Headlines

British trade union Unite said on Wednesday it would launch legal action on behalf of over 1,800 workers who lost their jobs when Monarch Airlines went in to administration earlier in the week, Reuters reported. The airline collapsed on Monday and made 90 percent of the staff on Monarch Airlines and Travel Group redundant after falling victim to intense competition for flights and a weaker pound.

Russia’s B&N Bank, which is being rescued by the central bank, said on Wednesday it will write off subordinated debt worth $226.56 million owed to its shareholders, Reuters reported. B&N - the second bank to be rescued by the central bank in less than a month after Otkritie - does not have publicly traded subordinated debt in issue, unlike Otkritie where some of the junior debt will be written off during the bail out.

Venezuela will fulfill its sovereign-bond obligations even though U.S. sanctions are affecting its ability to conduct normal debt relations, said President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro spoke at the Russian Energy Week conference in Moscow on Wednesday as his nation’s struggling economy becomes increasingly reliant on the Kremlin’s support, Bloomberg News reported. The Latin American oil producer is struggling to meet its financial obligations and remains on course for a fourth consecutive year of economic contraction in 2017, according to Fitch Ratings.

As Spain confronts its Catalonian rebellion, investors are staring down a decision on whether to bet on a peaceful resolution to the secession upheaval or prepare for the consequences if the region splits off. For some, it’s reminiscent of the early stages of the euro-zone debt crisis, when investors found themselves reading up on the ins and outs of Greek politics and EU treaty articles to gauge the probability of a political and economic shake-up and its likely effects, Bloomberg News reported.

The head of the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority issued a new warning on the levels of consumer indebtedness and called for fresh thinking on how lending is run. With borrowing surging, FCA Chief Executive Officer Andrew Bailey highlighted his growing concern about payday lenders, excessive rates on overdrawn accounts and credit-card debts, Bloomberg News reported. He said that about five million credit-card borrowers are experiencing difficulties paying off their balance, resulting in costs of 2.50 pounds in interest and charges for every one pound of balance they repay.

Japan’s Toshiba Corp said on Thursday it is buying back a 10 percent stake in Westinghouse Electric Co from minority shareholder Kazatomprom for 59 billion yen ($522 million), taking full ownership of the bankrupt U.S. unit, Reuters reported. The move comes as Westinghouse is exploring selling itself, with a deal likely valuing it at close to $4 billion, Reuters reported last week, quoting people familiar with the matter. Private equity firms Blackstone Group and Apollo Global Management have teamed up to bid for Westinghouse, the sources said.

Oi SA’s bankruptcy saga took a new twist this week as Chief Financial Officer Ricardo Malavazi Martins resigned, prompting a rebuke from Brazil’s telecommunications regulator. Juarez Quadros, president of the regulator known as Anatel, told reporters Tuesday the departure is “worrisome” and said it worsens an already bad situation for the phone giant mired in $19 billion of debt, Bloomberg News reported.

Every flailing effort by India's banks to catch their breath is pulling them deeper into a morass of bad loans, Bloomberg News reported. The latest crisis has been sparked by the failure of billionaire Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications Ltd. to merge its wireless operations with Malaysian tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan's Aircel Ltd. That combination would have reduced RCom's $7 billion debt by $2.1 billion, with a separate deal to sell 51 percent of its tower unit to Canada's Brookfield Infrastructure Group contributing a further $1.7 billion toward deleveraging.

Deutsche Bank AG needs to find extra collateral to remain a counterparty for top-rated asset-backed debt that’s tied to anything from mortgages to car loans, according to Fitch Ratings. The bank’s credit rating, which Fitch downgraded last week, is no longer sufficient for AAA structured notes and Deutsche Bank needs to put up additional collateral for some notes within 14 days, according to a statement on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. The lender has already decided to do so in one transaction backed by Dutch mortgages, according to a separate statement.

Dubai’s Drydocks World has returned to the courts to push through a $2.1bn debt restructuring, clearing the path for the troubled ship-repair business’ sale to a sister company, DP World, the emirate’s port operator, the Financial Times reported. The maritime engineering business, a unit of the government-owned Dubai World conglomerate, in 2012 had to use bespoke insolvency legislation to finalise its first restructuring after a hedge fund won a judgment against the firm for defaulting.