Headlines

State Bank of India will take a decision on a one-time settlement application filed by Uttam Galva Steels at a 50 per cent haircut by March-end, if accepted, will prompt other companies, being referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), to apply for a similar relief, Business Standard reported. Uttam Galva Steels had defaulted on its Rs 60 billion of debt and the firm has made an offer last week to its lenders. “This is likely to be accepted as the banks do not want to delay settlements due to rising litigation,” a source said.

Default rates in the U.K. car-finance market are creeping up, adding to regulators’ concerns over the risks posed by consumer credit, Bloomberg News reported. The Financial Conduct Authority said on Thursday that the increase is driven by buyers with elevated credit risk, despite low interest rates and economic growth. These consumers account for about 3 percent of lending, the FCA said in a report. Overall, arrears and default rates remain low. British regulators are grappling with a surge in consumer credit, led by motor finance, which can pose risks to banks and the economy.

From London to St. Kitts, India’s struggling to extradite businessmen it claims have fled the country after defaulting on billions of dollars of bank loans, Bloomberg News reported. Now it hopes to stop others from leaving. The government has compiled a list of 91 people it is considering barring from leaving India because of their involvement with companies that have defaulted, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

A consortium led by VTB Group, Russia’s second-largest bank, said it is willing to buy out a local partner to ensure its offer for an indebted Indian steel mill meets government rules, setting up a contest with billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, Bloomberg News reported. Other investors in the group are willing to buy out Rewant Ruia’s stake in investment vehicle Numetal Ltd., Antoine Chemali, senior advisor for Mauritius-based Numetal, said in an interview in Mumbai on Thursday. That’s likely required because Ruia’s father is the founder of Essar Steel India Ltd.

One of the biggest shareholders in Noble Group has attacked its new debt restructuring proposal, which it says will reward the company’s “errant and undeserving management”. Cranking up the pressure on the stricken commodity trader, Goldilocks Investment, an 8.1 per cent shareholder, said it was “astounded” that the company had continued to ignore calls to make the restructuring more equitable, the Financial Times reported. It also attacked the company’s plans to bulldoze through the debt-for-equity swap via a prepackaged administration in the UK.

The European Central Bank has toned down plans to ask banks to stump up more cash for loans that turn sour, after a backlash in Italy, one of the eurozone’s weakest banking markets, and the European Parliament, the Financial Times reported. While the ECB says the initiative is vital to deal with the risk of a rise in non-performing loans in a future downturn, Italian officials and MEPs argue that the bank’s initial proposals for seemingly binding rules went beyond its powers and infringed on those of legislators.

Some holders of $1.2 billion in bonds linked to Etihad Airways are seeking to appoint legal advisers to evaluate their options with respect to a potential default of the notes, sources familiar with the matter said. Etihad issued the bonds in 2015 and 2016 through an Amsterdam-based special purpose vehicle, called Equity Alliance Partners (EAP).

The head of a Mexican congressional committee on Tuesday called for an investigation of an investment by state workers’ pension fund PensionIssste, after Reuters reported it spent millions on shares in a company spiraling toward bankruptcy, Reuters reported. PensionIssste spent around 400 million pesos ($21.5 million) buying the largest stake in builder ICA (ICA.MX), even after its shares had fallen by more than half in the previous year, three people with knowledge of the investment told Reuters. It stands to lose almost all its investment in a restructuring.

The European Commission has proposed new measures to force banks to set aside more money against new loans turning bad and to favor offloading their existing stocks of bad debt, in a bid to reduce risks in the bank sector, Reuters reported. The proposals follow others put forward in recent months to raise capital requirements, set new loss-absorbing buffers and facilitate the orderly liquidation of failing lenders, all of which Brussels believes will make the bloc’s banks safer after many of them were rescued with taxpayers’ money during the financial crisis.

A magistrate for Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice has issued an injunction that hands telecommunications firm Oi SA at least a temporary victory over shareholder Pharol SGPS SA in an ongoing legal dispute, the company said on Wednesday. In a securities filing, Oi said that magistrate Marco Buzzi had “provisionally” awarded jurisdiction in the dispute to a commercial court in Rio de Janeiro over an arbitration body that Pharol had appealed to, Reuters reported.