Headlines

India’s top iron ore miner NMDC Ltd. is looking to sell a stake of at least 49 percent in its Chhattisgarh steel plant, as it prepares to begin production at the 3-million-ton facility in three to six months, according to a company official. The state-run miner is seeking a partner for its first steel venture, which has been eight years in development, to infuse working capital and provide steel-making expertise, the official said Monday, declining to be named in line with company policy, Bloomberg News reported. NMDC has appointed an adviser to help find an investor, the official said.

Russian private air carrier VIM Airline has faced a severe economic adversary and has asked the state for financial aid with a possibility of going into a receivership, the company said on its social media accounts on Monday. The company, top 10 among the Russian airlines, also known as VIM-AVIA, has cancelled or delayed dozens of flights for the past few days, Reuters reported. “Unfortunately, we have to state that the VIM-AVIA airline has been faced with a hard economic situation.

Insolvent German airline Air Berlin hopes to conclude talks with Lufthansa and easyJet on a carve-up of its assets by the middle of next month as it races to secure jobs and keep flying, Reuters reported. Air Berlin, which has around 8,000 employees, filed for insolvency in August after major shareholder Etihad said it would stop providing funding. The German government stepped in with a 150 million euro ($178 million) loan, due to last until the end of October, to prevent the airline being grounded so that talks could be held on selling its assets.

In a related story, British Airways parent IAG put in a bid for part of insolvent German airline Air Berlin but expects it will go mainly to Lufthansa, CEO Willie Walsh said at a conference in Barcelona, Reuters reported. Air Berlin, which filed for insolvency in August, said last week its creditors had picked Lufthansa and easyJet as possible buyers and would negotiate with them for until Oct 12. “We put in a binding bid for part of Air Berlin, but I don’t think it comes as any surprise that Lufthansa is going to get it,” Walsh was quoted as saying at the World Routes conference.

The Bank of England said rapid gains in consumer credit could cause U.K. banks to suffer bigger losses than they’re expecting if the economy weakens, Bloomberg News reported. “Lenders overall are placing too much weight on the recent performance of consumer lending in benign conditions as an indicator or underlying credit quality,” the BOE’s Financial Policy Committee said on Monday.

A Bloomberg News report that South Africa’s National Treasury is seeking as much as 100 billion rand ($7.5 billion) from the government workers’ pension fund to finance struggling state companies is untrue, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said. The Public Investment Corp., which manages the fund and has about 1.86 trillion rand in assets, has been asked by the Treasury to buy its entire 12 billion-rand stake in Telkom SA SOC Ltd. to pay for a bailout of South African Airways, two people with direct knowledge of the situation told Bloomberg News last week.

Mario Draghi has delivered an upbeat assessment of the eurozone’s economic recovery, hailing what he depicted as its resilience in the face of threats such as North Korea and disruptions such as Brexit. But he urged caution before bringing the region’s ultra-loose monetary policy to an end, the Financial Times reported. Speaking in Brussels, the European Central Bank president argued that the momentum of the recovery, which registered 2.3 per cent growth in the 12 months to June, meant the eurozone was no longer as vulnerable as before to external shocks.

Saudi Arabia will begin implementing a new bankruptcy law early next year as part of efforts to attract foreign investment and encourage private sector activity, Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya reported citing the kingdom’s commerce minister. Under current legislation there is no easy way to wind up the activities of indebted companies in Saudi Arabia and the new law could help with government plans to restructure the economy and make it more attractive to outside investors, Reuters reported.

Air Berlin’s Austria-based unit Niki said a court has rejected an insolvency petition brought against it by an Austrian tour operator, adding that its flight operations are continuing, Reuters reported. “The Korneuburg regional court confirmed the legal opinion of Niki and has rejected the insolvency petition as unfounded,” Niki said in a statement on Friday. Parent Air Berlin filed for insolvency in August, but Niki, which flies to tourist destinations from Germany and Austria, was not part of the insolvency proceedings.

A Lufthansa bid price of 200 million euros ($239 million) to buy assets from insolvent Air Berlin plus 100 million euros to meet operating costs is roughly correct, a source familiar with the talks said on Sunday. The newspaper Bild am Sonntag earlier reported the figures, citing sources close to the proceedings. The newspaper said that there could be three months between signing a purchasing contract and implementing the transaction because German and European competition authorities would need to vet any deal, Reuters reported.