Headlines

For all the ambitious talk of creating new institutions to beef up the eurozone, Brussels is still struggling to agree on the basics of monetary union: the rules.  Budgetary rules on government debt and deficits underpin the single currency, the Financial Times reported. Fights over how they should be deployed have been erupting since the Maastricht treaty, when the totemic 3 per cent deficit limit and 60 per cent debt-to-GDP ceiling were first enshrined into law.

Russia signed an agreement to restructure $3.15 billion of debt owed by Venezuela, throwing a lifeline to a crisis-wracked ally that’s struggling to repay creditors, Bloomberg News reported. The pact gives Venezuela some much-needed breathing room as it faces the much more complicated task of restructuring its $140 billion of bonds and foreign loans. For Russia, the deal underscores the costs that come with President Vladimir Putin’s geopolitical ambitions across the globe. A $900 million hole had been left in its 2017 budget plan by Venezuela’s failure to pay on time.

Two companies controlled by tycoons Malvinder and Shivinder Singh announced a reorganization as the brothers wrestle with debt and legal tangles, Bloomberg News reported. The Singh brothers’ Religare Enterprises Ltd. announced a shakeup late Tuesday, with Malvinder stepping down as non-executive chairman of the financial services and small-business lender while four other officials also resigned.

What a debt restructuring at Noble Group Ltd. might look like has become an even more pressing question after the beleaguered commodity trader started talks with stakeholders on potential options to address its capital structure. The company said discussions are at a preliminary stage and in line with its objectives to “manage the maturity of its borrowings,” moving it a step closer toward restructuring its borrowings, Bloomberg News reported. The coming weeks are likely to be critical for the company, which posted another $1 billion-plus loss in the third quarter.

Greece, long the problem child of the eurozone, took a major step on Wednesday toward securing financial independence as it prepares to wean itself off the international bailouts that have kept it afloat for the last eight years, the International New York Times reported. The government’s announcement of a bond swap could help ease a staggering debt burden that at one point threatened to push Greece out of the eurozone.

China has chosen 31 more government-owned firms to participate in its third round of mixed ownership reforms aimed at injecting private capital into the state sector, an official of the country's powerful economic planning body said on Wednesday. The mixed ownership reform plan is designed to inject market discipline into, as well as open up additional financing for, China's lumbering, debt-ridden state sector, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Italian clothing maker and retailer Stefanel SpA became famous for its knitted coats and cardigans. Many economists, investors and bankers know Stefanel as something starkly different: a zombie company. It has posted an annual loss for nine of the last 10 years and restructured its bank debt at least six times, including several grace periods when Stefanel only had to pay interest on what it owed, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Germany’s Lufthansa has offered 250 million euros ($294 million) to take on most of Alitalia’s fleet of aircraft and half of its staff, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday. Alitalia, which has made a profit only a few times in its 70-year history, was put under special administration earlier this year after staff rejected a plan to cut jobs and salaries, Reuters reported. Lufthansa is one of seven companies that submitted binding offers for Alitalia by Oct. 16.

Venezuela and its state oil company are now officially in default. It changes nothing for bondholders, Bloomberg News reported. The declarations in the past 24 hours by S&P Global Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings only confirmed what they already know -- PDVSA and the government are late on debt payments amid an unprecedented cash crunch and difficulties getting money through the chain of intermediaries.

The first default on U.S. dollar bonds by an Indian company in 15 months may become a closely-watched test case for how international creditors will fare under the country’s new bankruptcy laws, Bloomberg News reported. Reliance Communications Ltd., the Indian mobile phone operator controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, failed to pay a coupon on its 2020 dollar notes before the expiry of a grace period on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. It’s India’s most high-profile default on international debt since the nation’s insolvency and bankruptcy code was passed in May 2016.