Headlines

U.K. hotel operator Whitbread Plc and leather-goods maker Mulberry Group Plc reported lower sales in their home market as the uncertainty around Brexit erodes business prospects, Bloomberg News reported. Whitbread said Wednesday that first-quarter comparable sales dropped 3.7%. Mulberry reported U.K. revenue fell 6% in the year through March, driving it to a 5 million-pound ($6.3 million) pretax loss. The reports add to a litany of U.K.

China’s central bank has acknowledged its monetary tools are insufficient. The most powerful ones are proving too blunt to drill through a hardening financial system, a Bloomberg View reported. The country’s money markets have been shuddering since regulators took over Baoshang Bank Co. last month, despite initial assurances from the central bank and other authorities that they would maintain ample liquidity. While there has been little direct contagion, the seizure of the small commercial lender has hurt confidence.

Dubai developer Damac is in pole position to buy troubled Italian fashion group Roberto Cavalli, a source close to the matter said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Two other binding offers for the whole group have been submitted by Italy’s Diesel-owner OTB and U.S. brand management company Bluestar Alliance, the source said. Last Friday Cavalli said it had received five offers for the brand. The company and its private equity owner Clessidra both declined to comment.

South Africa’s state-owned electricity company is groaning under more than $30 billion of debt, and doesn’t generate enough cash to service it, Bloomberg News reported. Investors can’t get enough of it. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s 2028 dollar securities have handed bondholders a whopping 22.3% return this year, more than the debt of any other emerging-market utility and almost three times the average for developing-nation hard-currency bonds, according to Bloomberg Barclays indexes.

Iceberg Research, the short seller that targeted commodities trader Noble Group Ltd., has another trading house in its sights: Trafigura Group Ltd. Trafigura is overstating the value of debt securities related to its 49.5% stake in Porto Sudeste, an iron ore export terminal in Brazil, Iceberg, headed by Arnaud Vagner, said Wednesday in a report on its website, Bloomberg News reported. Iceberg estimates those securities may be worth only a 10th of the $490 million carrying value that Trafigura attributes to them.

The Chief Executive Officer of state-controlled Banco do Brasil SA, Rubem Novaes, said on Wednesday that the bank has around 4 billion reais ($1.03 billion) in unsecured debt with construction conglomerate Odebrecht SA, which filed for bankruptcy this week, Reuters reported. “We have set aside provisions for most of the loans,” Novaes said, adding that Banco do Brasil will suffer losses if creditors’ debts are discounted at more than 50% in the restructuring.

There’s yet another sign that India’s push to quickly expand its corporate debt market is faltering, as borrowers turn more to banks already struggling with one of the world’s worst bad debt ratios, Bloomberg News reported. India’s bond market remains small compared with other major economies, frustrating policy makers who champion it as a way of diffusing credit risks that have stacked up at banks.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV is seeking another extension to restructure almost $12 billion of debt as the retailer strives to keep shop doors open and increase the value of some of its assets, Bloomberg News reported. The South African retailer will probably miss a June 30 deadline for agreeing a debt deal, the owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the U.S. said in its 2018 annual report published late Tuesday. Steinhoff needs time to prepare some divisions for an eventual sale that will enable it to repay creditors, the company said.

Palestinian finances are on the brink of ruin after the suspension of hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. aid, the head of the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The mounting financial pressures on the Palestinians’ self-ruling entity have sent its debt soaring to $3 billion (£2.3 billion), and led to a severe contraction in its estimated $13 billion GDP economy for the first time in years, Azzam Shawwa told Reuters.

A Kenyan parliamentary committee on Tuesday recommended nationalising Kenya Airways as part of an effort to turn around the loss-making airline, Reuters reported. The transport, public works and housing committee also proposed setting up of an aviation holding company with four subsidiaries, one of which would run Kenya Airways, which is 48.9% owned by the state and 7.8% by Air France-KLM. Under the proposals, which still need to be debated and voted on by parliament, another arm of the holding company would operate Nairobi’s main international airport.