Headlines

U.S. media company CBS Corp. plans to acquire Australian broadcaster Ten Network Holdings Ltd., beating out a bid from Australian media moguls Bruce Gordon and Lachlan Murdoch for the company after it went into receivership, The Wall Street Journal reported. CBS’s bid was favored by receivers for Ten Network, one of Australia’s three main broadcasters, over a proposal from Messrs. Gordon and Murdoch, who wanted to run the broadcaster as a joint venture, people familiar with the deal said. Mr.

Air Berlin’s frequent flyer programme filed for insolvency on Friday, bad news for members with points on their accounts, which they can no longer use. The frequent flyer programme Top Bonus had already stopped members from using and collecting points amid uncertainty about its future after Air Berlin itself filed for insolvency last week, Reuters reported. “Because of the situation with Air Berlin and the direct connection with the frequent flyer programme, Top Bonus had no other choice than to take this step,” Top Bonus said in a brief statement on Friday.

Mexican construction company ICA said late on Friday it and its subsidiaries had filed a pre-packaged bankruptcy plan that had been subscribed to by the majority of its creditors, Reuters reported. ICA, which has been struggling under a high dollar-denominated debt load, said the plan had been filed in accordance with the statutes of Mexican bankruptcy law. Read more.

President Nicolas Maduro summoned holders of Venezuelan bonds to a meeting with Economy Minister Ramon Lobo next week to discuss the effects of U.S. sanctions aimed at sovereign and state oil company debt, Bloomberg News reported. U.S.-based holders of Venezuela bonds will be hurt the most by the sanctions, Maduro said. President Donald Trump “burned the bonds in their hands” by trying to harm Venezuela, he said, without providing more details on the meeting. “Attention, holders of Venezuela bonds,” Maduro said on state television.

As Russia’s second-biggest private bank implodes, its billionaire owners have been conspicuous by their absence, Bloomberg News reported. By leaving Bank Otkritie FC to fend for itself, the four shareholders controlling more than a third of the company -- their combined fortune valued at over $20 billion -- may be giving the authorities little choice but to swoop in with a rescue. Now the central bank could be left holding the bag as it reportedly considers taking control of the troubled lender amid a run on its deposits.

Louisa Bell, a 75-year-old grandmother from one of Newcastle’s poorer areas, is a typical customer of Provident Financial: several thousand pounds in debt, she is confused by recent turmoil at the company and struggling to make ends meet. But since a profit warning from the UK’s biggest subprime lender sent its share price plummeting this week, the tables have turned and it is now the FTSE 100 group itself that faces worries about running out of money, the Financial Times reported. The crisis has been largely self-inflicted.

BHS creditors will receive £30m after Sir Philip Green’s retail empire Arcadia relinquished a claim on the assets of the department store chain whose collapse culminated in thousands of job losses and the billionaire paying £363m to cover the pensions of former workers, the Financial Times reported. The deal with BHS liquidators FRP Advisory ends the prospect of a legal battle surrounding a secured loan that the collapsed chain owed to Sir Phillip’s Arcadia Group, people briefed on the situation said.

Brazil's Raízen Energia SA is interested in bidding for an ethanol mill owned by the Brazilian subsidiary of India's sugar producer Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd, which will be auctioned in early September, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. Raízen, which is a Brazilian joint venture between Cosan SA Industria e Comércio and Royal Dutch Shell, made a late request to join the auction and would have to receive a special authorization from creditors to bid, the sources said, asking to remain anonymous as they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Thomas Cook's German leisure airline Condor and Lufthansa are interested in taking on a number of planes from insolvent Air Berlin, sources familiar with the negotiations said on Thursday. Air Berlin, Germany's second largest carrier, filed for insolvency last week after major shareholder Etihad pulled the plug on funding, Reuters reported. The race is on for interested parties to agree a deal for parts of its business, including planes and crew, which would bring access to take-off and landing slots at airports such as Duesseldorf, Berlin Tegel, Munich and Hamburg.

The Turkish lira corporate bond market is in the doldrums and the nation’s largest independent fund manager says the government needs to step in to get it going again. A string of defaults and restructurings has dampened investor appetite for the 18 billion lira ($5.2 billion) market in corporate debt, issuance has slowed, and a borrowing binge by the Treasury has increased competition for a limited savings pool, Bloomberg News reported.