Headlines

The government plans to give debt waiver for "small distressed borrowers" under the insolvency law framework, according to a senior official. The proposed waiver would be offered as part of 'Fresh Start' provisions under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), TimesNetwork reported. Corporate Affairs Secretary Injeti Srinivas said discussions have been held with the microfinance industry regarding criteria for the proposed waiver for small distressed borrowers from the economically weaker section (EWS).

Greece’s new finance minister has said that implementing sweeping tax reforms will be his “key priority” as his country seeks to boost growth and rebuild credibility with investors following a decade of international bailouts backed by the EU and IMF, the Financial Times reported. Christos Staikouras told the Financial Times that the centre-right New Democracy government is planning “a comprehensive tax reform that will have a four-year horizon and will accelerate growth”.

A rescue deal for British Steel is in sight after a Turkish investment group owned by the country’s military pension fund reached a provisional agreement for a takeover of the stricken company, The Irish Times reported. Under the terms of the agreement announced on Friday, Ataer Holding was named as the preferred bidder for Britain’s second-largest steelmaker. It now has two months to conduct due diligence and complete the paperwork.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded Argentina, citing concerns about the country’s capacity to repay its debt following a collapse in the peso triggered by the surprise victory of Peronist Alberto Fernández over incumbent president Mauricio Macri in recent primary elections, the Financial Times reported. The rating agency slashed Argentina’s rating to CCC and warned the country could lose market access should Mr Fernandez move sharply away from the policy path set forth by the current administration.

The Government has seen almost €6 billion wiped off the value of its stakes in the three surviving bailed-out banks in the past year, leaving a notional shortfall in its aim to recoup their rescue costs during the financial crisis, The Irish Times reported.

A judge in London said on Friday he would grant an Irish-owned company the right to seek to seize some $9 billion (€8.1 billion) in assets from the Nigerian government over an aborted gas project, The Irish Times reported. Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) was awarded $6.6 billion in an arbitration decision over a failed project to build a gas-processing plant in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar. With interest payments, the sum now tops $9 billion – some 20 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign reserves.

China’s central bank on Saturday unveiled a long-awaited reform to its interest-rate mechanism, a move aimed at reducing financing costs for businesses struggling with a cooling economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The People’s Bank of China said in a statement Saturday that it would replace existing benchmark interest rates with the Loan Prime Rate, which is based on real-world bank lending prices, as a reference for banks in pricing new loans.

The Argentine opposition candidate, Alberto Fernandez, said that the country would struggle under present conditions to repay a loan to the International Monetary Fund and he would seek to renegotiate the repayment terms, according to an interview published on Sunday by the newspaper Clarin, Reuters reported. “I would say that there is only one incontrovertible reality and that is that Argentina in these conditions is not able to repay the debts it took on,” said Fernandez, the favorite to win the October elections.

Russian coal and steel producer Mechel has asked state-controlled lenders Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank for more time to make its debt repayments, the banks and company said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Mechel, which had already postponed debt repayments to 2020-2022 following lengthy restructuring talks with Russian state banks earlier this year, is now asking to push payments back to 2024-2026, an executive at Sberbank, one of its key lenders, said.

Brazilian telecom carrier Oi SA reported a steepening second-quarter net loss on Wednesday, confounding expectations for a narrower shortfall, as debt servicing costs rose and the real currency weakened, Reuters reported. In a securities filing, the company posted a quarterly loss of 1.559 billion reais ($384.81 million), compared to a loss of 1.258 billion reais in the same period of the previous year. Analysts on average expected a net loss of 437 million reais, according to Refinitiv data.