Headlines

An influential shareholder in Brazil's Oi SA is working with U.S. and UK distressed debt hedge funds to maintain his central role at the telecoms provider as it struggles to emerge from bankruptcy protection, four sources said. The funds, the smallest group of Oi bondholders known as the G6, could help Nelson Tanure, who has a 6.5 percent stake in Oi and significant board clout, fend off rival restructuring plans by the company's two largest bondholder groups, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Kenya’s Nakumatt is seeking court protection to rebuild its fortunes after creditors demanded millions of dollars owed by a company that grew from a small Rift Valley bed shop to become East Africa’s biggest supermarket chain, Reuters reported. One source close to the company, whose flagship Nairobi store was destroyed in the 2013 Westgate attack by Somali militants, said it owed creditors including landlords and suppliers as much as 20 billion shillings ($193 million). In January, the managing director of the chain, Atul Shah, told Reuters the debt then stood at $150 million.

The bond trustee for Venezuela’s state oil company is keeping investors in the dark about the status of a critical payment that was due Oct. 27, Bloomberg News reported. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the trustee on the notes maturing in 2020, has been telling investors that it won’t provide any information about the status of their funds until it issues a statement as soon as today or tomorrow, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the conversations were private.

Shares in Reliance Communications jumped as much as 15.6 per cent after the troubled Indian telecom company announced a debt restructuring proposal that would hand a majority equity stake to its creditors, the Financial Times reported. RCom, controlled by tycoon Anil Ambani, has been struggling to service around Rs450bn ($6.9bn) of debt amid a price war launched by new entrant Reliance Jio, run by Mr Ambani’s brother Mukesh. Late on Monday night RCom said that, if lenders accept its plan, Rs70bn of its debt would be converted into 51 per cent of its equity.

Euro zone finance ministers will discuss next week completion of the banking union, ideas for setting up a common budget and ways to simplify the bloc's fiscal rules, in preparation for a December summit on reforming the currency area, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. No conclusions are likely to be reached at the Eurogroup meeting on Monday, however, as there are widely differing views among the 19 countries that share the euro on most aspects of reform. "It will be more laying out the table before cooking starts," one senior euro zone official said.

The head of Britain's financial watchdog told Royal Bank of Scotland to speed up its handling of compensation claims related to its treatment of struggling businesses during the financial crisis, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. RBS's Global Restructuring Group (GRG) has been accused by customers of driving them to bankruptcy in order to pick up their assets on the cheap. State-owned RBS has set aside 400 million pounds to cover the bill for claims against it.

Greece is getting ready to exit its bailout program next year and the country is finally emerging from nearly a decade of financial depression and stagnation, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. For most Greeks, however, the recovery is likely to be slow and painful as austerity measures will endure for years to come. That's particularly true for many startups, which the government has put its faith in to help the economy grow, but are burdened by red tape and the high taxes meant to pay for the country's debts.

A Middle Eastern energy company that has questioned the lawfulness of its own sukuk won’t settle the $700 million worth of debt owed to investors, according to people familiar with the matter. Dana Gas PJSC, the Sharjah, United Arab Emirates-based energy producer, has no plans to repay the two mudaraba sukuk of $350 million in size each due Oct. 31, and the company is confident it will win a court case with bondholders, the two people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private, Bloomberg News reported.

Investors are getting mixed signals as Venezuela stares down billions of dollars in debt obligations over the next few weeks, Bloomberg News reported. Although PDVSA said it paid an $842 million principal payment on its 2020 bonds due last Friday, the money has yet to materialize in the accounts of bondholders. Another $1.2 billion payment looms on Thursday. And to top it off, the clock is ticking on more than half a billion dollars in debt from the state oil firm and Nicolas Maduro’s government that are in a 30-day grace period.

The head of a credit fund under Indian billionaire Uday Kotak’s financial group says the government’s pledge of capital for beleaguered state banks could make it easier for distressed funds to buy loans, Bloomberg News reported. The Indian government said last week that it will inject 2.11 trillion rupees ($32 billion) of capital into state-controlled lenders over two years, as it seeks to revive growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.