Headlines

With the economic recovery well under way in Europe the European Central Bank has cut its government bond purchases by two-thirds. Fair enough. However, it is not reining in its involvement in company debt, Bloomberg News reported in a commentary. The securities now comprise about 20 percent of monthly purchases, up from 7 percent at the start of the program in mid-2016. The total amount could top 200 billion euros ($244 billion) before quantitative easing ends. If it had any self-knowledge the ECB should be aware of the problems it's creating.

ArcelorMittal is competing with a consortium led by Russia’s VTB Group as bids come in for Essar Steel India Ltd., the largest distressed steelmaker being sold under the country’s insolvency process, people with knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg News reported. An Indian unit of ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest producer of the alloy, submitted an offer, it confirmed in a statement Monday. Essar Steel could fetch a valuation of at least $6 billion in a sale, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

A top economic adviser to Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement has called on the EU to debate restructuring public debt — comments that could unnerve investors and highlights the unorthodox economic views of the party leading the country’s polls, the Financial Times reported. With three weeks to go before the nation’s general election, Lorenzo Fioramonti, an aide to Luigi Di Maio, the Five Star candidate for prime minister, said the “time is right” for a “conversation” around debt restructuring in Italy and “several other” countries.

After some high-profile airline insolvencies in Europe last year, an industry trade body said countries should review bankruptcy laws to reduce the number of stranded passengers, but rejected the idea of a rescue fund to repatriate customers, Reuters reported. Britain’s Monarch and Germany’s Air Berlin both went bust last year, but the process was very different.

Wall Street bankers gorged on fees from HNA Group Co. as they helped the debt-laden Chinese conglomerate clinch $55 billion of acquisitions around the world. They’re set for another bonanza as the company offloads some of those same purchases to stave off a liquidity crisis, Bloomberg News reported. HNA doled out as much as $200 million in advisory fees during a three-year investment spree, according to Freeman & Co.

Yildiz Holding AS, the global sweets company owned by Turkey’s richest man, said it’s in talks with banks to consolidate loans in its home country and to refinance the debt to keep the company’s growth path intact, Bloomberg News reported. Yildiz Holding met with lenders following preliminary 2017 earnings and 2018 projections, it said in an emailed statement after Bloomberg reported it was seeking to restructure debt with 10 banks.

Italian lenders set to head two new banking groups being created by merging hundreds of small cooperative banks (BCCs) must be ready to strengthen their capital if needed, the central bank's governor said on Saturday. Italy is forcing its tiny BCC banks to merge and two new groups being formed will undergo an asset check-up this year before moving under the European Central Bank's oversight because of their large size, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

A day after the Bank of England hinted that it could raise interest rates faster than many expected, a run of economic figures on Friday suggest the British economy did not end 2017 as strongly as previously thought, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Official figures showed a 1.3 percent monthly decline in industrial production in December and a 4.9 billion-pound ($6.9 billion) trade deficit for goods and services, its worst since September 2016.

Sears Canada Inc. creditors are targeting Eddie Lampert, its former controlling shareholder and the chief executive of its U.S. namesake Sears Holdings Corp., over payments he received before the Canadian business collapsed last year. A group of unhappy pensioners served court papers Friday in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice asking for the appointment of a trustee in Sears Canada’s bankruptcy proceeding for the purpose of digging up additional funds for creditors, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The British government said on Thursday that another 101 jobs at Carillion Plc will be cut, as the fallout from Britain’s biggest corporate failure in a decade continues, Reuters reported. The Official Receiver, which manages insolvencies for the British government, said it safeguarded a further 1,221 jobs at the company but 101 roles have been made redundant. The jobs made redundant relate to back-office functions and engineering support roles that new suppliers no longer require, the statement said. So far 2,250 jobs have been saved and 930 job redundancies have been made.