Headlines

Argentine opposition candidate Alberto Fernandez said he won’t lead the country into default if he wins the presidential election in October, seeking to reassure investors who fear a new government might renege on its borrowings, Bloomberg News reported. “What we can guarantee is that we aren’t going to fall into a new default. I received an Argentina in default. I don’t want Argentina to fall back into that," Fernandez, 60, said in reference to his stint in Nestor Kirchner’s government at the beginning of the century when the country was emerging from a devastating debt default.

A consumer loan company priced Japan’s first publicly-offered junk bond on Friday with an interest rate of just 0.99 per cent, a coupon that highlights the country’s institutional desperation for yield and the increasingly eye-catching distortions caused by the Bank of Japan’s negative interest rate policy, the Financial Times reported.

Zimbabwe’s central bank said it would stop printing money as part of a milestone deal with the IMF, which has agreed to monitor vital currency reforms in the southern African nation, the Financial Times reported. Under the terms of an IMF staff-monitored programme announced on Friday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government will cease borrowing from the central bank to pay its bills, a practice that has exacerbated Zimbabwe’s debilitating currency crisis.

The Bank of Ghana revoked the licenses of 347 insolvent micro-finance firms after the conclusion of a cleanup of the banking sector. It cancelled the permits of 192 firms currently in operation in addition to 155 that have ceased operations, the Accra-based regulator said in emailed statement, Bloomberg News reported. The regulator also annulled the licenses of 39 insolvent micro-credit companies, it said in a separate statement.

The labor union whose members contribute most to the funds overseen by South Africa’s state pension manager wants the institution to stop investing in the debt of Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., potentially increasing funding pressure on the heavily indebted utility, Bloomberg News reported. The 240,000-strong Public Servants Association said by buying Eskom’s bonds the Public Investment Corp. is exposing pensioners to excessive risk as the state-owned power company is not selling enough electricity to cover its costs and has had to be bailed out by the government.

Mozambique reached an agreement in principle on key terms to restructure $726.5 million of Eurobonds, in which bondholders will no longer get access to the country’s future natural-gas revenue, Bloomberg News reported. Bondholders will be invited to vote in favor of an exchange of their debt for a new series of securities maturing on Sept. 15, 2031, according to a Finance Ministry statement.

The surprising announcement that Brazil chicken producer BRF SA is in talks to take over beef giant Marfrig Global Foods SA was met with mixed responses from analysts. Investors didn’t seem too excited either, with moves on the stocks somewhat muted as the expected reduction in the debt burden at the resulting company is met with uncertainties about scale gains and corporate governance, Bloomberg News reported. BRF fell 1.2% at 11:23 a.m. in Sao Paulo, while Marfrig rose 3.1%. Competitor JBS SA dropped 2.8%.

Deutsche Bank AG and UniCredit SpA moved some of their swaps trades from London to Frankfurt in May as banks used a lull in the ongoing Brexit drama to prepare for the worst, Bloomberg News reported. About 10 banks took part in a switching run where lenders closed existing swaps positions in the U.K. and opened equivalent ones in Germany, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the trades are private. Some of the 10, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Global mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources said on Friday it was seeking international arbitration over Zambia’s appointment of a provisional liquidator to run the company’s Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) business, Reuters reported. Vedanta said on Friday its executives were unable to visit its KCM operation and engage with local management, in a setback to efforts to ease tensions amid a legal battle with Africa’s second-biggest copper producer. The Zambian government has accused KCM of breaching its operating license. Legal proceedings have been adjourned until June 4.

Creditors of Jaypee Infratech Thursday decided to put on vote NBCC's bid to acquire the debt-laden realty firm even as the state-owned firm did not dilute certain conditions in its offer including relief from future tax liabilities, sources said, Yahoo! News reported. The voting under the insolvency process, run by Jaypee Infratech's Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) Anuj Jain, will start from Friday and continue till June 10, they added. As many as 13 banks and over 23,000 home buyers have voting rights in the committee of creditors (CoC). Buyers have nearly 60 per cent votes.