Headlines

Postmedia Networks Corp. reported a profit in its latest quarter, boosted by a debt restructuring negotiated by the struggling media company and its major creditors, however revenue fell nearly 15 per cent, The Globe and Mail reported. The Toronto-based owner of the National Post and other major Canadian newspapers says it earned $17.8-million or 31 cents per share for the quarter ended Nov. 30. That compared with a loss of $4.2-million or two cents per share a year ago.

Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee left the South Korean special prosecutor's office early on Friday, more than 22 hours after arriving for questioning on bribery suspicions in an influence-peddling scandal that could topple President Park Geun-hye. Lee left the special prosecution office without answering reporters' questions and headed to a waiting car.

The third-generation heir of South Korea’s Samsung conglomerate is being questioned Thursday in relation to suspected bribery, prosecutors said, drawing the country’s biggest and most powerful business group deeper into an unfolding political scandal that has led to the impeachment of the president, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lee Jae-yong, the 48-year-old heir-apparent to the Samsung empire, arrived at the office of the special prosecutor on Thursday morning. The special prosecutors’ office also called on lawmakers to report Mr.

Santander is considering ways to issue a new type of senior bond well in advance of the requisite legislation being passed, allowing it to chip away at an approximate 30bn issuance target over the next two years, Reuters reported. The Spanish bank said on Wednesday that it will issue 16bn-20bn in 2017 and another 12bn-15.5bn in 2018 of so-called senior non-preferred, set to become a major new asset class as European banks respond to regulatory demands to beef up their loss absorbing buffers.

The threat of the State-owned Bus Éireann becoming insolvent within the next 18 months is very real, its new acting chief executive has told staff, the Irish Times reported. Ray Hernan also said it was clear the loss-making company had to change its business model. However, he insisted that the Expressway service, the company’s commercial inter-city coach service which receives no State subsides, would “ continue to be part of Bus Éireann”. The Expressway service faces strong competition from private bus operators and accounts for the bulk of the company’s financial losses.

Brazilian pulp and paper company Fibria dropped controversial language on a 10-year Green bond on Wednesday amid strong investor pushback, sources told IFR. Fibria was one of several companies this week to drop the aggressive terms, which make it easier for borrowers to breach covenants without offering investors compensation.

Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Co. (ARC) Ltd is planning to file an insolvency case against Bharati Defence and Infrastructure Ltd in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to pre-empt winding-up petitions by unsecured creditors, said two people familiar with the matter, including a senior official at the ARC. Edelweiss’s move is in response to the dissolution of the Board for Industrial and Financial Restructuring, which makes Bharati vulnerable to winding-up petitions from unsecured lenders. “Under BIFR, a firm remains protected against any legal proceedings.

A Singapore court Wednesday sentenced a former branch manager of Switzerland’s Falcon Private Bank AG to prison for crimes connected to the alleged multibillion-dollar misappropriation at Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB, The Wall Street Journal reported. Jens Sturzenegger, 42, a Swiss national who managed Falcon’s Singapore unit, was charged last week with 16 offenses under various laws, including one that requires banks and their officers to enact due-diligence checks on clients to prevent money laundering.

Chinese regulators have taken steps to ensure bitcoin is not used to facilitate capital flight, even as investors in the cryptocurrency say they doubt it is being used to transfer large amounts of cash out of China, the Financial Times reported. The apparent correlation between a depreciating renminbi and bitcoin’s price surge in recent months has prompted suspicion that the virtual asset is contributing to outflows. Bitcoin’s Chinese price rose 145 per cent in 2016, as the renminbi suffered its worst year on record, weakening 6.5 per cent.

A leading German industry chief has warned the UK against expecting any softening of Berlin’s increasingly tough stance on Britain’s plans to leave the EU, the Financial Times reported. Dieter Kempf, who took over this month as president of the BDI, the German employers’ federation, told journalists on Tuesday there could be no question of Europe bowing to British demands for immigration controls, saying the EU’s four freedoms — including the freedom of movement — must not be “put into danger”.