Headlines

Global equity raising rose by almost a fifth in 2017 and bankers expect issuance to increase further in 2018 as the improving global economy and buoyant stock markets drive larger flotations and rights issues to finance acquisitions, Reuters reported. Companies raised $780.2 billion in equity in 2017, up 19 percent from $656.4 billion last year, Thomson Reuters Equity Capital Markets data up to Dec. 26 showed. Global proceeds from initial public share offerings (IPOs) rose by 35 percent to $178.6 billion in 2017.

As authorities order an embattled tech entrepreneur back to China to handle his growing financial problems, a local court has seized his assets, the Wall Street Journal reported. LeEco Holdings founder Jia Yueting, whose company’s businesses include online video, electric cars and smartphones, was a rising star in China’s tech industry who aimed to take on Apple, Tesla and Netflix. He also invested in U.S. electric-car startup Faraday Future. But the company has been mired in credit woes and a cash crunch since the fall of 2016.

Emmanuel Macron’s attempts to revamp France’s labour market will spur economic growth and boost confidence but their impact will take time to have an effect, according to a Financial Times survey of eurozone analysts. The poll of 34 economists conducted this month also found that most believed a new “grand coalition” government in Germany would help the eurozone to continue its recovery — but Italy’s impending election was seen as one of the biggest risks.

Around 790 staff working for insolvent airline Niki in Austria will be paid monthly wages for December, administrator Lucas Floether said on Wednesday, adding he was confident of striking a deal with a new investor in the next few days, Reuters reported. The new owner would be expected to take on Niki’s running costs, including salaries, from the beginning of January. Among the four bidders selected for the final stages of talks to buy all or parts of Niki is IAG, the owner of British Airways and low-cost carrier Vueling.

Irish banks will be pressed to take stakes in family homes next year in swaps for mortgage debt as part of a push to resolve some of the most distressed personal insolvency cases, the Irish Times reported. The first cases involving the use of so-called debt-for-equity swaps are expected to be decided by the courts in 2018 as the little-known measure within existing personal insolvency legislation is used to solve some of the worst mortgage arrears cases where loans have not been paid for years.

As the rest of the oil-producing world recovers on the back of stronger energy prices, Venezuela is getting worse, the result of dysfunctional management, rampant corruption and the country’s crippling economic crisis, the New York Times reported. The deepening troubles at the state oil company, the country’s economic mainstay, threaten to further destabilize a nation and government facing a dire recession, soaring inflation and unbridled crime, as well as food and medicine shortages.

Deal making by Mexican companies declined for the second year in a row in 2017 on concerns about the future of free trade with the U.S. and uncertainty related to next year’s presidential elections, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mergers and acquisitions involving Mexican companies and assets totaled $23.7 billion in dollar terms, a decrease of 5 percent from 2016, according to data compiled by Dealogic. There were 230 transactions in 2017, compared with 241 the year before. “The main reason is the significant uncertainty related to the economy and free trade.

China Construction America Inc. was accused in a lawsuit of ripping off the original developer of the long-delayed $3.9 billion Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas by submitting fraudulent bills and collecting undeserved fees, Bloomberg News reported. BML Properties Ltd., led by wealthy Bahamas businessman Sarkis Izmirlian, sued CCA Tuesday claiming the state-owned Chinese contractor pulled off a “massive fraud” to enrich itself at BML’s expense, leading to the collapse of the project in 2015.

Indian telecom company Reliance Communications unveiled a plan to reduce its debt burden by selling off assets to re-position itself as a niche operator targeting business customers, sending its shares soaring to a three-month high, The National reported. Anil Ambani, the company’s chairman, announced on Monday that the operator would sell-off telecom towers, spectrum, optical fibre and land, to reduce its debt to 60 billion rupees (Dh3.4bn) from its current level of 450bn rupees.Rcom shares yesterday ended the day up more than 30 percent following the announcement.

Tata Steel Ltd. has sounded out banks about raising the equivalent of $5.1 billion through loan facilities and a bond issue to help refinance debt, Bloomberg News reported. The Indian steelmaker plans a $2.15 billion six-year syndicated facility to refinance loans in the books of units, TS Global Holdings Pte. and NatSteel Asia Pte. The new borrowing will mark Tata Steel’s return to the international loan markets for the first time since the middle of 2016 as it sharpens its focus on the Indian market after selling unprofitable assets in the U.K.