Headlines

McLeod Russel has rejigged its board and top management as it faces a financial crisis that could force the company into insolvency proceedings, Business Standard reported. The Williamson Magor Group (WMG) company has roped in two new independent directors and appointed a new chief financial officer, besides other changes. Rajeev Takru, a wholetime director who is due to retire by rotation, has said he doesn't want to be relected to the boad but wished to continue his engagement with the company in an advisory role.

Two months after China shocked investors with the first government seizure of a bank in two decades, market confidence in the nation’s smaller lenders has yet to fully recover, Bloomberg News reported. That may be just what the country needs. When it took control of Baoshang Bank Co. on May 24 and imposed losses on some creditors, China’s government upended the long-held assumption that it would always provide banks with a 100% backstop.

India’s central bank is seeing “signs of fragility” in some of the 50 mortgage lenders and other shadow banks it is monitoring to prevent the spread of a crisis that followed the collapse of a non-bank lender last year, Bloomberg News reported. “It is our endeavor that there is no contagion,” central bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said in one of his first media interviews on Saturday. "We are constantly in touch with the large lenders.

Croatian food company Fortenova Grupa, the Balkan region’s biggest firm by sales, is preparing to issue a four-year bond worth up to 1.2 billion euros ($1.35 billion), it said on Friday, Reuters reported. The bond is aimed at financing a 1.1 billion euro liquidity loan the firm, formerly known as Agrokor, took out two years ago to avoid bankruptcy, it said in a statement. That followed an expansion drive based on high and expensive debt. “The interest rate will be 7.3% plus Euribor,” Fortenova said.

A cash crunch at one of China’s best known conglomerates is getting worse as the company said it will not be able to pay its upcoming dollar notes, Bloomberg News reported. China Minsheng Investment Group Corp.’s offshore unit said in a filing that it won’t be able to repay the principal, as well as the interest on the 3.8% $500 million bond due August, after considering its liquidity and performance. On Thursday, the property-to-financial conglomerate announced it only managed to repay part of the principal on a 6.5% 1.46 billion yuan note.

Credit rating agencies for years assigned high ratings to India’s Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and its group companies despite its deteriorating finances, according to a special audit, Reuters reported. Audit firm Grant Thornton was appointed by IL&FS’ new board to conduct the review following the government’s decision to take charge of the group after its defaults on debt obligations sparked fears of financial contagion.

Of all the executives, government officials and consultants being recruited to tackle the mammoth task of rescuing South Africa’s state power utility, the toughest task could fall to the person who has to take it apart, Bloomberg News reported.

Lenders to Jet Airways agreed on Friday to provide some interim financing to the bankrupt airline to help it cover legal and other costs, as resolution experts look to find a potential buyer, Reuters reported. In a regulatory filing, bankruptcy resolution firm Grant Thornton said Jet’s lenders had also approved the eligibility criteria for potential buyers. The filing did not say how much interim funding had been approved, but a source familiar with the matter told Reuters the lenders had agreed to provide $10 million.

France has launched a long-awaited and highly contentious overhaul of its pension system, setting up another battle between labour unions and President Emmanuel Macron, who is trying to push ahead with his reform agenda following months of anti-government protests, the Financial Times reported.

Japan’s Akebono Brake Industry Co Ltd said on Thursday it will receive about $185 million from a corporate turnaround fund to help restructure its money-losing business, sending its shares sharply higher, Reuters reported. The supplier of brakes to General Motors Co, which makes up about a quarter of Akebono’s sales, and other automakers said it would issue new shares worth 20 billion yen ($185 million) to Japan Industrial Solutions. Shares of Akebono soared as much as 43% to 166 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, before closing up 8%.