Headlines

German aviation investor Hans Rudolf Woehrl expects to submit an offer for insolvent Air Berlin early next week, jointly with several partners, he told German television. “It will be a programme that goes into several hundred million (euros), to be paid in installments. But even the first installment that we’re willing to pay is very, very high,” he told TV station ARD on Wednesday. Air Berlin, Germany’s second-largest airline, filed for bankruptcy protection in August after shareholder Etihad Airways withdrew funding following years of losses, Reuters reported.

The highest concentration of shadow loans in China is to be found in its slowest-growing province, a study by UBS Group AG shows. The value of shadow loans extended by regional banks in Liaoning, in the northeastern rust-belt region, amounted to 95 percent of their total lending in 2016, according to estimates provided to Bloomberg by UBS analyst Jason Bedford. Lenders in Liaoning have turned to informal banking arrangements to help them get around rules that restrict them from making traditional loans outside their home province, Bloomberg News reported.

A European banking giant just snubbed one of the world’s strictest financial supervisors by moving to a more accommodating regulatory setting, Bloomberg News reported. Nordea Bank AB’s decision to relocate its headquarters from Sweden to Finland puts the Nordic region’s only global systemically important bank inside the euro zone. After months of railing against Swedish efforts to make banks pay more to protect taxpayers, Nordea estimates its decision to go to Helsinki will save it as much as $1.3 billion in regulatory costs.

China’s cities, towns and counties are facing surging borrowing costs as investors anticipate landmark defaults, Bloomberg News reported. A local government financing vehicle in the country’s east was recently forced to pay a coupon on a bond that matched a record. Average financing costs in credit markets for the units that finance roads, bridges and sewers have jumped, with yields for some borrowers surging the most in six years.

If you think the European Central Bank has a tough task balancing strong growth, weak inflation and a worryingly strong currency at its policy meeting tomorrow, spare a thought for the Riksbank. Markets are increasingly convinced that Sweden’s central bank will need to abandon its extreme dovishness as the economy shows signs of overheating, but suspicions that the ECB will stick with its negative rates well into the future piles further pressure on the Riksbank to keep its own interest rates on hold, the Financial Times reported.

German family-owned logistics company Zeitfracht said on Tuesday it had expressed its interested in bidding for insolvent airline Air Berlin, citing opportunities for air freight business, Reuters reported. “Ideally, we would like to keep Air Berlin intact in its entirety,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday, adding it expected to be given access to Air Berlin’s books swiftly so it could submit a formal offer by the Sept. 15 deadline.

Pressure is building on an International Swaps & Derivatives Association panel of investors and bankers to end Noble Group Ltd.’s credit-default swap impasse, Bloomberg News reported. ISDA’s determinations committee will meet Wednesday to reconsider whether Noble triggered a credit event -- the precondition for a payout on CDS contracts -- when it arranged a 120-day extension to a loan facility in June.

In a related story, the Financial Times reported that struggling commodity trader Noble Group said it expects to find a buyer for its global oil business this month, as it continues to shrink its operations in a bid to stave off defaulting on its debts. Speaking at a special general meeting in Singapore, where the Hong Kong-based trader is listed, chairman Paul Brough told investors the sale should be agreed by the end of September.

Eurozone economic growth remained steady but slipped slightly below expectations in August, according to a survey of business managers in the single currency area. The IHS Markit Eurozone composite PMI, which provides an indication of business sentiment, slipped from 55.8 to 55.7 in August, with a strong expansion of manufacturing production offset by less robust growth in the services sector, the Financial Times reported. The service-sector index eased to 54.7 from 55.4, marking a seven month low, as the rate of expansion in new work also slowed to its lowest level since February.

Lego suffered its worst financial performance in more than a decade, forcing the Danish toymaker to declare it would overhaul its entire organisation and cut 1,400 jobs. Coming on top of the unexpected ousting of its chief executive last month, the news suggests Lego is facing its biggest test since it came close to financial collapse in 2003-04, the Financial Times reported. Revenues fell 5 per cent in the first half of the year to DKr14.9bn ($2.4bn), their first decline since 2004.