Headlines

A mountain of bad debt in India's banking system has led to a prolonged credit crunch that is inflicting most pain on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) such as Pandey's that depend upon banks for their day-to-day working capital and longer-term borrowing needs. India has more than 45 million such enterprises, accounting for nearly 40 percent of gross domestic product, Reuters reported. Smaller businesses also account for the bulk of job creation, so a lack of bank credit reaching them threatens Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise to create 250 million jobs over the next decade.

Dominic Chappell, a former bankrupt who bought BHS for £1 and received millions of pounds while presiding over the retailer’s collapse, has lost a bid to keep his company afloat after a judge questioned the value of its recent investment in Portuguese property, the Financial Times reported. Administrators for BHS Group have been granted a winding-up order for Retail Acquisitions, a company owned by Mr Chappell, after it failed to keep up with repayments on a £6m loan it received from BHS shortly after buying the doomed chain from Sir Philip Green in 2015.

Tata Steel has agreed a settlement “in principle” to the long-running pensions saga at its UK business, a deal that could remove the last hurdle to a merger of the group’s European steelmaking operations with those of German rival ThyssenKrupp, the Financial Times reported. The £15bn British Steel Pension Scheme has been an increasing financial burden on Tata Steel UK, the country’s largest steelmaker, which its Indian parent acquired in 2007. The deal “in principle” would mean handing over £550m and a 33 per cent stake in the UK subsidiary to the retirement fund.

Since Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French presidential election removed fears of a chaotic “Frexit”, many pessimists have turned to Italy as the next likely cause of problems for investors in Europe. So far, however, investors don’t seem to be listening, the Financial Times reported. The FTSE MIB – Italy’s benchmark stock index – has been the best performer among major European stock indices since the first round of the French vote last month, climbing more than 10 per cent. That’s well ahead of even France itself, where the CAC has risen only 6.9 per cent.

Greek seamen and journalists walked off the job Tuesday, a day before a nationwide general strike to protest new austerity measures the government is legislating for in return for more bailout funds, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. The seamen's union announced Tuesday afternoon they would extend their strike, originally planned to last 48 hours, for a further two days, leaving ferries servicing Greece's islands tied up in port until midnight Friday night.

Banks are raising the heat on Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht SA to put its house in order after months of treating the scandal-hit company with kid gloves because of fears its collapse could hurt their balance sheets, sources said.

Toshiba, whose U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse has filed for bankruptcy protection, is reporting a 950 billion yen ($8.4 billion) net loss for the fiscal year ended March, Bloomberg News reported on an Associated Press story. The Japanese electronics giant's results have failed to win auditors' approval from the previous quarter, after questions were raised over the acquisition of U.S. nuclear construction company CB&I Stone and Webster. Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp.

India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley was in bullish form last week, touting the government’s move to give the central bank powers to force action by lenders on distressed loans, the Financial Times reported. This would be key to fixing the huge bad debt burden weighing on India’s state-owned banks, which stemmed largely from just a few dozen big corporate accounts, he told a conference in Tokyo. “To resolve between 30 and 50 accounts is not very difficult, if the [Reserve Bank of India] is empowered to give direction to the banks,” he said.

Britain's new relationship with the European Union is still a long way from being settled, but Brexit has started a process that is bound to hurt the City of London, a Bloomberg View reported. Earlier this month, the European Commission launched a review of the rules governing one of the City's lucrative lines of business -- the clearing of derivatives denominated in euros. The U.K. wants to keep it in London. The European Central Bank was skeptical about that even before Brexit.

Ratings agency Moody’s has downgraded Noble Group further into junk territory on Monday, warning that the embattled commodity trader may not have enough cash and bank lines be able to cover debts maturing in the next 12 months. Noble Group, whose shares have plummeted by 56 per cent in the past week, was lowered to Caa1 from B2 by Moody’s, placing it in a category the rating’s agency describes as “subject to very high default risk,“ the Financial Times reported.