Headlines

A default by Noble Group Ltd. now “appears probable,” according to Fitch Ratings Inc., which cut the Hong Kong-based commodity trader’s credit rating by two steps, adding further pressure on executives as they seek to hammer out fresh terms with their lenders, Bloomberg News reported. Fitch cut the trader to CC from CCC, deeper into junk territory, according to a statement on Friday that came just before the close of trade in Asia.

Carillion Plc lost a third of its market value after saying it’s in danger of breaching debt covenants, as the U.K. builder that only three years ago was trying to buy a rival now struggles for survival, Bloomberg News reported. The Wolverhampton-based construction company issued its third profit warning in half a year on Friday and said it’s in talks with creditors about “some form of recapitalization” in the first quarter of next year. Delays in projects and disposals will lead 2017 profits to be lower than expected, it said. Carillion’s spiral downwards has been swift.

Petróleos de Venezuela is the oily lifeblood of the country which owns it, so default should spell the beginning of the end for creditors, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. PDVSA’s exports are the only reason the government has been able to meet foreign debt repayments. After four years of recession and shortages of everything its citizens need, Venezuela has finally run out of road. Well, almost. Last week, the government was deemed in default by credit rating companies, following a delay in bond payments.

As the panic in the eurozone has happily receded — even Greece is likely to exit its rescue lending programme next year — so space has opened up for a constructive debate about fixing the single currency’s manifest flaws. There is undoubtedly a sense of “never again” after the banking and sovereign debt crises that engulfed the eurozone from 2010, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. But the problem is one that has dogged the euro since its launch 18 years ago: a fundamental disagreement about how the currency should work and what it is for.

China Huishan Dairy Holdings Co Ltd, struggling under billions of dollars worth of debt, is preparing for provisional liquidation in a legal escalation of one of the most spectacular collapses of a Hong Kong-listed firm in recent years, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Shares in the mainland group, once a hot property with investors, have been suspended since they plunged 85 percent without warning in March, after which it revealed missed loan payments and the disappearance of its finance director.

To solve the Mt. Gox bankruptcy mess, its former chief executive says he is exploring a dramatic solution – reviving the exchange so it can start generating money again, Reuters reported. Mark Karpeles told Reuters he believes Mt. Gox, which collapsed in 2014, could be resurrected under new management and ownership – at a cost of $245 million. He said he would have no role and would only receive “money for required expenses, mostly legal.” Karpeles is currently on trial in Japan, accused of embezzling money from Mt. Gox and manipulating its data, as well as breach of trust.

China Huishan Dairy Holdings Co., the Hong Kong-listed dairy company targeted by short sellers including Muddy Waters Capital LLC, said on Thursday that it is preparing for provisional liquidation, Bloomberg News reported. The firm had told its Cayman legal advisers to make the preparations, it said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing. Huishan’s board earlier found that the net liabilities of its units in China “could have been” 10.5 billion yuan ($1.58 billion) as of March 31, the company said.

Despite reassurances from the Venezuelan government and state-run oil company that checks for past-due bond payments are in the mail, few investors have actually seen the money yet, Bloomberg News reported. No matter. Bonds are rising, paring some of the selloff sparked by President Nicolas Maduro’s announcement Nov. 2 that he would seek to renegotiate the nation’s billions of dollars in overseas debt obligations. Investors have little choice but to take his word for it and assume the procedural delays in the payment chain, which have worsened since U.S.

How does a company with $262 million in the bank and looming restructuring talks with creditors carry out an $8.4 billion takeover? Ask Noble Group Ltd. Harbour Energy Ltd., an investment vehicle in which Noble had a 75 percent stake in January, is due to present a deal within weeks offering about that much for oil and gas producer Santos Ltd., the Australian Financial Review reported Thursday without saying where it got the information, Bloomberg News reported in a commentary.

China’s central bank injected $47bn into its financial system on Thursday, its largest intervention in nearly a year, in an effort to calm investor fears that Beijing’s crackdown on debt-fuelled growth would put a break on the country’s rapid expansion, the Financial Times reported.