Headlines

Turkey’s banking association said on Friday that the restructuring of the mounting debts of the country’s top football clubs was moving forward, adding that the debts would be matured for five years, with two years without paying the principal on the loans, Reuters reported. In January, the Turkish banking Association (TBB) said Turkey’s top football clubs, such as Fenerbahce and Galatasaray, will have their debts restructured but not written off, in a move to ease their spiralling debts.

Indian shadow banks’ woes are worsening by the day with investors now demanding the highest premium in six years to hold their short-term debt. Spreads on top-rated one-year bonds of Indian non-bank lenders over government bonds of the same maturity have risen 63 basis points since India’s mini-Lehman moment when the systemically important Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. was cut to default in September, Bloomberg News reported. This is the widest level since 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Trouble has only spread across the sector in recent months.

Dutch leader Mark Rutte has claimed that Italy’s debt crisis risks causing a rupture within the eurozone, warning that there has been a breakdown in trust between the member-states, the Express reported. Speaking to Bloomberg at the G20 Summit, Mr Rutte said there is no evidence the European Commission should hold off from disciplining Italy over its mounting debt. This comes despite words of optimism from Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who’s attending the G20 summit in Japan.

A travel planner in India backed by the world’s second-largest asset manager Vanguard Group has defaulted on debt and its shares fell to a record low, as cracks in the nation’s credit market spread, Bloomberg News reported. Cox and Kings Ltd. has paid only 500 million rupees ($73 million) of the two billion rupees due June 26 on unsecured commercial papers, according to an exchange filing late Thursday evening. Shares of the company dropped by their daily limit of 10% on Friday, the lowest since its trading debut in 2009.

H2O Asset Management co-founder Vincent Chailley defended his firm’s “deep value debt” in a video posted on its website Friday, referring to the unlisted bonds that have triggered mass investor redemptions, contributing to an almost 8 billion-euro ($9.1 billion) slide in assets, Bloomberg News reported. H20 won’t sell unless there’s an attractive bid, he said. It’s also planning to set up a new fund specializing in “deep value” securities. In its simplest form, deep value investing means buying assets whose market price is below their intrinsic value.

German Efromovich, the ousted chairman of Colombian airline Avianca, is eyeing a comeback via Italy. Efromovich wants to buy a stake in the bankrupt Italian flag-carrier Alitalia SpA, financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported, citing a phone interview, Bloomberg News reported. "We wrote a letter to Ferrovie dello Stato and the adviser Mediobanca two weeks ago saying we can purchase up to 30% of Alitalia," said Efromovich, who was removed as the chairman of Avianca Holdings SA last month after a loan breach.

Datang Group, one of China’s biggest power generators, said a subsidiary in northwestern Gansu province that operates a coal-fired power station has applied for bankruptcy and liquidation after it defaulted on about 16.44 million yuan ($2.39 million) of debt, Reuters reported. China’s coal-fired power producers are struggling as Beijing promotes the use of renewable energy and opens up the state-controlled power market. Another Datang Group coal-fired plant went bankrupt last December.

Zambian Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe said on Friday she was delaying the implementation of a new sales tax from July 1 to Sept. 1 to allow it undergo parliamentary procedures, Reuters reported. In March, Zambia previously delayed replacing Value Added Tax (VAT) with the non-refundable sales tax for three months to allow for further consultation with business leaders. Mwanakatwe said the government had continued to receive submissions from both the public and private sectors in the process of explaining the new tax to them.

Lenders to Suzlon Energy Ltd. find themselves back where they started about six years ago, Bloomberg Quint reported. The renewable energy firm, which had restructured debt under the Corporate Debt Restructuring programme in 2013, is once again in financial trouble. This time, though, lenders are not keen to restructure the company’s debt and see equity infusion from an outside investor as the only feasible option. The company owes banks about Rs 10,000 crore.

The operator of the gas transportation system, Ukrtransgaz, has signed an agreement on debt restructuring in the amount of UAH 1.47 billion with the ERU Trading company. Ukrtransgaz said this in a statement, the Ukrainian News Agency reported. “On June 27, Ukrtransgaz concluded an agreement on debt restructuring for a total amount of UAH 1.47 billion, writing off penalties imposed and settling other mutual claims with ERU Trading,” the statement reads.