Headlines

Changes in Brazil's telecom law currently under debate in the Senate are not being taken into account by debt-laden carrier Oi SA as it devises its in-court reorganization plan, Oi Chief Executive Marcos Schroeder said on Tuesday. Speaking at an industry event in Brasília, Schroeder said the imminent reforms will have no economic effect on the company's reorganization in bankruptcy court, Reuters reported. The bill had been scheduled to become law last December but was held up in the Senate after opposition legislators filed a motion to submit it to a vote by the full house.

Greece and its international lenders are not expected to reach agreement on the country's bailout progress before a meeting of euro zone finance ministers next Monday, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Tuesday. Talks between Athens, its European Union lenders and the International Monetary Fund over labour and energy reforms, fiscal targets and debt relief have dragged on for months rekindling fears of a new crisis in the single-currency bloc, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Italy is looking at a €5bn state rescue of two struggling regional banks as the eurozone’s third-largest economy takes renewed steps to shore up its troubled banking system, the Financial Times reported. The rescues of Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza, which still require regulatory approval, would be a “precautionary recapitalisation”, according to people with direct knowledge of the discussions. This is a mechanism that allows eurozone states to pump state money into banks without infringing state aid rules.

Toshiba Corp.’s problems threatened to spiral out of control as the electronics giant projected a $6.3 billion write-down, postponed its earnings report because of allegations of impropriety and said its chairman was resigning—all in the space of a day, The Wall Street Journal reported. The delay in the earnings report sent Toshiba shares down 8% in Tokyo trading Tuesday, and its president said he was willing to sell most or all of Toshiba’s profitable flash-memory business to help the company survive past the March 31 end of its fiscal year.

A prosecutor asked to investigate Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Tuesday over a deal to resolve debt the country's postal service incurred with the government when it was owned by Macri's father, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. A judge will decide whether or not to open an investigation, which could hurt center-right Macri's party in congressional elections later this year. Earlier on Tuesday, Cabinet Chief Marcos Peña asked for an independent audit of the deal to resolve the debt and denied any wrongdoing by Macri's government.

The euro-area economy expanded less than initially reported in the fourth quarter as growth in three of its largest economies fell short of expectations and Greek output unexpectedly shrank, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product rose 0.4 percent in the three months through December, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said on Tuesday. That is below a Jan. 31 estimate and follows an increase of 0.4 percent in the previous quarter. The data highlight the fragility of the 19-nation economy’s recovery.

Spain’s highest criminal court has launched a probe against the former heads of the central bank and the stock market regulator, declaring them formal suspects over their failure to stop the ill-fated flotation of Bankia, the Financial Times reported. The bailout and nationalisation of Bankia marked the nadir of Spain’s 2012 financial crisis and forced the government to request financial aid from its EU partners. The sprawling savings bank went on to absorb more than €20bn in state support and posted the biggest loss in Spanish corporate history.

Kazakhstan is considering a 2.1 trillion-tenge ($6.5 billion) plan this year to restore banks to health, widening its budget deficit and tapping its oil wealth fund to cover the costs, Bloomberg News reported. Finance Minister Bakhyt Sultanov proposed the additional spending Monday in a presentation to the cabinet, according to a website statement.

Arturo Méndez heaved a sigh of relief after slapping about $300,000 in hundred dollar bills on the table to pay for a house. Carrying all that cash around the streets of Buenos Aires was now someone else’s problem. “Why couldn’t I have just got a mortgage like in any normal country?” asks Mr Méndez rhetorically — well aware that affordable mortgages scarcely exist in Argentina thanks to its chronically volatile economy. As a result, most are obliged to pay for their homes upfront, and often in dollars because of the historic instability of the peso, the Financial Times reported.

After a few days of relative calm for Greece’ two-year bond, the country’s short-term debt has sold off sharply again in the last few hours as Athens’ central bank chief has made series of stark warnings about the economic consequences of the country’s latest bailout impasse, the Financial Times reported. The yield on a bond maturing in April 2019 has now leapt over 35 basis points to 8.8 per cent but remains below an eight-month high of close to 10 per cent hit last week.