and Christopher Farrington, who both left the Big Four accountancy firm during a five-year investigation, did not ensure that they were objective as administrators, according to the findings of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Thousands of people who seek debt advice are potentially ending up even worse off because of the aggressive marketing of repayment plans that they are later unable to afford, the Financial Times reported. Statistics published on Thursday by the UK’s Insolvency Service showed the number of people entering Individual Voluntary Arrangements, which allow people to pay off part of their debts on a schedule agreed with their creditors, rose to a new high of 78,000 in 2019, up almost 10 per cent from 2018.

Lebanon’s central bank told local lenders to settle their debt securities and Certificates of Deposit in client accounts at banks working in the country exclusively, part of emergency measures to avoid capital flight, Bloomberg News reported. In a circular issued Thursday and effective for six months, banks will settle the value and interest of debt securities issued by them as well as Certificate of Deposits in accounts in Lebanon. Local lenders and the central bank have taken a series of measures to protect the sector and prevent a run on the banks as they ration U.S.

Some of the mom and pop investors desperate to recover money from Singapore’s embattled water treatment firm Hyflux Ltd. are losing confidence they’ll get much of anything back as the wait drags on, Bloomberg News reported. In the latest twist to the city-state’s most high-profile debt restructuring, Hyflux’s legal adviser this week expressed its intent to resign from the case due to “loss of confidence,” while the company said in turn that it has lost trust in its adviser and has since appointed new ones.

As Venezuela enters its third full year in default, its obligations have become something of an afterthought to even its biggest creditors, Bloomberg News reported. Worth just pennies on the dollar, tens of billions in bonds routinely go days at a time without trading. Sanctions bar U.S. investors from buying them and make the prospect of a full-scale restructuring all but impossible. And with no end in sight to the political stalemate in Caracas, it’s no wonder few creditors have taken the costly step of taking the government to court.

East African Cables is seeking to restructure nearly a fifth of its bank debt, including a 285 million shilling ($2.83 million) loan to a local lender that has sought to wind it up over the debt, it said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The court petition by SBM Bank to unwind the company was first reported by local media on Monday. East African Cables makes electric and telecoms cables sold across East and Central Africa. Last year, the company and its parent firm restructured 82% of their debts. “The company...

South African Airways finally secured the funding it needs to keep flying for at least a few more months, yet there’s still a long way to go before the state carrier can claim to be stable, Bloomberg News reported. The loss-making airline was put into a local form of bankruptcy protection late last year and its administrators have little more than a month left to come up with a workable plan to turn it around.