Headlines

Nearly a year after a shock trading loss sent it spiraling toward collapse, the commodity trader is racing to reach a deal with a group of senior creditors before a $379 million bond maturity on March 20, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. "The clock is really ticking," said Jean-Francois Lambert, a consultant and former head of commodity trade finance at HSBC Holdings Plc.

Holders of $1.2bn of structured bonds backed by defaulted airlines such as Air Berlin and Alitalia received surprising news on Monday, after a regulatory filing showed that a troubled Luxembourg brokerage will carry out a crucial role to help manage these defaults, reversing an earlier announcement that it was unable to perform the task, the Financial Times reported. The fate of the $1.2bn of debt at two special purpose vehicles tied to Etihad has been in the balance since last summer after the collapse of Italian airline Alitalia and Germany’s Air Berlin.

CEFC China Energy, the once-acquisitive conglomerate, was prepared to pay annual rates of as much as 36 percent for short-term funding in a sign of the cash crunch faced by the company as authorities were closing in on its chairman, according to multiple people with knowledge of the matter. Earlier this month it was revealed that Ye Jianming, the company's chairman, had been investigated for suspected economic crimes, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

India's Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) will appeal a court order that stays the sale of some telecom assets of one of its units, the company said in a statement on Monday, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The National Company Law Tribunal, India's designated court for bankruptcy cases, on Monday stayed the sale of assets of Reliance Infratel Ltd in response to a petition filed by HSBC Daisy Investments (Mauritius) Ltd, local media reported.

Mexico's state workers' pension fund plowed more than $20 million into ICA and became the largest shareholder as the builder spiraled toward insolvency, according to people familiar with the matter, with the fund's investment set to be wiped out in a restructuring, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

China, Canada and Hong Kong are among the economies most at risk of a banking crisis, according to early warning indicators compiled by the Bank for International Settlements, Bloomberg News reported. Canada -- whose economy grew last year at the fastest pace since 2011 -- was flagged thanks to its households’ maxed-out credit cards and high debt levels in the wider economy. These same issues also afflict China and Hong Kong, according to the study.

Latvia’s ABLV Bank, accused by U.S. authorities of large-scale money laundering, will be allowed to look for new investors for its Luxembourg branch after a court there ruled against forced liquidation by EU authorities, the bank said, Reuters reported. The decision comes after the European Union’s Single Resolution Board and the European Central Bank (ECB) said last month ABLV was failing and would be wound up. It followed allegations by U.S. authorities Latvia’s third-biggest bank had covered up money laundering, bribed officials and facilitated the breach of sanctions against North Korea.

The failure to put some problem loans before a committee set up to deal with the issue was a failing of Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS), its former credit administrator Frank Casey has conceded, the Irish Times reported. Under cross-examination at the Central Bank’s inquiry into the building society’s failure on Friday, however, Mr Casey denied being to blame for the failure to alert the committee to every bad loan on the bank’s books.

In a move aimed at providing relief to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), a panel set up to look into various issues relating to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is considering allowing promoters of MSMEs to bid for their stressed assets even without clearing dues if they are not wilful defaulters, official sources told Financial Express.

Company directors are dodging measures designed to stop abuse of the insolvency system so that they can avoid paying their creditors, new research suggests, The Independent reported. Experts have expressed concern about the number of “phoenix” companies, which are created by directors after a firm is put into what’s known as a pre-pack administration. In a pre-pack, a company’s assets are sold before an administrator is appointed.