Headlines

Executives at Kaisa Group Holdings, the first Chinese property developer to default on an overseas bond, have had a busy few weeks, the Financial Times reported. Since trading of the company’s Hong Kong-listed shares resumed on March 27 after a two-year suspension, they have belatedly issued Kaisa’s 2014 and 2015 annual reports, interim reports for 2015 and 2016, and unaudited operating figures for the first quarter of 2017. Adding to the sense that it is finally business as usual at Kaisa, the company’s shares surged 85 per cent on their first day of trading.

Europe’s emergency bailout fund sold a record amount of long-dated bonds on Tuesday, in the latest sign of investor enthusiasm following the first round of voting in France’s presidential election, the Financial Times reported. The European Financial Stability Facility raised €6bn in a new 10-year issue, and a further €2bn by reopening an existing 2043 maturity bond, with both parts of the fundraising more than twice oversubscribed, bankers said.

Russia's largest bank Sberbank is considering selling 1.1 billion euros (920.1 million pounds) in loans it granted to indebted Croatian food and retail group Agrokor, Sberbank's First Deputy Chairman Maxim Poletayev said, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. "We are also considering a possibility of selling Agrokor's debt and are in talks with buyers on the international markets," Poletayev said in an interview with Reuters.

The recent economic data out of the euro zone is encouraging. Production, manufacturing and confidence are robust, and inflation has stabilized, a Bloomberg View reported. That’s not to say that there aren’t risks to the downside, such as growing populism, global geopolitical tensions, and uncertainty about sustainability of the economic recovery. To insure against these risks, the European Central Bank, which has a monetary policy meeting Thursday, has the option of boosting asset purchases.

China's debt-stricken Chongqing Iron and Steel Company warned of the risk of bankruptcy on Tuesday, after one of its creditors submitted an application to a local court to reorganise its assets, Reuters reported. Chongqing Steel said in a notice posted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that the creditor, identified as Chongqing Laiquyuan Trading, told a court on Monday that the southwest China-based steelmaker's assets were not sufficient to pay off all its debts.

Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank may have to inject at least 230 billion tenge ($738 million) into Kazkommertsbank, the troubled lender it’s set to buy for less than $1 after a state bailout, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The cash, coming after the government stumps up 2.4 trillion tenge to shift off Kazkommertsbank’s balance sheet its loans to BTA Bank, would enable the lender to keep operating, the people said, asking not to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

Rising defaults in China are unearthing hidden debt at companies across the country, Bloomberg News reported. Small firms that can’t get loans by themselves have been winning banks over by getting other companies to guarantee their borrowings. The companies making those pledges exclude them from their balance sheets, leaving creditors in the dark. Borrowers often extend the guarantees for each other, raising the risk that failures could ricochet, at a time when increasing borrowing costs have already added to strains.

With ‘Frexit’ looking like it is off the cards, investors attuned to political risk in the eurozone are turning their attentions back on Italy. Italian assets are enjoying a bounce today, caught up in the broader market euphoria over Emmanuel Macron’s likely ascendancy to the French presidency in less than two weeks’ time, the Financial Times reported.

Alitalia, Italy’s flag carrier, has been plunged into chaos after its workers rebelled against a deal struck ten days ago by management and trade unions to save the airline from collapse by cutting wages and laying off employees, the Financial Times reported. The vote against the agreement jeopardises a key round of financing that had been planned to keep Alitalia solvent, meaning the airline now faces possible receivership, liquidation and a grounding of its fleet.

France’s big banks were the biggest beneficiaries of the country’s first round of voting in the race for the Elysée Palace on Monday with their share prices eclipsing a robust performance from the blue-chip CAC 40 index, the Financial Times reported. Shares in BNP Paribas gained 7.4 per cent while Société Générale rose 10.1 per cent and Crédit Agricole added 10.3 per cent — surpassing the CAC 40’s jump of 4.1 per cent.