Headlines

Greece's bailout creditors on Monday bluntly rejected calls from the country's new conservative government to ease draconian budget conditions agreed as part of its rescue program, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Conservative party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in as Greece's new prime minister Monday, a day after his resounding election victory on campaign pledges to cut taxes and negotiate new terms with international lenders.

More than a year after the onset of an economic calamity that has shaken the once-indomitable hold of Turkey’s strongman president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this nation of 80 million people remains stuck in uncomfortable proximity to crisis, he International New York Times reported. The latest indication came on Monday, as the Turkish currency, the lira, surrendered more than 3 percent of its value against the dollar in early trading in Asia before slightly recovering. The drop followed Mr. Erdogan’s abrupt dismissal of the nation’s central bank governor on Saturday.

When she was a teenager in the 1970s, Zhou Xiaoguang peddled trinkets city to city and slept on trains, a formative chapter in her creation of the world’s largest costume jeweler, Neoglory Holdings Group Co. Leveraging her empire of baubles, China’s “fashion-accessory queen” added hotels, offices and malls. The magnate took a seat in China’s national parliament, accepted business accolades, including Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year,” and erected the tallest skyscraper in Yiwu, a trading city south of Shanghai. Now, China’s economic slowdown is making Ms.

Deutsche Bank's capital-boosting Additional Tier I (AT1) debt issues fell on Monday on worries over future challenges Germany's biggest lender may face in a planned overhaul, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Concerns centered on Deutsche Bank's decision to lower minimum capital buffers, a pool of assets designed to absorb losses, after it launched one of the biggest overhauls of its investment bank since the 2008 financial crisis on Sunday. The debt had earlier risen after Deutsche Bank said it will pay coupons on its bank capital debt.

For investors in Italian debt, the round-trip is complete. Government bonds have climbed back to levels previously seen before the election that brought a populist coalition to power last year. Borrowing costs had spiked in May 2018 after the government’s spending plans set it on a collision course with EU leaders. Italy’s 10-year yield rose as high as 3.5 per cent, in a worrying echo of the depths of the sovereign debt crisis. That now feels like a distant memory, the Financial Times reported.

Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries is looking to hire a restructuring adviser after cutting jobs as a ban on the medicine maker’s exports to Saudi Arabia weighs on its finances, Bloomberg News reported. The company known as Julphar replaced most of its top management and appointed new board members as it comes under increasing financial strain. The United Arab Emirates-based firm also cut about 150 jobs, or 3% of its workforce, according to a person with knowledge of the plans who asked not to be identified because they are private.

Shares in Punjab National Bank slid after the lender said it had reported a suspected 38 billion rupee ($554.63 million) fraud in Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd’s account, potentially delaying a sale of the firm’s assets and consequent repayments to creditors, Reuters reported. PNB is among nearly 34 financial creditors who have claimed a collective 473.03 billion rupees from Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd, which the Reserve Bank of India referred to a bankruptcy court in 2017.

German engine block and cylinder head maker Weber Automotive has filed for insolvency, following a spat between its family owners and French private equity group Ardian about the right restructuring strategy, Reuters reported. Finances have deteriorated despite solid orders, Weber Automotive said in a statement on Monday as it announced the filing, adding that the owners lacked unity about future financing of the maker of drivetrain components.

UK business secretary Greg Clark has travelled to India and China over the past two weeks to meet companies viewed as potential bidders for British Steel, as efforts intensify to rescue the ailing business and save thousands of jobs, the Financial Times reported. In the past few days, the cabinet minister met JSW, one of India’s largest steel manufacturers, according to two people briefed on the matter, and other businesses. This followed a trip last week to China, whose Baowu has been linked with a move for British Steel.

A key gauge of the health of Germany’s manufacturing industry sank by far more than expected in May, adding to concerns about the health of the global economy ahead of the release of key US economic data. A steep drop-off in foreign demand is hitting factories across the eurozone and raising expectations that the European Central Bank will revive its crisis-era stimulus, the Financial Times reported. Manufacturing orders in Germany dropped 2.2 per cent month-on-month in May, and were down 8.6 per cent from the same month in 2018.