Headlines

A Czech court ruled that Citibank’s claim to debt worth over 10 billion crowns ($434.10 million) owed by Czech miner OKD was eligible, CTK news agency reported on Wednesday, Reuters reported. CTK reported OKD’s former insolvency administrator and representative of the state, which now owns OKD’s mining operations, both said they would appeal the ruling. OKD filed for insolvency in 2016 while a unit of miner New World Resources, which went into liquidation that year. OKD’s insolvency administrator rejected Citibank’s claim, leaving it out of proceedings.

With its interest rates back at an all-time low, speculation is mounting that the Bank of Korea may be forced to join other central banks in using unconventional tools to stimulate one of the hardest-hit economies in the trade war, Bloomberg News reported. While Governor Lee Ju-yeol said last week it was too early to consider unconventional steps, he also acknowledged that the BOK was constantly reviewing and updating its “contingency plans” and studying actions previously taken by other nations should it run out of room to lower interest rates.

Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA  announced late Tuesday that it was working on a 3.5 billion-euro ($3.9 billion) refinancing, a Bloomberg View reported. That should be positive for the owner of France’s famous Monoprix and Franprix chains. But as usual with the sprawling retail group, there is probably more here than meets the eye. At first glance the move looks like sensible balance sheet management. The company has about 500 million euros of bonds maturing in March 2020, and more over the next few years. But the refinancing comes at a price.

Indian companies have defaulted on a record 76 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) of local-currency and international bonds so far this year after the shadow bank crisis triggered a credit squeeze, and it doesn’t look like the worst is over, Bloomberg News reported. Those firms that delayed or missed debt payments in 2019 still have the equivalent of $17 billion of notes and loans outstanding including the defaulted securities, according to company documents, exchange filings and data compiled by Bloomberg. In the latest instance, tycoon Anil Ambani’s Reliance Capital Ltd.

China’s $13 trillion bond market seems calmer this year, with fewer defaults than 2018. Underneath the surface, though, is a churning current that threatens to swallow investors who aren’t careful, a Bloomberg View reported. The case of Xiwang Group Co. is one such cautionary tale. Just days ago, this distressed industrial conglomerate in the northeast province of Shandong thought it could borrow for peanuts. The company, whose business operations span corn-oil processing to steel manufacturing, tried to raise 450 million yuan ($63.5 million) at a coupon range of 7.5% to 8.5%.

Exclusive talks between the U.K.’s Insolvency Service and Turkey’s Ataer Holdings about a sale for British Steel have ended without a deal, Bloomberg News reported. The official receiver for the company, who is managing the sale, will hold discussions with other parties and the potential buyers are expected to visit British Steel sites in the coming days, the insolvency service said on Wednesday. Talks with Ataer, which co-owns steelmakers in Turkey, are continuing as well.

India will spend about 410 billion rupees ($6 billion) on two unprofitable state-run telecommunication companies in a bid to help the firms take on competition, Bloomberg News reported. The government also approved a plan to combine Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd., which provides services in Mumbai and New Delhi, with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., that services the rest of the nation, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a briefing in New Delhi on Wednesday. MTNL has reported losses in nine of the past 10 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The head of Russia’s state bank VTB Andrei Kostin and Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi discussed plans to restructure Maputo’s debt, with the aim to conclude a deal by the year-end. Mozambique needs to restructure a $535 million state-backed loan to Mozambique Asset Management (MAM) arranged by VTB, Reuters reported. The meeting between Kostin and Nyusi was held on Tuesday, a VTB spokeswoman told Reuters. VTB said in a statement on Wednesday that Kostin told Nyusi that the Russian bank would like to agree on the debt restructure plan by the end of this year.

About 25 group companies to which Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL) had lent a total of ₹14,000 crore had an average profit of about ₹1 lakh, a forensic audit of the company has found, raising suspicion that the mortgage lender may have diverted funds, Mint reported. Out of the around ₹27,000 crore worth of loans raised by DHFL from banks for on-lending to home buyers, around ₹10,050 crore was invested in mutual funds, the findings of the audit revealed.

The accumulated public debt of the member countries of the euro zone in the second quarter of 2019 exceeded 10.1 billion Euros, a record figure for the region, the European Statistical Office revealed today ( Eurostat), Prensa Latina reported. That amount represents 86.4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the area, the entity said in a statement. Meanwhile, in the European Union (EU) the debt fell somewhat to stand at around 12.9 billion dollars, 80.5 percent of GDP.