Headlines

A group of syndicated loan members who lent $622 million to Mozambican state firm ProIndicus in 2013 are looking for a similar restructuring deal that has been agreed with Eurobond holders, a spokesman for the group said on Wednesday. Mozambique, which has missed several repayments, said on Tuesday it had reached an agreement to restructure a $726.5 million Eurobond, including extending maturities and sharing future gas revenues, Reuters reported. The Eurobond replaced an earlier bond issued by Mozambican state firm Ematum.

Eurozone retail sales volumes were flat in September compared to August, and growth over the year fell to 0.8 per cent, the lowest annual change since October last year according to official data from Eurostat, the Financial Times reported. The data add further weight to the premise that an economic slowdown is on the horizon for the currency union area. Bert Colijn, ING economist, said this is a sign that the current “goldilocks” economic conditions, not too hot and not too cold, are coming to an end. “The porridge has become a little hot in 2018 as inflation bumped up….

Five top German government advisers have warned that the country’s economic growth is set to slow dramatically this year, in what would be a sharp downturn in the fortunes of the eurozone’s economic powerhouse, the Financial Times reported. The annual report by Germany’s Council of Economic Experts, an independent group set up to monitor the economy and advise the government, forecast growth of 1.6 per cent this year and 1.5 per cent in 2019 — markedly worse than 2017’s six-year high of 2.2 per cent.

Toshiba is set to liquidate UK nuclear arm NuGen, according to people familiar with the company, dealing a hammer blow to plans to build a new plant at Moorside in Cumbria. The Japanese conglomerate, whose board is meeting on Thursday, is almost certain to take the decision to wind up NuGen after all avenues to sell the unit were exhausted, the Financial Times reported. “It is 80 per cent likely that Toshiba will decide at the board meeting to wind it up,” a source close to NuGen told the Financial Times.

The London restaurant scene has suffered its worst year for closures in decades as a rapid expansion turned to bust, the Financial Times reported. About 117 independent restaurants closed in London in the 12 months to September 2018, 40 per cent more than last year and surpassing 2003’s peak of 113, according to Harden’s London Restaurants guide. “There are just too many restaurants out there,” said Peter Harden, who has compiled the guide, now in its 28th year.

In the span of just 11 months, China went from having no distressed dollar-denominated corporate bonds to having more than any other emerging market, Bloomberg News reported. The world’s second-biggest economy has 15 bonds whose option-adjusted spreads over U.S. Treasuries were above 1,000 basis points as of Nov. 6, according to a Bloomberg Barclays index. That’s more than all the other nations combined. An ongoing trade war and slower economic growth after years of breakneck expansion are straining the nation’s highly-leveraged corporate sector.

The liquidation of Saf-Cacao, one of Ivory Coast’s biggest cocoa exporters, has stalled after the favored bidder for the company’s assets failed to make a first payment, according to people familiar with the matter. Last month, liquidator Alain Guillemain approved the sale of Saf-Cacao to a unit of Prime Group of Companies in a 170 billion CFA francs ($296 million) deal after considering two final bids for the shipper’s assets, people familiar with the situation said at the time, Bloomberg News reported.

Chinese brokerages are boosting capital to protect against a market plunge that threatens the value of $640 billion worth of shares pledged as collateral. Securities firms have extended more than a third of China’s stock-backed loans, which may go sour and force lenders to offload the shares, Bloomberg News reported. To cushion themselves, at least three of the country’s biggest brokerages have announced capital raising plans in recent months, joining the nation’s big banks in strengthening buffers.

Deutsche Post DHL Group expects a restructuring at its troubled post and parcel division to start bearing fruit next year, as it reported a smaller-than-expected decline in third-quarter operating profit, Reuters reported. The rapid growth in parcel shipments thanks to the popularity of online retailers such as Amazon and Zalando has been both a boon and a burden for Deutsche Post as price increases have not kept pace with rising transport costs.

UK restaurant chain Prezzo said trading remains challenging even after it closed more than 100 restaurants, restructured its debts and its main backer wrote off two-thirds of its investment, the Financial Times reported. The Italian-themed chain, which now has 186 rather than 300 restaurants, is majority owned by TPG, a private equity group that bought it off the stock market for £304m in 2014. However, a debt-for-equity swap has diluted TPG’s stake and turned five debt providers into shareholders.