Headlines

Swiss commodities trading group ECOM has agreed to buy the factory of German cocoa grinder Euromar Commodities GmbH which declared insolvency in December, Euromar's insolvency administrator said on Monday, Reuters reported. ECOM plans to resume production at Euromar's plant at Fehrbellin near Berlin, insolvency administrator Rolf Rattunde said in a statement. No one was available for comment at ECOM's Swiss head office. Rattunde said a sale contract for Euromar's factory, equipment and site has been signed with ECOM and approved by Euromar's interim committee of creditors.

China is getting serious about dealing with so-called zombie companies through court-led bankruptcies as it seeks to cut overcapacity in industries and boost economic growth, Bloomberg News reported. The country’s Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said at the National People’s Congress Sunday that authorities will improve the country’s judicial system for dealing with bankruptcies in 2017 to support those goals.

The reflation trade is carving out refuges in some curious places, case in point: emerging Asian debt. Credit-default swaps on the bonds of every Asian emerging market except for South Korea have tumbled this year, outperforming debt risk for the U.K. and for France, which has jumped amid the presidential election campaign, Bloomberg News reported. Inflows into developing Asian bond markets have also swelled in 2017 as investors bet the world’s fastest-growing region will be able to better withstand the volatility and outflows unleashed by a tightening Federal Reserve.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), once one of Korea's biggest shipbuilders, faces a potential crisis, despite claims to the contrary. The financial authority here has assured the market that the company faces no such scenario where it could default on its debt, The Korea Times reported. But the question remains as to whether Daewoo can refinance and repay 440 billion won owed to investors next month. With the company running out of money without any new projects that can improve cash flow, the market remains concerned over the lack of liquidity.

Portugal has urged the EU and credit-rating agencies to acknowledge the scale of its economic turnround as the country heads towards its lowest fiscal deficit in more than 40 years, the Financial Times reported. Mário Centeno, the country’s finance minister, wants the EU to remove Portugal from the group of countries subject to penalties for breaking the bloc’s fiscal rules. In an interview he said last year’s fiscal deficit would be “very close to 2 per cent” of gross domestic product, the lowest since democracy was restored in Portugal in 1974.

China’s central bank governor said Friday the country needs to get soaring corporate debt under control but its economy and currency are stable and the decline in its foreign exchange reserves is no cause for concern, The Washington Post reported. Zhou Xiaochuan’s comments at a news conference held during China’s national legislature follows warnings a rapid rise in debt could lead to financial trouble. Beijing is trying to reduce reliance on credit and to clear away debts of state companies but private sector analysts say it needs to move faster.

Depositors should be the last to suffer losses if a bank goes down, the European Central Bank said on Friday, urging EU lawmakers to spell out this principle in their new directive. Fears that small savers would end up bearing the brunt of bank rescues have rattled the euro zone since new European rules, stating that a bank's creditors must lose money before taxpayers, came into force last year, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

It’s hard to find a pessimist among Brazil investors these days, even though there’s plenty to be worried about. Traders who pushed the real and Ibovespa stock index to some of the world’s biggest gains over the past year see a rosy outlook for President Michel Temer’s chances of pushing through pension, labor and tax reforms that are needed for Brazil to regain investment-grade status, Bloomberg News reported. They’re ignoring signs of a sluggish economy, chaotic politics and a new chapter in a corruption scandal that threatens to paralyze the government.

The resolution of non-performing loans (NPLs) by Irish banks needs to “regain momentum” while plans to give the Central Bank powers to cap mortgage interest rates could prevent lenders from generating “sustainable profits” and deter new entrants to the market, the European Commission has warned. In its latest unpublished post-bailout surveillance report on Ireland, seen by The Irish Times, the commission stated that while much work has been done by the banks to reduce their NPLs, the stock “remains high and shows signs of stickiness,” the Irish Times reported.

Less than three years after Etihad Airways saved Alitalia SpA from bankruptcy, the Italian airline is once again on the brink, The Wall Street Journal reported. After spending €400 million ($427 million) to buy effective control of Alitalia in 2014, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier launched a much-ballyhooed effort to improve the Italian airline’s service, expand its international routes and make the domestic business leaner. But the drive has done little to push up passenger numbers or beat back fierce competition from low-cost carriers, leaving Alitalia at risk of bankruptcy.