Headlines

The cost of Ghana’s financial sector cleanup risks escalating to 20 billion cedis ($3.5 billion) as the government weighs increasing the guaranteed payback for some depositors, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said. The West African nation has approved funding of about 16.4 billion cedis since 2017 to help recapitalize the industry and safeguard depositors’ funds after the central bank revoked the licenses of nine insolvent lenders and 23 second-tier institutions, Bloomberg News reported.

Dubai’s biggest bank is going after a plot of land in the city’s financial hub that belongs to debt-laden Al Jaber Group, Bloomberg News reported. Emirates NBD PJSC is seeking to seize or sell the undeveloped land in the Dubai International Financial Centre after becoming frustrated by the pace of assets sales under Al Jaber’s debt restructuring, according to people familiar with the matter and an enforcement letter sent by the bank.

Argentina’s Chubut province bonds plunged to the lowest since November after local officials said they wanted to renegotiate the debt, Bloomberg News reported. The bonds due 2026 slid as much as 8 cents to 63.3 cents on the dollar after its economy minister Oscar Antonena proposed reducing coupons and suspending principal payments for four years on $650 million of the overseas bonds. Antonena told local reporters that the province is sending the proposal to its local legislature along with a fiscal readjustment plan that would shrink its bloated public sector.

Lenders to Altico Capital India Ltd. are trying an unusual method to cut debt at the shadow lender, as attempts to sell the company or restructure the loans face challenges including swelling soured credit and a funding squeeze, Bloomberg News reported. Creditors have asked each other to bid for an asset swap that would make real estate firms, until now funded by Altico, liable to directly repay the debt, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bankrupt Indian airline Jet Airways Ltd said it had agreed to sell its assets in Netherlands to Dutch airline KLM, Reuters reported. If the deal is finalised, it will only involve a sale of part of the company’s business and not impact the shareholding pattern, Jet said in a statement dated Jan. 16. It did not detail the assets held in Netherlands. Once India’s biggest private carrier, Jet stopped flying in April after running out of cash, leaving thousands without jobs and pushing up air fares across the country.

Struggling British regional airline Flybe is in talks with the government about a loan on commercial terms which would not represent a state bailout, the BBC reported on Friday, Reuters reported. British Airways and Ryanair have opposed government-backed support for Flybe, saying it prevents a level playing field and breaches state aid rules, although the details of the plan have not been made public. The government has said that its support for Flybe, which provides links between many regional UK and European airports, does not breach EU rules on state aid.

South Africa’s Public Enterprises Ministry said on Sunday it was talking with the Treasury to raise funds to rescue South African Airways (SAA), following a meeting with business rescue specialists at the weekend, Reuters reported. The airline is one of several state entities, including power company Eskom, struggling with debt after nearly a decade of mismanagement. Their woes are seen as the single greatest threat to Africa’s most industrialised economy and have been largely responsible for bringing South Africa’s credit rating to the brink of junk.

British department store retailer Beales has collapsed into administration, a form of creditor protection, putting 1,052 jobs at risk, administrator KPMG said on Monday, Reuters reported. The 139-year old retailer operates 23 department stores in market towns across Britain, selling furniture, fashion, toys and cosmetics.

Lebanon’s precarious finances mean the crisis-hit country looks likely to default on its debt in some way and could even launch a Cyprus-style grab for savers’ bank accounts, Fitch’s top sovereign analyst said, Reuters reported. Lebanon’s debt problems have jumped back into focus this week after reports emerged of a bid by authorities there to try and delay some of this year’s bond repayments.

Recruiter Hays has warned it expects profits to slip in the first half of this year, as economic uncertainty across several key markets disrupts its business, the Financial Times reported. Hays highlighted strikes in France, the slowdown in the German economy, political uncertainty in the UK and the still-raging Australian bushfires as factors behind a “marked” slowdown in fee growth in December, in a trading update on Thursday. Together, these countries account for 45 per cent of the recruiter’s fees.