Headlines

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is the largest law firm in India, and is well equipped to manage the Jet Airways project, given some of its recent assignment. In 2017, the law firm was called upon to help with the divestment of Indian public sector airline carrier Air India, alongside EY and Rothschild, Consultancy.in reported. The firm will now help the State Bank of India (SBI) with resolving the situation at Jet Airways, after the creditor made the decision to begin the insolvency process for the airline.

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The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) Wednesday directed IDBI Bank, the lead lender of debt-ridden Jaypee Infratech, to file an affidavit listing out new terms and conditions if a fresh round of bidding is conducted, Business Standard reported. A two-member bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya has asked IDBI Bank to file an affidavit by Friday in this regard. The appellate tribunal has listed the matter for next hearing on Monday. "Counsel appearing for lenders is allowed to file new terms and conditions in case fresh bidding takes place," the bench said.

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In a big relief for banks, the government is bringing in multiple reforms to the three-year-old Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), providing clarity about preference to secured lenders over operational creditors, to be applicable retrospectively; strict timelines for the resolution and litigation process; and powers of the committee of creditors (CoC) Business Standard reported. Lenders and legal experts say that the amendments, especially regarding the treatment of operational creditors, will help end the uncertainty around recovery for the financial creditors of Essar Steel.

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Foreign investors have ended their near-boycott of Ukrainian local currency government debt, returning en masse in recent months amid an improving political and economic backdrop, the Financial Times reported. Just 1.6 per cent of Ukraine’s hryvnia-denominated sovereign bonds were held by foreign investors in December, in the wake of a series of calamities that had seen the currency ship 70 per cent of its value against the dollar since the start of 2014.

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The family that controls Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd., India’s largest private hospital chain, is looking to sell assets or bring an outside investor into their holding company to pay down debt, Bloomberg News reported. The aim is to reduce the Apollo shares pledged by the family as collateral to lenders, to 20% of their total holding in the company from about 78% now, said Suneeta Reddy, Apollo’s managing director and one of the four daughters of founder Prathap Reddy. The Reddy family owns about 34% of Apollo’s stock.

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The wild ride in an Indonesia textile maker’s dollar bonds is putting a spotlight on the risks that Asia junk bond buyers are taking, Bloomberg News reported. Four months after a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Duniatex Group sold a $300 million bond, attracting over $1 billion of orders, that bond has plummeted, losing nearly 70 cents on the dollar this week. The stunning fall, prompted by a missed loan payment by another group subsidiary, has shocked bond investors.

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Cash-strapped Dewan Housing Finance Corp. is in discussions with its bondholders to revamp its debt as the Indian mortgage lender tries to shore up its financials after posting its first quarterly loss in more than a decade, Bloomberg News reported. In a meeting with its rupee bondholders last week, Dewan Housing discussed an inter-creditor agreement that the consortium of bankers has agreed to enter for a potential restructuring of its liabilities, according to three people familiar with the matter.

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The Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority have stepped up their rhetoric about the dangers posed by funds offering customers daily redemption rights while investing in stuff that may prove hard to sell when times get tough, a Bloomberg View reported. The problem they and their fellow regulators face is that market liquidity is an elusive, contradictory thing: It can be reliably ever-present when it isn’t needed – only to vanish as soon as it’s desperately desired. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is unequivocal in his condemnation of the status quo.

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Brazilian telecom carrier Oi SA disclosed on Tuesday a new strategic plan aiming to divest up to 7.5 billion reais ($2 billion) in non-core assets and focus on its fiber-to-home (FTTH) broadband service, Reuters reported. The company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2016 to restructure approximately 65 billion reais of debt, plans to sell towers, data centers, real estate assets, its Angolan subsidiary Unitel and other non-strategic assets between 2019 and 2021.

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Views on the state of the German economy darkened again in July, according to a key survey, as analysts weighed factors including rising tensions in the Gulf, the US-China trade dispute and uncertainty around the UK’s exit from the EU, the Financial Times reported. The Zew survey of financial market experts indicated deteriorating views on both the current state of and outlook for Europe’s powerhouse industrial economy.

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