Headlines

Investor advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has reversed its initial advice to Aryzta shareholders to vote down the company’s planned €800 million capital raise, while two other proxy advisors have come out in favour of the plan, the Irish Times reported. Following discussions with management and the food group’s largest shareholder Cobas, which is opposing the deal, ISS said it was now advising investors to support the rights issue, which will be put

French tyre maker Michelin warned of declining sales in Europe and China in the second half of the year, dragging down shares of its competitors in the US and Europe, the Irish Times reported. Demand for Michelin’s products fell in Western Europe because of new emissions-testing standards that have dented car sales, and dropped off in China as its auto market slumped, the company, based in Clermont Ferrand, France, said Thursday. “Given the significant decline in the passenger-car and light-truck and truck-tyre markets late in the third quarter and the further weakness ex

China’s gummed-up credit system is threatening economic growth and officials may have little choice but to let unregulated lenders step in, the New York Times DealBook blog reported. The nation’s economy is not in desperate straits yet, but confidence appears shaken. The economy expanded 6.5 percent in the third quarter of 2018, missing expectations.

Steinhoff said on Wednesday investors who are suing the crisis-hit firm had agreed to suspend litigation until next year, allowing the retailer time to focus on its recovery, Reuters reported. The lawsuit brought in the Netherlands was aimed at compensating investors for the more than 14 billion euros ($16 billion) wiped off Steinhoff’s market value since the retailer uncovered accounting irregularities last year. Steinhoff said the suspension of legal proceedings would be until April 3, 2019.

Increasing competitive pressures inside and outside Europe could lead to additional airline restructurings and bankruptcies, the German government said in a response to a parliamentary query that was published on Thursday by the Handelsblatt newspaper. The government did not comment on whether it would offer other airlines help such as the 150 million euro bridging credit it provided to Air Berlin, Germany's second largest airline, when it ran into trouble last year, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Italy’s new budget plan has landed with a thud on desks in Brussels. The proposals mark a big change, of course, from the populist coalition in Rome, which has thrown out the previous administration’s commitment to reduce the budget deficit. Instead, prime minister Guiseppe Conte’s government, prodded by the election pledges of the Five Star Movement and the League, is to raise spending, saying this will stimulate growth, the Financial Times reported.

Germany’s finance ministry has presented plans for a European unemployment stabilisation fund designed to arm the eurozone against crises, in a response to French president Emmanuel Macron’s call for deep reform of the currency union, the Financial Times reported. The fund proposed by Olaf Scholz, the social democrat finance minister, would lend to recession-hit countries with high unemployment and strained social security systems. Recipients would repay the money once they had resolved their economic problems.

The Nigerian government faces a daunting challenge to close a shortage of 17 million houses, Bloomberg News reported. Gripped by poverty, Nigeria has no formalized title-deeds registry and most homes consist of informal structures on land passed down through generations. Rapid urbanization is also causing a proliferation of slums and shanty towns. Buhari’s drive to clear a backlog of mortgage applications comes ahead of a tough re-election bid next year and as the economy struggles to recover from 2016’s contraction.

India stocks fell as concern resurfaced over tight liquidity impacting the financial sector, adding to worries about surging oil prices and global trade conflicts, Bloomberg News reported. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index fell 1.1 percent to 34,779.58 in Mumbai, snapping three straight sessions of gains. It had climbed as much as 1.3 percent earlier in the session. Seventeen of 19 sector sub-gauges compiled by BSE Ltd. declined, led by realty and auto companies. Yes Bank Ltd. and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone were the worst performers on the gauge. Infosys Ltd.

Jindal Stainless Ltd., part of billionaire Savitri Jindal’s steel and power conglomerate, expects to leave behind its debt troubles by March, allowing it to boost its capacity by half over the following two years, Bloomberg News reported. India’s dominant stainless steel producer had been forced into a central bank-mandated restructuring after its debts piled up.