Headlines

Debenhams has presented Sports Direct with a put up or shut up ultimatum as it told its biggest shareholder to finance a formal rescue for the department store chain or face being wiped out, the Financial Times reported. The struggling retailer said it had secured a fresh financial lifeline of £200m of new funding, but only half would be available immediately.

The chief executive of Iceland’s low-cost Wow Air, which collapsed on Thursday, has said his “fatal” mistake was trying to turn the airline into a global business, the Financial Times reported. Speaking to the Financial Times, Skuli Mogensen said Wow, which offered cheap flights between Europe and the US via Iceland, had started off with narrow-body planes, but “we wanted to use Iceland as a global hub connecting three continents” so the airline ordered expensive wide-bodied jets, which can fly further, in late 2016. Wow briefly flew a route between India and Iceland.

The Bank of Italy has appointed an insider as its second-highest ranking official, reinforcing its independence after it came under criticism from Rome’s populist coalition government for its role in the country’s banking crisis, the Financial Times reported. The Bank of Italy said Fabio Panetta, currently deputy director-general and a career central banker, would be appointed director-general in what is seen by officials as a continuation of the status quo at an institution traditionally viewed as a source of stability at times of Italian political turmoil.

Investing in small-cap oil and gas explorers has never been for the faint-hearted. But few companies have experienced as much drama in the past five years as the international energy groups with assets in the autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, the Financial Times reported. Once described by Tony Hayward, the former chief executive of BP and a co-founder of Kurdistan-focused Genel Energy, as “the last big onshore ‘easy’ oil province”, operating in the region proved to be anything but simple.

A quarter-century ago, Beijing Electron teetered on the brink of collapse, a government behemoth brought to its knees by superior foreign technology. Decades later, fueled by billions in state funds, a re-christened BOE Technology Group Co. does business with Apple Inc. and has its sights on becoming the biggest supplier of next-generation screens, Bloomberg News reported. It’s a turnaround authored by Wang Dongsheng, an accountant who took over an ailing vacuum-tube factory -- then begged his underlings for bailout money, at one point dabbling in producing mouthwash to make ends meet.

Troubled Jet Airways India Ltd. missed a $109 million loan repayment due to HSBC Bank this week, people with knowledge of the matter said. The money was due on March 28, and was part of a two-tranche facility totaling $140 million that the company took from HSBC in 2014, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private, Bloomberg News reported. Jet had also missed payment on the other $31 million tranche that was due on March 11, and hasn’t repaid any of the loan, the people said.

Friday was meant to be the day that Britain officially left the European Union. It was instead the day lawmakers rejected Theresa May’s exit deal for a third time, plunging the country deeper into crisis, a Bloomberg View reported. It marked the ninth consecutive “no” vote this week, after MPs rejected eight ways forward on Wednesday. In the end, May summed it up best: “We are reaching the limits of this process in this House.” There are now only two ways Britain can leave the EU without crashing out amid chaos: by agreeing to a different plan, or electing a different parliament.

A rare public protest in Singapore on Saturday underscored mounting anger among investors set to suffer sharp losses in one of the country’s highest-profile corporate debt restructurings, Bloomberg News reported. The catastrophic slump of the once-vaunted water and power company, Hyflux Ltd., has stunned debtholders, who stand to lose about 90 percent. About 400 to 500 of those individual investors gathered in a downtown park known as the Speaker’s Corner on Saturday, carrying placards and posters.

Perella Weinberg Partners LP is hiring Clinton Ray and Guy Morgan from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to expand its European restructuring business, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. The bankers will join the firm in London in June to advise new and existing clients on restructuring, debt advisory and liability management, said the people, who asked not to be identified because discussions are private. Representatives for Perella and Goldman declined to comment.

An Indonesian white knight, whose proposed investment in Hyflux is crucial for the beleaguered water treatment company’s rescue, said on Thursday that conditions for a deal to restructure the firm had not been met, Reuters reported. In October, SM Investments (SMI), a consortium of Indonesia’s Salim Group and Medco Group, had agreed to acquire 60 percent of Hyflux for S$400 million ($290 million) and also give it a loan of S$130 million.