Headlines

Deutsche Bank has received a much-needed boost after initial trading of a new financial product made it significantly cheaper to hedge against doing business with the under-fire German bank, the Financial Times reported. The cost of buying the new credit default swaps — derivatives that pay out if a company defaults on its bonds — has halved compared with the previous benchmark. This is important because Deutsche has been struggling with spiralling funding and transaction costs as investors have worried about dwindling investment bank revenues and low profitability.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has decided to hear the Essar Steel insolvency case dispute on a daily basis for an early resolution, The Hindu Business Line reported. ArcelorMittal, the winning bidder, has been fighting to takeover the steel company for over one-and-half year but there is no sign of a resolution yet. Arguing on behalf of Essar Steel’s financial creditor Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) on Monday, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said ArcelorMittal’s bid is only ₹39,500 crore rather than ₹42,000 crore as claimed by the company in the Supreme Court.

An associate professor of business at Carleton University in Ottawa says Newfoundland and Labrador is headed for trouble if it continues on its current spending path, VOCM reported. The province is mired in debt to the tune of over $15-billion. Interest costs are one of the largest expenditures in the budget. Ian Lee notes that the Parliamentary Budget Office, an arm of the federal government, crunched the numbers and found that all provinces except Quebec are in bad financial shape but that Newfoundland and Labrador is the worst of all.

Small borrowers with annual income up to ₹60,000 are likely to get automatic relief for any unsecured loans they are unable to repay, according to a new scheme for personal insolvency resolution that the government has prepared, Mint reported. The new scheme that will replace colonial era laws dealing with personal bankruptcy will also give breathing space to those who can repay loans. It will also protect some of their assets from dues recovery to help in their subsistence.

Lenders of debt-ridden dairy firm Kwality on Monday decided to carry out voting on extending the May 15 deadline for submitting the resolution plan by interested bidders, including Haldiram and Kotak group firm, sources said, Mint reported. The lenders would also vote on seeking extension of insolvency proceedings by 90 days, they said. As many as five companies -- Haldiram, Kotak fund, LVP Foods, Aion and TPG Capital -- have expressed interest to bid for acquiring Kwality.

Canadian consumers filed the most insolvencies in eight years in March, an indication record debt levels may be catching up with an increasing number of households, Bloomberg News reported. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcies reported consumer insolvencies rose 5.7% to 11,963 in March, compared with 11,315 in the same month a year earlier. It was the highest volume of filings in any month since March 2011.

PBC Ltd., Ghana’s biggest cocoa buyer, seeks to raise $100 million from international banks to help pay off cedi debt that matured late December, Bloomberg News reported. The transaction, handled by an Accra-based advisory firm, should be completed before the start of the main harvest on Oct. 1, said Deputy Chief Executive Officer Kojo Safo. The company has approached the state-run pension fund and the government, who together own a 75 percent stake in PBC, to provide guarantees for the loans that are likely to have maturities of five to six years, he said.

The High Court of England and Wales has recognized Singapore’s new moratorium law for companies unable to pay their creditors, Vantage Asia reported. The ruling is positive for debt workouts across different jurisdictions and a boost to the city-state’s ambition to become Asia’s debt restructuring hub.

Brazilian airline Azul SA on Monday made a new attempt to purchase some of bankrupt airline Avianca Brasil’s most coveted routes, offering $145 million and reversing a decision not to participate, Reuters reported. Avianca Brasil filed for bankruptcy protection in December, setting off a fierce battle for its airport slots, the rights to land and depart in crowded airports, which were expected to be sold at a bankruptcy auction that was suspended indefinitely.

Zambia, which the International Monetary Fund has warned is at high risk of debt distress, contracted an additional $2.6 billion of new external loans last year, according to the Finance Ministry, Bloomberg News reported. If the funds are disbursed, they’ll increase the southern African nation’s external debt to $12.7 billion, from $10.1 billion at the end of 2018. The new loans suggest the government is too complacent about rapidly increasing debt risks, Gregory Smith, fixed-income analyst at Renaissance Capital in London, said by email.