Headlines

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has called it the “project of the century” and said it will usher in a “golden age” of globalisation. With Beijing-backed projects in 78 countries, the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) is one of the world’s most ambitious development programmes. But critics fear it could become the conduit through which some of China’s debt problems are transmitted overseas, the Financial Times reported.

Shares of Britain's Interserve Plc dropped as much as 9 percent on Tuesday, as the construction and services company posted a loss in the first-half hurt by higher costs, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Interserve reported a loss before tax of 6 million pounds, for the six months ended June 30, compared to a profit before tax of 24.9 million pounds last year. Operating profit fell 30 percent to 40.1 million pounds in the latest half-year.

China's HNA Group Co Ltd is in advanced talks to sell a 30 percent stake in aircraft lessor Avolon Holdings Ltd to Japan's Orix Corp, two sources said, as the company attempts to restructure and trim stakes even in its core assets, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The aviation-to-financial services conglomerate, which has racked up massive debt from acquisitions in recent years, is nearing a deal to sell the stake in Dublin-based Avolon for about $2.2 billion, the sources, who were familiar with the matter, told Reuters.

Speculation about consolidation is a staple in Brazil’s highly competitive, fast-growing telecom sector. Now, conditions may be ripe for action. NII Holdings Inc. has skyrocketed this year in New York trading, signaling that investors are stepping up their M&A bets as two favorite targets finish actions that could pave the way for deals, Bloomberg News reported. Nextel Telecomunicacoes Ltda., NII’s Brazilian unit, concluded a debt restructuring and is in better shape to be acquired as the country slowly exits a long recession.

Noble Group, the Singapore-listed commodity trader scrambling to complete a debt-for-equity swap, has increased the size of the bond that will be issued by its restructured trading holding company, according to a statement released on Monday morning.

The story of Banco Popular, the Spanish bank which failed in June last year and was subsequently bought by Santander for just €1, is still unfolding, the Financial Times reported. The Single Resolution Board (SRB), a Brussels body set up in 2015 to deal with bank failure, on Monday released its third valuation report for the bank. It is not good news for the investors who saw their holdings wiped out last year. Around €2bn in the bank's junior liabilities (which included additional tier 1 and tier 2 debt) were written down by the SRB ahead of Santander's purchase.

A sharp fall in German manufacturing output in June has fuelled concern that a global trade war has deepened an export-led slowdown in the eurozone. Official figures published on Monday showed that the value of new orders placed with German manufacturers fell by 4 per cent between May and June, as overseas demand plunged, the Financial Times reported. The biggest monthly fall since the beginning of 2017 led the country’s economy ministry to state that trade tensions were hitting exports.

A rescue fund set up to help euro-using countries paid its final 15 billion-euro ($17.3 billion) bailout loan to Greece on Monday after objections by Germany delayed the payment by several weeks, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. The European Stability Mechanism said 9.5 billion euros (nearly $11 billion) of the loan would go toward a cash buffer Greece could use to meet its financial needs for almost two years. The other 5.5 billion euros ($6.4 billion) was earmarked for paying off some of the country's considerable debt.

Beijing’s softening stance on deleveraging and defaults has helped fuel a mini-revival across Asia’s credit markets, pushing up bond prices in recent weeks and sparking debt issuance, The Wall Street Journal reported. Issuers from China to South Korea and India sold about $9.2 billion in new U.S. dollar bonds during the week ended Aug. 3, the highest weekly tally in Asia excluding Japan since mid-April, according to Thomson Reuters. New deals had nearly ground to a halt in early July over fears of rising defaults among Chinese borrowers.

State-controlled Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) has set up a Dutch company to manage the Russian real estate assets seized from bankrupt tycoon Seán Quinn, The Irish Times reported. Bergkamp Investments BV, whose main activities are listed as renting out real estate and preparing property assets for sale, has taken over managing a portfolio once valued at €500 million.