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Brazilian telecom group Oi SA has agreed to end all legal with a subsidiary of shareholder Pharol SGPS SA, the company said on Wednesday, paving the way for its long-awaited operating turnaround, Reuters reported. The agreement covers all litigation against the parties in Brazil, Portugal and other jurisdictions, Oi said in a securities filing.
Struggling children's goods retailer Mothercare has continued to suffer from declining sales, with no reversal in its fortunes over the crucial Christmas trading period. Sales at its UK stores that have been open for more than a year fell by 11.4 per cent in the 13 weeks to January, compared to the same period a year before, the Financial Times reported. Online sales dropped by 16.3 per cent as fewer people visited its website and its toy range was smaller than a year ago.
Just when they were trying to get past their cash-crunch woes, India’s non-bank financiers may find themselves staring at a new problem: a rise in soured debt amid higher funding costs, Bloomberg News reported. That’s the prognosis about shadow lenders by Washington-based Institute of International Finance, which sees support likely from policy makers as part of their efforts to boost credit growth and bolster the economy ahead of federal elections due by May.
Abraaj Group, the private-equity firm that collapsed after defaulting on debt, will get a 70 percent stake in C&I Leasing Plc by converting a $10 million loan into equity in the Nigerian company, Bloomberg News reported. “Abraaj knows that pulling out $10 million will be detrimental to the growth of the business, so rather than cash out, they decided to convert,” C&I Chief Executive Officer Andrew Otike-Odibi said by phone from Lagos. Once done, C&I plans a rights issue or an initial public offering that may dilute Abraaj’s stake to about 30 percent, he said.
On Thursday Nicolás Maduro will be sworn in for a second term as president after his first term saw an exodus of Venezuelans escaping economic meltdown. The UN says more than 3m people have fled Venezuela since 2014, around 10 per cent of the population, while the IMF expects prices will rise a staggering 10m per cent in 2019, the Financial Times reported.
The High Court has appointed an interim examiner to a group of companies that provides 70 online education courses to more than 4.5 million students globally, The Irish Times reported. Shaw Academy Ltd, and two related firms – Shaw Education Group plc and Academy of Financial Trading Education Ltd – sought the protection of the courts after its largest creditor made demands last week on the group to repay loans of €5.7 million.
Free iPads, rental guarantees and an eye-watering A$100,000 ($72,000) off the price of an apartment are some of the sweeteners on offer from property developers amid the worst housing downturn in Australia for 35 years, the Financial Times reported. National house prices fell 1.3 per cent in December, the largest monthly fall since 1983, which resulted in an annual decline of 6.1 per cent last year.
Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets and NTPC Ltd., India’s largest power utility, are among companies interested in buying some of the renewable energy assets of beleaguered shadow financier Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., people familiar with the matter said. GAIL India Ltd. and Solar Energy Corporation of India have also submitted expression of interest to buy the assets, the people said asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public, Bloomberg News reported.
An increasing number of Canadians can’t meet their financial obligations, another sign rising borrowing costs are taking a toll on household balance sheets, Bloomberg News reported. The number of consumers seeking debt relief jumped 5.1 percent to 11,320 in November from a year earlier, the Ottawa-based Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy reported on Jan. 4. October and November combined saw 22,961 consumer insolvency filings, the most for those two months since at least 2011.