Headlines

In recent months, the European Central Bank has been caught on the horns of a dilemma — between a lacklustre economic recovery it fears cannot stand on its own two feet and German hostility to any attempt to extend the ECB’s ultra-loose monetary policy, the Financial Times reported. Up to now, the ECB has been able to sidestep the controversy. Britain’s decision to leave the EU has caused less fallout in the eurozone economy than some had feared, relieving the central bank of the need to carry out emergency measures.

An activist minority shareholder in Oi SA urged the Brazilian phone carrier's board to revamp a bankruptcy protection plan presented last month, in a bid to neutralize growing pressure from large creditors like bondholders and banks. In a letter sent to Chairman José Mauro Carneiro da Cunha dated Oct. 14, shareholder Nelson Tanure said Oi's in-court restructuring needed to be designed in a way that favors the survival of the company and not creditors. He urged stricter cost-cutting efforts and a stance toward austerity. Reuters viewed the letter.

Administrators have been appointed to one of Northern Ireland’s best known women’s fashion retailers, which traded as Exhibit and employed about 100 people, the Irish Times reported. Cucco Retail Limited, which operated Exhibit, had 15 branches across the North and also two in the Republic – in Monaghan and Sligo towns. Joint administrators James Neill and Rachel Foster of HNH Group said a “general downturn in trading conditions, coupled with a significant change in consumer spending patterns over recent times” had significantly impact on Exhibit’s trade.

Venezuela's government-run oil giant -- the country's largest source of cash -- is warning that it could default on its bonds as early as next week, CNN reported. Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA, failed to get investors to agree on a deal to push back debt payments by three years. The company said it is extending its deadline for a third time so investors can accept a deal by Friday night. This time, it warned that things could get messy.

The head of Brazil's telecom watchdog Anatel said on Monday it was not the government's goal to intervene in Oi SA but that it must "be prepared" to do so should the country's largest fixed-line carrier fail to resolve its debt problems during bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported. Anatel plans to let Oi's reorganization run its course before deciding on any possible action, Juarez Quadros said in an interview on the sidelines of a telecoms event in Sao Paulo. The proceedings began on June 20.

On Wednesday China’s National Bureau of Statistics will report its latest quarterly estimate for economic growth, which has stabilised after the world’s second-largest economy was rocked by a dual market and currency crisis in January. For Beijing, economic stability is paramount as it turns its focus to reining in runaway corporate debt levels, the Financial Times reported.

Credit Suisse analysts are warning the insurance fallout from the demise of Hanjin Shipping could be one of the largest combined maritime claims in history. The final bill could be as high as $1.8bn, with half of it in marine insurance, the investment bank has warned.

Seventeen years ago, Zhou Xiaochuan, then president of one of China’s oldest and largest banks, wrote an essay in an economics bimonthly magazine addressing the hottest policy topic of the day: a controversial new government program that let selected state-owned companies unwind loans they couldn’t repay with massive equity transfers to banks, The Wall Street Journal reported. In the 1999 essay, Mr. Zhou, who is now China’s central bank governor, laid out a clear-eyed critique of the dangers of debt-to-equity swaps. Beijing had already got the swaps underway by the time Mr.

The number of people applying for debt relief during the third quarter of the year has more than doubled on last year, according to figures from the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI), the Irish Times reported. According to the ISI, there were 899 new applications in the third quarter of the year, more than twice the number received in 2015, and up by 22 per cent on the second quarter. More than three-quarters (78 per cent) of applications are for Personal Insolvency Arrangements (PIAs). These allow a person to return to solvency while staying in their home.

Representatives of Nueva Pescanova, the successor firm to the troubled Spanish fishing giant, have sued the old company, Pescanova S.A., alleging breaches of securities law, a regulatory filing indicates. Nueva Pescanova specifically alleges that during the 2014 merger that formed it from the remnants of debt-embattled Pescanova, the former company reserved "alleged advantages" from Nueva Pescanova. The new company would like to be indemnified for those advantages, according to the filing.