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The largest shareholder in Cobham has come out against the company’s agreed £4bn takeover by US private equity fund Advent International, arguing that it does not see the deal as “compelling,” the Financial Times reported..
Earlier this week BlackRock executive Rick Rieder urged the European Central Bank to stimulate the eurozone economy by printing money and using it to buy equities, the Financial Times reported. This idea has attracted rather less comment than it should have, even though it’s not a new idea. The Bank of Japan has been buying domestic equities for years: it owns about 75 per cent of the country’s exchange traded fund market and is a top 10 shareholder in 40 per cent of Japan’s listed companies.
After years of expropriations, hyperinflation, bankruptcies and financial collapse, what remains of Venezuela’s private sector might be forgiven for giving up hope, the Financial Times reported. But business people in Venezuela say the economic crisis in the South American nation has hastened moves by President Nicolás Maduro’s government away from the full-blooded socialism of his predecessor Hugo Chávez towards a freer market. “As business people we have wanted free prices and a free flow of dollars for many years,” one senior executive at a consumer goods said.
Primark is asking landlords to cut its rents in an attempt to compete with rivals that used insolvency proceedings to reduce costs and remain open, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the information, Bloomberg News reported. The fast-fashion retailer is asking for cuts of as much as 30% on contracts with several years left in exchange for lease extensions or refurbishments, according to the newspaper. Primark has 189 stores, most of which are leased, it said.
Croatian food company Fortenova Grupa, the Balkan region’s biggest firm by sales, said on Friday that more than 80% of its shareholders had supported the issuance of a four-year bond worth up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion), Reuters reported. The bond is aimed at financing a 1.1 billion euro liquidity loan the firm, formerly known as Agrokor, took two years ago to avoid bankruptcy, the company said in a statement. That followed an expansion drive based on high and expensive debt.
A unit of Reliance Communications Ltd., tycoon Anil Ambani’s distressed telecom firm, is seeking an extension from holders of its dollar-denominated bonds maturing Aug. 1, the company’s spokesman said, Bloomberg News reported. Global Cloud Xchange is in discussions with holders of its 7% $350 million notes for a deal that would provide the issuer more time to discuss options on the maturity of the senior secured notes, the spokesman said in a statement.
South Africa risks falling further into sub-investment territory after Fitch Ratings Ltd. cut the outlook on its assessment of the country’s debt to negative. Fitch reduced the outlook from stable while affirming the junk BB+ rating on nation’s foreign- and local-currency debt, it said in an emailed statement Friday, Bloomberg News reported. A negative outlook usually indicates that the next move could be a downgrade. The decision adds to the risk that the country could lose its last remaining investment-grade rating from Moody’s Investors Service.
Bankrupt German wind turbine manufacturer Senvion is in talks to buy time to strike a rescue deal as negotiations with potential buyers of the company continue, people close to the matter said, Reuters reported. The company is in discussions with creditors to extend a 100 million euro ($111 million) insolvency loan so it can avoid having to agree to sell at any price, they added. An original end-June deadline for final bids was dropped and a later envisaged end-July deadline is also being postponed, one of the people said.
Paschal Donohoe, the Minister for Finance, will allow the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) to extend its work to 2025. The Department of Finance has published a review of Nama, the agency set up to take over Irish banks’ property debts following the financial crash, to assess how the organisation is progressing towards achieving its objectives, The Irish Times reported. Nama was due to be wound up in 2021, after it had finished getting a return for the State from the loans.