Headlines

French marine services group Bourbon Corporation, which has been in the process of a debt restructuring, said its assets would be taken over by its creditors, Riviera Maritime Media reported. The news comes in light of Bourbon’s ongoing legal proceedings. The Commercial Court of Marseille ruled that Bourbon’s assets be transferred to Société Phocéenne de Participations (SPP) on 2 January 2020.

When Denis O’Brien sold out of Ireland’s biggest newspaper group in 2019, the billionaire drew a line under an investment that had cost him more than €450m. Now the country’s richest man faces crunch time again as Digicel, the Jamaica-based mobile phone company he launched in 2001, struggles to refinance the company in the face of its $6.7bn debt, the Financial Times reported. The company was once a cash cow for Mr O’Brien.

The state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) is set to revamp its branches' tasks to focus on community business development to boost the income of rural people and step up efforts to fight poverty, the Bangkok Post reported. Some 20% of the bank's 20,000 employees across the country will prioritise development of community business and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) farming, said president Apirom Sukprasert.

Chinese solar developer Panda Green’s race to meet a January 25 deadline to honor US$350 million of senior notes appears set to go down to the wire after the deadline for accepting a delayed payment was extended, pv magazine reported. The heavily-indebted, Hong Kong-listed solar project developer has proposed postponing settlement of the 8.25% interest-bearing notes for two years, with 8% interest paid over the extension period.

Argentina’s new President Alberto Fernandez said on Thursday that a social pact with businesses and trade unions sent a “strong message” to creditors including the IMF that the economy must be allowed to grow before the country can pay its debts, Reuters reported. The broad agreement struck last week, a core plank of the new Peronist administration’s plans to revive the economy and rein in inflation, gives Fernandez extra muscle in looming restructuring talks over around $100 billion in debt.

Factories across the euro zone ended 2019 in poor shape with activity contracting for an 11th straight month, according to a survey which suggested the start of the new year is unlikely to see any improvement, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. IHS Markit's final manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) has been below the 50 mark separating growth from contraction since February, and at 46.3 in December it was below November's 46.9 but higher than a preliminary estimate of 45.9.

UK manufacturing activity “took a turn for the worse” at the end of 2019, with the sharpest deterioration in output in more than seven years as political uncertainty continued to weigh on orders, according to a closely watched survey, the Financial Times reported.

Chinese companies are facing a reality check after years of ramping up debt. A de-leveraging campaign that President Xi Jinping began in 2016 to curb risks in financial markets has led to a crackdown on unregulated lending -- so-called shadow banking -- and tighter rules on asset management, Bloomberg News reported. That made it harder for some to raise funds to repay existing debt, leading to a record number of bond defaults in 2018 and 2019 as economic growth slowed. Contrary to what many investors thought, state-owned borrowers can’t count on a bailout.

China's central bank said on Wednesday it was cutting the amount of cash that all banks must hold as reserves, releasing around 800 billion yuan ($114.91 billion) in funds to shore up the slowing economy, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on its website it will cut banks' reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 50 basis points, effective Jan. 6. The move would bring the level for big banks down to 12.5%.

Singapore Exchange Ltd’s (SGX) regulatory unit is looking into imposing stricter regulations for listed retail bonds, including tightening the admission criteria, a move that follows a high profile default by water treatment company Hyflux, Reuters reported. In a statement on Thursday, Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) said it had set up a working group comprising representatives from law firms, banks and an investor group to review the retail bonds regulatory framework.