Headlines

Burford Capital, a London-listed fund that finances lawsuits in return for a cut of any payouts, said it is considering buying back shares, a day after short-seller Muddy Waters criticised its accounts and said it had bet on its shares falling, Reuters reported. “The board is ... considering the company buying back its own shares, given the potential investment return the shares represent at their current price,” it said in a statement.

The German economy is stuck in a rut. The country’s large, export-dependent manufacturing sector is reeling from the collapse in global trade while problems within domestic industry compound the overall economic malaise, the Financial Times reported. The services sector has held up, but the disconnect is not certain to last much longer — business cycle indicators already point to a mild recession. Benefits from further monetary easing will be constrained by unprofitable banks and vast savings. Fiscal space is abundant. It must finally be used.

Investors seeking shelter from the sea of negative-yielding assets may provide a further boost to Europe’s direct lending market, Bloomberg News reported. Private debt fund managers say the ultra low interest rate environment is set to drive more money into the business of lending to mid-sized companies. Fundraising for the strategy totaled $10.7 billion from January to June, according to research firm Preqin, and the second half of the year is off to a bumper start with several multi-billion-euro fundraisings already announced.

This isn’t the first time Saudi Arabia has deployed the whatever-it-takes weapon to beat back the bears. In May 2017, energy minister Khalid Al-Falih used that exact phrase when Brent crude had slipped below $50 a barrel, a Bloomberg View reported. It sparked a brief rally, followed by a brief dip again, that ultimately segued into a sustained march toward $86 by the fall of 2018. It’s different this time. As bleak as things seemed to OPEC in May 2017, the organization actually had some favorable trends going its way.

Italian regional bank Popolare di Sondrio (BPSI.MI) said on Thursday it would sell 1 billion euros’ ($1.1 billion) worth of bad loans to lower their share of total lending to around 8% by 2022, Reuters reported. The bank said it had booked 106 million euros in loan writedowns between January and June, raising its provisions on defaulted loans to 68.4% of their value, meaning the latest sale was not expected to have any further negative impact. Popolare di Sondrio held impaired loans equivalent to 13.65% of total lending at the end of June.

With talks intensifying over Venezuela’s state oil giant potentially missing a payment in late October on the nation’s only bond not currently in default, Ashmore Group Plc has more at stake than anyone else, Bloomberg News reported. The London-based investment firm holds more than 51% of Petroleos de Venezuela’s 2020 notes, followed by BlackRock Inc. and T Rowe Price Group Inc., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Ashmore boosted its holdings last year as Nicolas Maduro’s government began defaulting on some $11 billion in debt.

The cost of insuring PizzaExpress’ debt against default has jumped to its highest level amid concerns over the chain’s borrowing as it grapples with an increasingly difficult UK market and a costly overseas expansion, the Financial Times reported. As one of the oldest and largest casual-dining operators in the UK, PizzaExpress has been buffeted by slowing consumer spending and increased costs from a combination of rising business rates and increases to the national living wage.

Leoni has hired an external adviser to monitor its ongoing restructuring, two sources said on Thursday. Magazine WirtschaftsWoche reported that representatives of Leoni’s creditors had met on Monday to discuss the firm’s liquidity situation, Reuters reported. Leoni has hired Hans-Joachim Ziems as an external expert for the restructuring, the sources told Reuters, adding that Leoni managed to reassure its creditors. Leoni said it was in constructive talks with its creditors but declined to provide details, adding that its lenders supported its saving and strategy scheme.

Industrial production in Germany dropped by a larger-than-expected 1.5 per cent month on month in June, compounding fears that Europe’s largest economy could be heading for its first recession in more than six years, the Financial Times reported. Analysts polled by Reuters had estimated output would fall 0.4 per cent during the month compared with May. The fall meant that industrial production was 5.2 per cent lower than a year ago, Germany’s statistics office said. Carsten Brzeski, ING’s chief economist for Germany, characterised the figures as “devastating, with no silver lining”.

An investment group owned by Turkey’s military pension fund is in last-minute talks about a takeover of British Steel, offering hopes of a deal that could save thousands of jobs, the Financial Times reported. Ataer Holding, a wholly owned vehicle of state military retirement scheme Oyak that is also the largest shareholder in Turkish steel group Erdemir, is negotiating with the UK government about acquiring the collapsed steelmaker, according to two people familiar with the matter.