Headlines

Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa (UBA) said it had made a provision on loans made to 9mobile, the mobile operator formerly known as Etisalat Nigeria. The lender did not give details of the provision but said it had a 38 billion naira ($125 million) exposure to 9mobile. UBA said the exposure was secured, and part of a syndicated loan with 12 other banks extended to Etisalat Nigeria four years ago. Nigerian banks have agreed an extension to a $1.2 billion loan made to 9mobile, pending the mobile operator finding new investors, Reuters reported.

Greenland Holdings Corp., China’s fourth-biggest developer by property sales, said it had overdue loans of 457.5 million yuan ($69.2 million) in some units in the northeast province of Liaoning at the end of June, underscoring concerns about the company’s debt problems, Bloomberg News reported. Companies under Greenland’s unit in Liaoning had overdue short-term debt of 247.5 million yuan, as well as 210 million yuan in long-term obligations, according to Greenland’s interim report dated Aug. 25.

A stalled solar-thermal project in northern Chile backed by a U.S. private equity investor is seeking about $800 million in debt to resume construction, according to people familiar with the deal, Bloomberg News reported. EIG Global Energy Partners, the U.S. private equity investor that took over the $1 billion Cerro Dominador solar plant last year, has received interest from “several international banks,” Fernando Gonzalez, the project’s chief executive officer, said in an email Monday. He started pursuing project-finance debt about three weeks ago, and declined to say how much he’s seeking.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) said it will publish a statement on Wednesday addressing the widespread confusion around Noble Group’s credit-default swaps, which has pitted the world’s biggest investment banks against each other in a tussle over payouts on the credit derivatives, the Financial Times reported. While the debt-laden commodity trader has not formally defaulted on any debt, buyers of CDS linked to Noble claim that a recent extension to loan repayment terms amounted to a debt restructuring — which can also trigger payouts.

Tajikistan is seeking to tap the international bond market for the first time, kicking off what bankers anticipate will be a blitz of emerging market bond issuance. The central Asian nation is looking to issue 10-year, dollar-denominated debt, the Financial Times reported. It could come to the market as early as next week, according to a person familiar with the finance ministry’s thinking, in what could be the first emerging market sovereign debt deal since the summer break.

The buyers of insolvent Air Berlin’s assets will likely be picked by mid-September, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the race for the carrier’s coveted take-off and landing slots in Germany heats up. Suitors have until Sept. 13 to make bids and present their business plans to the airline’s administrator and lenders, two sources told Reuters. A committee of creditors overlooking the liquidation aim to come to an agreement who will buy what shortly thereafter, the sources said, with one of them saying the decision could come as early as Sept. 15, Reuters reported.

Michel Temer is the most unpopular president in the democratic history of Brazil. He presides over an economy only just coming out of its worst-ever recession. He also faces corruption allegations and could be impeached. Yet markets are unfazed, the Financial Times reported. Since he came to office one year ago Mr Temer has followed through on pledges to stabilise the economy, and the stock market has risen by a half. An ambitious $14bn privatisation programme, including the sale of Electrobras, the utility, has now raised investor spirits further.

We are barely a fortnight away from the 10th anniversary of Northern Rock’s dramatic collapse. At the beginning of 2007, the Newcastle-based lender was a darling — loved by investors for its aggressive expansion and by customers for its generous mortgages for 125 per cent of property value. But by mid-September, with funding running out and panicked queues outside branches, it was clear that Britain’s fastest-growing bank had fallen victim to a hubristic faith in the stability of the financial markets, the Financial Times reported.

The European Central Bank’s supervisory arm has imposed its first fine on a eurozone lender, imposing a €2.5m penalty on Permanent TSB, an Irish bank, for breaching liquidity rules, the Financial Times reported. While small, the fine is significant because it is the first time the Single Supervisory Mechanism has bared its teeth and fined a lender since it began operating in late 2014 as the watchdog of the single currency area’s largest and most important banks.

Venezuela's close ally China said on Monday that history shows external interference and unilateral sanctions only make things more complex and will not help resolve problems, after the United States imposed new sanctions on Venezuela, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that prohibits dealings in new debt from the Venezuelan government or its state oil company on Friday in an effort to halt financing that the White House said fuels President Nicolas Maduro's "dictatorship".