Headlines

Gunvor Group Ltd. has wooed Noble Group Ltd.’s star gasoline trader to join its expanding U.S. operations as an exodus from the struggling Asian trading house continues amid asset sales and a debt restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. Dmitri Sinenko, one of Noble’s top performing oil traders, has agreed to join Gunvor’s U.S. operations, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the hiring hasn’t been announced. Sinenko is widely seen by rivals as one of the top U.S.

A public-relations firm became the latest company to ask an Indian tribunal to place billionaire Anil Ambani-run Reliance Communications Ltd. under insolvency proceedings after the unprofitable mobile-phone operator failed to pay its dues, Bloomberg News reported. Fortuna Public Relations Pvt. placed its request with the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal on Monday, saying Reliance Communications owes it 4.3 million rupees ($67,000). The NCLT plans to hear the case on Dec. 19.

The private equity owner of Four Seasons Health Care has urged the care home operator’s largest creditor to accept a debt restructuring offer it made nearly a month ago as a looming interest payment threatens to push the business into administration, the Financial Times reported. Terra Firma, led by City financier Guy Hands, called on H/2 Capital Partners to accept its offer to hand over to the lender and the other bondholders, the 343 care homes owned by the Four Seasons group “for a nominal sum, with immediate effect”, as it did at the start of November.

Global hedge fund managers have said they are willing to pursue the Spanish government in the courts for a “zillion years” until they get a full payout over a series of bankrupt toll roads, the Financial Times reported. The group, some of whom were involved in the protracted fight over billions of unpaid debt in Argentina, are looking to wring up to €4.5bn from the government — enough to make a dent in Spain’s budget deficit.

The European Commission is on a collision course with Berlin and other major European governments over its plans to increase its oversight of the eurozone’s €500bn sovereign bailout fund, angering member states who fear a power grab, the Financial Times reported. Brussels is expected to propose on Wednesday that the European Stability Mechanism — set up in 2012 at the height of the debt crisis — is converted into a “European Monetary Fund” with broad new powers. The move is part of a wider package of euro area reforms.

Executives from Chinese companies specialising in offering consumers small, easy-to-get loans became something of a fixture on Wall Street this year, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Led by companies such as Qudian Inc and PPDAI Group Inc, the Chinese micro-lenders raised $1.2 billion with splashy U.S. listings, cashing in on a boom in borrowing by consumers in China with little access to traditional banks.

An Indian overseeing committee has approved a proposal submitted by a group of lenders, led by State Bank of India, to restructure an 82.85 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) debt of Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar Ltd, Bloomberg News reported. As per the plan, the company’s debt of 47.89 billion rupees will be considered as “sustainable”, while the rest will be treated as “unsustainable”, India’s top sugar maker said in a statement to stock exchanges on Friday. A loan is considered as sustainable when a company is able to service it from its cash flow.

Central bankers are starting to see promising results from one of the recent additions to their monetary policy toolbox, Bloomberg News reported. Lending curbs to stem financial risk -- so-called macroprudential limits -- have helped slow risky borrowing and temper property price bubbles in countries from New Zealand to Canada, a host of financial stability reports showed this week. While there hasn’t been uniform success -- Hong Kong’s housing market shows no signs of cooling -- it’s given central banks some breathing space to be more gradual in tightening monetary policy.

Nissan Motor Co. is seeking compensation from India, saying the government failed to keep its end of the bargain on promised tax breaks after wooing the Japanese automaker to set up a factory in the South Asian country, Bloomberg News reported. The Yokohama-based carmaker has started international arbitration against the Indian government, a Nissan spokesman said Friday. The company wants $770 million in payments and damages, Reuters reported Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Greece has reached agreement with its international creditors on reforms required to release the next loan tranche under its current bailout, boosting the leftwing Syriza government’s hopes of achieving a smooth exit from the €86bn programme next August, the Financial Times reported. “The [EU and IMF bailout monitors’] visit is completed, we have closed the [technical] agreement,” Euclid Tsakalotos, finance minister, said after the week-long talks ended on Saturday.