Headlines

Noble Group Ltd.’s crisis deepened on Tuesday after S&P Global Ratings flagged the risk that the embattled commodity trader may default on its debt, triggering a 36-minute plunge in the company’s shares, an exchange query, and a trading halt ahead of an announcement, Bloomberg News reported. “The negative outlook on Noble reflects the potential that the company will face distress and a non-payment of its debt obligations over the next 12 months,” S&P said in a statement late on Monday as it cut the company’s ratings by three steps to CCC+.

Italy’s plan for an 8.8 billion-euro ($9.8 billion) bailout of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA faces resistance from the European Central Bank, which is concerned the lender may struggle to maintain capital buffers as it tries to get back on its feet, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Indian central bank Deputy Governor Viral Acharya said injecting new funds into lenders won’t resolve the nation’s stressed asset plight until companies take steps to reduce debt, Bloomberg News reported. The Reserve Bank of India is seeking to strengthen the banking system through measures including merging weaker banks and pushing to privatize some state-run lenders as it ramps up efforts to resolve the world’s highest stressed-asset ratios. Banks would be happy to lend but there is no demand from corporates as they are heavily indebted, he said in a speech in Kolkata on Friday.

In a related story, the Financial Times reported that State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, has reported earnings slightly ahead of analyst expectations for the first three months of 2017, along with a stabilisation of its hefty burden of bad loans. The bank’s net profit was Rs28.1bn ($430m) in the period, compared with a consensus forecast of Rs26.7bn by analysts polled by Bloomberg. This compared with Rs12.6bn in the same period of last year.

In 2011, Etihad Airways Chief Executive Officer James Hogan hatched a bold strategy to catch up with the airline’s more established Persian Gulf rivals: buying stakes in smaller, cash-hungry carriers across three continents to cobble together enough passengers to propel the Abu Dhabi-based company into the ranks of the global aviation elite. But after more than $4 billion of share purchases, bond buyouts, and other investments, the wannabe airline superpower has little to show for its long-odds gamble, Bloomberg News reported.

Canada’s biggest banks are this week set to post returns that again put their US peers in the shade, even as rapidly rising house prices and consumer debt levels have raised concerns about potential threats to financial stability north of the border, the Financial Times reported. The big five, which together control almost C$4.5tn worth of assets, will seek to reassure investors that Canada’s banking system remains in good health when they post quarterly net income forecast to be between 5 and 30 per cent higher than a year ago.

Ireland’s central bank has become the latest regulator to call for greater scrutiny of how the $4tn exchange traded fund industry works and whether existing guidelines are adequate in light of the industry’s astronomical growth, the Financial Times reported. The Central Bank of Ireland, which oversees financial regulation, wants greater clarification on issues such as ownership and pricing, according to a discussion paper that flagged potential pitfalls in the way the instruments operate.

The oil industry in Canada's resource-rich Alberta will be on the hook for a C$235 million ($172.7 million) government loan to clean up a rising number of oil wells abandoned by owners who have gone bankrupt, the province said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The loan, repayable over 10 years, will go to the government-run, industry-funded Orphan Well Association (OWA), which cleans up wells for which no party is legally responsible, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said at a news conference.

For global investors and, indeed commentators, China remains a fascinating subject and one that carries a health warning, the Financial Times reported. Nearly a third of fund managers say the recent tightening of credit by authorities in Beijing, who are taking aim at the shadow banking sector, is now the biggest tail risk for markets, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey released this week. Not since January of 2016 has China ranked above the threat of a eurozone break-up as the biggest worry for investors.

Greece’s parliament has narrowly approved an omnibus reform package needed to unlock more than €6bn of bailout aid and open the way for the country’s international creditors to reach a deal on debt relief, the Financial Times reported. Lawmakers from the governing left-wing Syriza party and its coalition partner, the right-wing Independent Greeks, backed the bill in a late-night vote on Thursday.