Headlines

China’s biggest default scares of 2019 have taken bondholders on some wild rides, underscoring both the risks and the opportunities for investors as more of the nation’s companies struggle to repay debt, Bloomberg News reported. At least three large Chinese borrowers -- Qinghai Provincial Investment Group Co., China Minsheng Investment Group Corp. and Beijing Orient Landscape & Environment Co. -- missed bond-payment deadlines last month only to come up with the cash shortly thereafter.

The catastrophic slump of Singapore’s much-vaunted water and power company, Hyflux Ltd., has stunned 34,000 retail investors who were lured by the promise of a 6 percent annual return forever from a company that seemed to have a gold seal of government approval, Bloomberg News reported. At the heart of the debacle is Tuaspring, a desalination and power plant that cost S$1.1 billion ($809 million) and was heralded as one of the “national taps” for an island that had long depended on importing water and harvesting rainwater for survival.

British baby products retailer Mothercare said on Tuesday it plans to sell its educational toy brand ELC to Teal Brands for £13.5 million (€15.75 million) as it looks to cut debt, sending its shares up 6 per cent, The Irish Times reported. The company’s sales and profit have been hammered by intense competition from supermarket groups and online retailers in its main British market as well as by rising costs. In addition to the sale of Early Learning Centre Ltd (ELC), it will also sell some related assets, Mothercare said. It will, however, retain some ELC inventory to sell later.

Seán Quinn’s five adult children unknowingly “put their heads in the noose” for a liability of more than €415 million – €83 million each – as a result of guarantees they signed concerning loans made by Anglo Irish Bank to Quinn companies, the High Court has been told, The Irish Times reported. Mr Quinn had gambled with his children’s property and future when companies in his group got €2.34 billion in loans from Anglo during 2007 and 2008 to fund margin calls on contracts for difference (CFD) positions held by Mr Quinn in the bank, Bernard Dunleavy SC said.

The developing world could be heading towards a new debt crisis. Public debt in emerging markets now averages 50 per cent of gross domestic product, the highest level since the 1980s. More than 80 per cent of developing countries have increased their public debt in the past five years, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. The number of developing countries whose public debt level is rated as “unsustainable” or “high-risk” is now 32, more than double the number in 2013. Most of the media’s attention has focused on Chinese loans that add to developing country debts.

The High Court has granted summary judgment for €1.59 million against a daughter-in-law of well known developer Paddy Kelly over loans primarily related to the purchase of units in a commercial building in Sandyford, Dublin, The Irish Times reported. AIB sought judgment against Joanna Sloan, wife of Simon Kelly, son of Laois-born Paddy Kelly arising from loans advanced in 2007 for the purchase of units in Sandyford Apex Centre and for the release of equity in two of the units there.

Investors in collapsed Australian derivatives trader Halifax are set to have a long wait to get their money back after the administrator found "accounting irregularities" and said they will have to go to court to get a direction on how to disperse the money, The New Zealand Herald reported. Voluntary administrators Ferrier Hodgson, who were appointed in November, released an update on Halifax yesterday and said they had now undertaken a wide-scale investigation of Halifax's financial position.

Beleaguered rich-lister Eric Watson will likely remain embroiled in courts for years — and faces the possibility of a tax bill of $200m when penalties are added — after a landmark court decision yesterday saw his businesses ruled to have engaged in $51.5m in tax avoidance, The New Zealand Herald reported. Justice Matthew Palmer said a complex 2002 transaction — involving Cayman Island companies while Watson himself was relocating from New Zealand to the UK for tax purposes — was an avoidance arrangement. The case is one of the largest tax judgments in New Zealand history.

South African builder Group Five filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday after lenders pulled funding, threatening the collapse of one of the biggest names in the local construction industry and more than 8,000 jobs, Reuters reported. Group Five, which traces its roots back to the 1970s with the tie-up of five construction companies, has struggled to make money for years in an industry squeezed by stagnant economic growth and a pullback in infrastructure spending by the government and private sector.

India’s debt-laden Jet Airways Ltd denied a media report on Monday that it had secured a 20.50 billion rupee ($293 million) loan from state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) to help pay overdue plane leasing fees and salaries, Reuters reported. The airline, which has had to ground planes after failing to make payments to leasing companies and is behind on paying pilots’ wages, said in a statement to the stock exchange that it has an existing credit facility of $300 million from PNB and that the bank has not provided any fresh credit.