Headlines

For HNA Group Co. leader Chen Feng, the sudden death of his No. 2 raises the pressure for the Chinese tycoon to step up his involvement in fixing the finances of a group saddled with more than $90 billion in debt, Bloomberg News reported. The late Wang Jian, the junior of HNA’s two chairmen, died while sightseeing in a French village this week at a time the group was undertaking an urgent restructuring that’s already involved more than $16 billion in asset sales this year.

A Sharjah court judge on Thursday adjourned the case against Abraaj founder Arif Naqvi for issuing a $48.2m cheque with insufficient funds as talks to settle the debt move ahead, the Financial Times reported. Adjournment until July 11 comes after late night negotiations between representatives for Mr Naqvi and Hamid Jafar, the founder of Crescent Group, who loaned Abraaj $300m last December. The criminal case, which had its first hearing on June 28, relates to one of several cheques signed by Mr Naqvi and a co-defendant and written to Mr Jafar, which were dishonoured when presented.

The creditors of Agrokor, Croatia’s indebted food producer and retailer, on Wednesday voted to approve a debt settlement deal that will help to resolve the company’s troubles, Reuters reported. Agrokor, the largest private company in the Balkans with 60,000 staff, was put under state-run administration in April 2017, crippled by debts built up during an ambitious expansion drive. Its creditors include local and foreign banks, bondholders and suppliers.

Bonds issued by EA Partners, a special purpose vehicle linked to Etihad Airways, fell to the lowest on record this week after the company said it wants to discuss restructuring some of its debt with creditors. EA Partners II’s $500 million of bonds due June 2021 are quoted at a bid price of 63 cents on the dollar, about 5 cents lower since last week, according to two separate brokers contacted by Bloomberg.

Bahrain hired investment bank Lazard Ltd. to advise on how to repair its strained public finances, according to people with knowledge of the matter, as the island kingdom seeks to secure crucial support from rich neighbors to avoid a currency devaluation, Bloomberg News reported. Lazard is helping Bahrain evaluate fiscal reforms to help ease pressure on the state’s budget, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details aren’t public. The options include raising capital from international markets, one of the people said. Bahrain’s Eurobonds dropped after the report.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV is gauging takeover interest in businesses including clothing chain Pepco as the scandal-hit retailer prepares for the next phase of a recovery plan, according to two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. The South African company has informally sounded out potential buyers for Pepco including private equity firms, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the plans aren’t public.

Britain’s accounting watchdog is investigating KPMG’s audit of drinks firm Conviviality’s financial statements, weeks after highlighting an “unacceptable deterioration” in the auditor’s work with top British firms, Reuters reported. KPMG denied any shortcomings in its audit of Conviviality, which entered administration in April. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is probing Conviviality’s financial statements for the year ended April 2017. The FRC also said it was looking into the preparation and approval of Conviviality’s financial statements and other financial information.

Britain’s biggest labour union said on Tuesday it launched legal action against Carillion on behalf of former workers of the company, whose jobs were made redundant following the collapse of the British outsourcer in January, Reuters reported. The members were employed by Carillion’s group company Planned Maintenance Engineering Ltd on a contract at Britain’s GCHQ spy agency headquarters in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Consolidation among smaller offshore oil rig companies would help to boost a recovery in the drilling market, the CEO of offshore rig firm Seadrill said on Tuesday, a day after it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported. Seadrill started trading new shares on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday and plans to list new shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange by end of July or beginning of August. Shares of Seadrill, controlled by Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen, opened at $25 a share, but slid to $18 a share by 1508 GMT.

Former Malaysian leader Najib Razak posted about $123,000 in bail to be able to return to his Kuala Lumpur home, capping a 24-hour period in which he was arrested, detained overnight and charged in court in connection with a multibillion-dollar financial scandal that helped topple his government, The Wall Street Journal reported.