Headlines

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet has signed off on a plan to sell all or part of Air India Ltd., a debt-ridden, state-run carrier with the most unusual baggage, Bloomberg News reported. The airline’s balance sheet includes commercial space near London Heathrow, land in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Nairobi, all bought during the heydays when the airline commissioned paintings by Indian modern artists and hired surrealist painter Salvador Dali in the 1960s to design ashtrays.

Tata Steel Ltd. has completed restructuring its British operations with the sale of two steel pipe mills in the U.K. that were put on the block last year, Bloomberg News reported. The Mumbai-based company has entered into a definitive pact with Liberty House Group to sell its 42-inch and 84-inch pipe mills at Hartlepool, employing about 140 people, it said in an exchange filing on Tuesday, without disclosing the financial value. The transaction is expected to be completed in the next few months. “With this sale, Tata Steel U.K.

The world’s riskiest credit got another jolt after S&P Global Ratings lowered Venezuela’s rating deeper into junk as the economy spirals down amid heightened political tension, Bloomberg News reported. S&P reduced the nation’s long-term foreign and local currency ratings to CCC-, or three notches below investment grade, from CCC on Tuesday. The New York-based company kept its negative outlook for Venezuela, signaling room for further downgrades. Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service also rank the country at speculative levels.

Swissport is looking to switch up its bonds to avoid being bumped into a default after being bought by China’s HNA Group last year, in a sign of the growing scrutiny on aggressive Chinese acquisition techniques, the Financial Times reported. China’s HNA Group completed its acquisition of Swissport in early 2016, raising debt on its own account to finance the deal, along with high-yield bonds and leveraged loans under Swissport’s name.

In January, Innoventive Industries, a speciality steelmaker based in western India, was forced into the bankruptcy court by its lenders, testing for the first time new insolvency rules that aim to resolve India's $150 billion bad debt overhang, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The company, which makes steel tubes and auto parts for customers including Ford, Volkswagen and Tata Motors, posted its third straight annual loss in 2016, prompting ICICI, one of its lead lenders, to trigger bankruptcy proceedings early this year.

Carillion Plc interim head Keith Cochrane said “no option is off the table” as the British construction company seeks to recover from a record stock market plunge, weaker-than-expected profit growth and the resignation of its chief executive officer, Bloomberg News reported. Cash flow from some projects has deteriorated, and the board will review all of the company’s major contracts with the help of KPMG, Carillion said in a statement Monday.

For more than a year, Oi SA has struggled to reach a deal with various factions jockeying for a leg up in its $19 billion bankruptcy case, Bloomberg News reported. Almost entirely absent from that process? The company’s single biggest creditor. Brazil’s government claims that Oi owes telecom regulator Anatel as much as 20 billion reais ($6.1 billion), but current law forbids the agency from accepting any sort of haircut or extending the payment schedule.

Hong Kongers are generally reluctant to relinquish control to Beijing. But a cash offer at a 31 per cent premium to Friday’s closing price convinced the family of the territory’s former chief executive, Tung Chee-Hwa, to sell its 68 per cent stake in Orient Overseas (OOIL) to a pair of Chinese shippers led by state owned Cosco, the Financial Times reported. Both parties hope others will like the $6.3bn valuation. Overcapacity and a slowdown in global trade have hit shipping margins in recent years. Both Cosco and Danish market leader Maersk lost money in the past two years.

How indebted is Ireland? After a sobering Monday briefing from the country’s National Treasury Management Agency, let us count the ways. The country’s general government debt is €200bn — four times the level it was in 2007, before the crisis hit and the country’s banking sector collapsed, the NTMA said at the launch of its 2016 annual report and half-yearly update. That equates to €42,000 per person, compared to an average of just €24,000 among the EU’s 28 member states, the Financial Times reported.

Italian banks are out of the emergency room. There is a long convalescence ahead, but it is good news for the recovery of Europe as a whole. The healing under way in Italy and elsewhere is making room for new lending, which can help to fuel economic growth. Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy’s most troubled big bank, finally struck a deal with European regulators to complete its €5 billion ($5.7 billion) bailout this month, The Wall Street Journal reported.