Headlines

Ten years on from the financial tumult that led to the government of the day having to guarantee the viability of the State’s banks in an historic and unprecedented move, we look at the events of September 2008. Each day this month, we will recall some of the stories that pointed to the dramatic unravelling of the global banking system, The Irish Times reported.

Erik Heim, the CEO of Nordic Aquafarms, says his company will not be hindered in its construction of new recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) Atlantic salmon facilities in both Belfast, Maine, and Fredrikstad, Norway, by the news that vendor Inter Aqua Advance (IAA) has filed for bankruptcy protection, Undercurrent News reported. "We are working with a portfolio of vendors, including several RAS vendors, in addition to our internal engineering department that is growing," Heim said in an email to Undercurrent News.

Qatar Airways is reviewing plans for its own domestic Indian airline due to “confusing” foreign ownership rules and could work with a partner in India or take a stake in IndiGo instead, its chief executive said on Tuesday. The state-owned Gulf carrier has long coveted the Indian aviation market, which is the fastest growing in the world, and in 2017 said it would set up a domestic airline, a year after India eased foreign investment rules for the sector, Reuters reported.

The Austrian presidency of the European Union has asked the bloc’s finance ministers and central bankers to discuss a hike in interest rates in meetings to be held later this week in Vienna, Reuters reported. In a move that could be seen as a partial encroachment on the powers of the European Central Bank, the Austrian government, which holds for the EU’s rotating presidency, wants to hold a discussion on “financial stability implications of increasing interest rates,” a document seen by Reuters said.

British convenience retailer McColl’s Retail Group Plc posted on Tuesday lower like-for-like sales in the third quarter and said the collapse of cigarette wholesaler Palmer & Harvey (P&H) last year continued to disrupt its supply chain, Reuters reported. Like-for-like sales fell 0.9 percent for the 13 weeks ended Aug. 26 at McColl’s, which trades from about 1,600 convenience stores and newsagents in Britain. Total revenue rose 0.6 percent in the quarter.

South Africa’s unexpected slump into a second recession in almost a decade has boosted fears of another round of credit-rating downgrades that could see a sell-off in local-currency bonds, Bloomberg News reported. The cost of insuring the country’s debt against default for five years using credit-default swaps spiked to the highest since November 2016 while yields on the government’s benchmark local-currency bonds due in December 2026 rose to a nine-month high. The rand weakened the most against the dollar among major and emerging-market currencies.

Turkey’s economic troubles are reverberating in a market for short-term investors all the way across the Eurasian continent in South Korea, Bloomberg News reported. Investors pulled 8.7 trillion won ($7.8 billion) from mutual funds dealing in short-term debt and other cash-like instruments on Friday, the biggest single-day outflow ever from such products, according to the latest data from the Korea Financial Investment Association.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Turkish banks may have to pay up once again as they rush to meet $6 billion of financing deadlines amid the country’s worst economic crisis in years. At least nine lenders have to complete annual dollar loan syndications by year-end, leaving an industry heavily reliant on overseas funding little time and few options to conclude deals often involving dozens of global banks.

When they meet Tuesday to discuss the currency crisis, senior officials from Argentina and the International Monetary Fund will seek a response that strikes a balance between domestic policy changes and external financing aid, a task that has been complicated by political and trust issues, a Bloomberg View reported. While Argentina is almost certain to get some concessions from the IMF, a decisive solution will be far more difficult and will require a lot of courage and skillful risk-taking on both sides.

Emso Asset Management, the $5.5bn emerging markets hedge fund, is to enter India’s growing corporate restructuring market with a local partner, the latest global investor to target a wave of $140bn in bad debt in the country, the Financial Times reported. A new bankruptcy law is forcing some of India’s biggest conglomerates into restructuring as local banks struggle with mounting bad debts following a boom in industrial lending.