Headlines

Mozambique’s restructuring discussions with Russian lender VTB over a loan to the state-owned Mozambique Asset Management (MAM) are in the final stretch, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its latest country report, Reuters reported. The fund also said the devastation from Cyclone Idai which killed more than 1,000 people across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi in March, had severely hit agricultural production and disrupted transport, slashing growth projections by half for this year.

Zimbabwe’s central bank has secured a $500 million loan from unspecified international banks to support interbank currency trading from Monday and ease a dollar crunch that has brought fuel and medicine shortages, Governor John Mangudya said, Reuters reported. The central bank introduced a new local currency in February, the RTGS dollar, and launched an interbank trading platform where businesses and individuals could buy and sell U.S. dollars. But dollars have been scarce on the official market, where a U.S. dollar fetches 3.4 RTGS dollars compared to 6.3 RTGS dollars on the black market.

Bonds held by the European Central Bank could become unlikely collateral damage in a battle between Spain’s largest bank and a Russian billionaire over an almost-insolvent retailer, Bloomberg News reported. The ECB is among bondholders that may be forced to take losses as a condition for Banco Santander SA to let Mikhail Fridman’s LetterOne investment fund recapitalize Distribudora Internacional de Alimentacion SA. The Bank of Spain bought DIA’s notes in 2016 as part of the ECB’s corporate bond purchase program.

From retired soldiers fighting for their pensions to striking central bank staff, few in Lebanon feel they’ll be spared what the government is touting as the most austere budget in their country’s history, Bloomberg News reported. One of the world’s most indebted nations has little time to spare after decades of fiscal overreach and mismanagement of public finances.

Yields on Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s dollar bonds traded near one-year lows while those on government debt jumped amid renewed speculation that the South African government may take over the cash-strapped electricity company’s debt, Bloomberg News reported. Moody’s Investors Service now includes the power producer’s government-guaranteed debt in its assessment of the nation’s fiscal situation because the utility can’t service its obligations without the state’s backing, it said in an emailed report Wednesday.

There’s a sliver of cash slipping quietly into financings for European buyouts. It’s equity but it’s dressed a bit like debt, and it comes from the opaque world of private credit, Bloomberg News reported. So-called ‘preferred equity’ is increasingly filling the funding gap when private equity firms stretch to pay a high price for a company and can’t make the sums add up. Where the combination of traditional debt and their own money won’t reach far enough to meet the acquisition price, sponsors need another source of funding. One option is to turn to providers of private credit.

Reliance Capital Ltd., Anil Ambani’s financial services company, protested against a three-step downgrade by Care Ratings that put its credit score two notches above junk, Bloomberg News reported. Care Ratings cut the firm’s long-term debt program to BBB from A and kept it on credit watch with developing implications, according to statements from Reliance Capital and the rating company on Saturday.

South Africa’s Public Investment Corp., whose 30% stake in Lonmin Plc is enough to block the miner’s planned takeover by Sibanye Gold Ltd., is concerned that the value of the all-share deal has been eroded, according to a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. The state-owned PIC is troubled by the drop in Sibanye’s stock since the deal was announced in December 2017 as the company battled to cut debt, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the deliberations are private.

India’s debt-ridden Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) said on Sunday that Japan’s Orix Corp has expressed an interest in buying out the remaining 51% stake in IL&FS’s wind energy assets, Reuters reported. Orix Corp plans to buy the stake to exercise its right under the terms of an existing agreement that allows Orix to match the price offered by the highest bidder for buying a stake in the wind power plants, IL&FS said.

India’s central bank said on Thursday that shadow banks with asset size of more than 50 billion rupees should appoint a chief risk officer in a move to tighten regulation after a series of defaults at top lender Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services’ (IL&FS), Reuters reported. The government took control of IL&FS last year after its default triggered fears about contagion in India’s financial sector.