Headlines

Shares in Seadrill, the oil rig owner controlled by influential shipowner John Fredriksen, sank on Thursday after it said it plans to begin its Chapter 11 debt restructuring in the coming weeks, and revealed a $100m loss in the second quarter, the Financial Times reported. Seadrill has struggled since the 2014 oil price crash, and has been eyeing Chapter 11 proceedings since the beginning of this year. It said on Thursday it plans to conclude negotiations on its restructuring, which is “likely” to involve bankruptcy, “on or before September 12″.

The threat of US sanctions against Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela escalated this week, with vice-president Mike Pence warning of “more to come”. But investors appeared unmoved, the Financial Times reported. While bond prices initially dipped on Wednesday on reports that new sanctions could ban trading in new issues from the Venezuelan government and state oil group Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), several of the bonds rebounded on Thursday.

The Italian government faces a paper loss of more than 30 percent on its 3.85 billion euros ($4.54 billion) rescue of troubled lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena, according to grey-market trading in the bank's new shares. The world's oldest lender has not formally traded on the Milan bourse since December when the bank failed to raise enough capital to remove the threat of collapse, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. In July, Rome bailed it out, paying 6.49 euros per share for a controlling stake.

Lufthansa has submitted a letter of interest in Air Berlin's Niki unit and other parts of the insolvent carrier, a source familiar with the talks said on Wednesday. Air Berlin, which is being kept in the air thanks to a 150 million euro ($177 million) government loan, has been in talks with interested parties since last week, when it filed for insolvency after major shareholder, Gulf carrier Etihad, said it would no longer provide funding, Reuters reported.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Ryanair Holdings Plc said it’s “genuinely interested” in bidding for insolvent Air Berlin Plc and called on the German company to involve it in the sale process. Ryanair could buy all or part of Air Berlin but has so far been ignored by the ailing carrier, according to Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary, who said Wednesday he’s concerned the company will be handed to Deutsche Lufthansa AG in an anti-competitive, all-German deal.

Overseas fund managers and companies are tracking India’s efforts to force its biggest defaulters into insolvency proceedings as interest in buying distressed assets grows, according to investment bank Moelis & Co. A dozen companies in sectors including steel, power and construction may become buyout targets after the Reserve Bank of India ordered lenders to take them to insolvency court and set in motion a timeline for them to devise a restructuring plan or face liquidation, Bloomberg News reported.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc settled a lawsuit filed by the owner of a bankrupt student- housing company that claimed the bank had sold him hedging products linked to Libor while at the same time trying to rig the interest-rate benchmark, Bloomberg News reported. Stuart Wall, owner of Opal Property Group Ltd., alleged that RBS mis-sold the group an interest-rate swap, which contributed to the collapse of the business in 2013. While terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed, the four-year-old claim had been valued at as much as 669 million pounds ($856 million).

The crisis at Provident Financial has left thousands of the subprime lender’s 730,000 consumer credit customers in a precarious financial position because many of them rely on regular visits from the company’s staff for credit to tide them over. Shares in the FTSE 100 lender fell 66 per cent on Tuesday after the company issued its second profits warning in two months and said its chief executive would be resigning after a mismanaged restructuring of its doorstep lending division, the Financial Times reported.

The Gupta business family at the centre of a political scandal in South Africa has sold its main mining company to a little-known Swiss-based group — the second sale of a prime asset this week, the Financial Times reported. Oakbay, the Guptas’ holding company, said it had agreed to sell Tegeta Exploration and Resources to Charles King for R2.97bn ($225m).

Britain's Pensions Regulator is to prosecute Dominic Chappell for failing to provide information and documents requested during an investigation into the sale of department store chain BHS to him by retail tycoon Philip Green, it said on Tuesday. Green sold the loss-making 180-store chain to Chappell's Retail Acquisitions Ltd vehicle for 1 pound ($1.28) in 2015. Chappell was a serial bankrupt with no retail experience, Reuters reported.