Headlines

The story of what came to be known as the Barings Crisis of 1890 is studied by economic historians as the biggest sovereign debt meltdown of the century, Bloomberg News reported. But for Argentines, the fallout reverberates outside the pages of textbooks; for the same elements of boom and egregious bust lie at the root of the country’s economic and political upheaval to the present day. Argentina has spent 33% of the time since 1950 in recession, according to a World Bank report released in May.

Even before the body of coffee-chain tycoon V.G. Siddhartha was recovered from a river in southern India this week, the financial strains that appear to have led him to take his own life were beginning to emerge, Bloomberg News reported. A letter purportedly written and signed by Siddhartha and sent to senior management of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. laid out in stark words his struggles with a “serious liquidity crunch” that in turn had led to “tremendous pressure” from lenders and an unnamed private-equity investor. “I would like to say I gave it my all,” Siddhartha wrote.

German industrial automation provider Eisenmann SE has filed for insolvency and launched a strategic reorientation plan to help the company return to profitability in a plan that could see some business units sold off, corporate leaders said Monday, DC Velocity reported. Böblingen, Germany-based Eisenmann this week filed its petition for the opening of insolvency at Stuttgart District Court, also submitting applications for the related business units Eisenmann Anlagenbau GmbH & Co. KG, Eisenmann Lactec GmbH, and ENisco GmbH & Co. KG.

Lok Sabha on Thursday passed amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, with the government asserting that the spirit behind the law is not to allow companies to die, India Today reported. Rajya Sabha has already passed the bill and with its passage in the lower house, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is set to be amended. Responding to the debate on the bill, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the liquidation of a company is not the sole agenda of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. As many as seven sections of the Code are to be amended.

China onshore corporate bond defaults reached at least 14.4 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) from 14 notes in July, the highest level since the March peak, Bloomberg News reported. This brings the total year-to-date defaults to 70.9 billion yuan from 89 bonds. Real estate sector with 10.2b yuan defaults tops year-to-date default list, followed by wholesale (9.5b yuan) and retail sales sector (7.9b yuan). Investment companies topped last month’s defaults, accounting for 45% of monthly total amount. Jiangsu, Anhui provinces and Shanghai City were among the top 3 default locations.

Downer EDI Ltd warned on Thursday that it expects a negative impact to its full year 2019 results following the insolvency of Germany’s Senvion SA, the company’s construction partner in the Murra Warra wind farm in Victoria, Reuters reported. Sydney-based Downer said wind turbine manufacturer Senvion’s bankruptcy would result in a charge of A$45 million ($30.83 million) for the full year, related to obligations for completing the wind farm.

Company insolvencies hit a five-year high in the second quarter of this year, according to the Insolvency Service of England and Wales, CRN reported. Underlying corporate insolvencies totalled 4,321 for the three-month period ending in June, which represented a 2.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase and an 11.9 per cent jump on the same period last year. This is the highest underlying level of insolvencies in any quarter since Q1 2014, the authority said.

One of Asia’s best bond rallies is bolstering Indian banks’ efforts to accelerate clean-up of the world’s worst bad-loan pile, Bloomberg News reported. The benchmark 10-year sovereign bond yield dropped about 50 basis points in July, extending the past year’s decline to more than 130 basis points. Each basis point fall in the yield adds 3.5 billion rupees ($50 million) to banks’ treasury gains, boosting their ability to writedown bad loans, estimates by ICRA Ltd. show.

The Saudi Binladin Group is seeking a financial adviser for a restructuring of the group’s debt, which could range between $20 and $30 billion, sources familiar with the matter said. The move is the latest in state efforts to restructure the construction giant, in which the Saudi government took a roughly one-third stake from Bin Laden family members that were swept up in an anti-graft campaign that Riyadh launched in late 2017, Reuters reported.

Can the company behind Aston Martin avoid tapping its shareholders? Yes, if everything goes to plan. The snag is that Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc is proving increasingly accident prone, a Bloomberg View reported. Shares in the sports car maker fell as much as 22% on Wednesday. That’s all too familiar. The stock dropped 26% and 18% on consecutive days last week. The group is suffering from weak orders in Europe even as sales rise in the U.S. and Asia. A partner has defaulted on an intellectual property deal, costing 19 million pounds ($23.1 million).