Headlines

Abengoa SA won agreement from major creditors for a rescue plan, potentially averting Spain’s largest corporate insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. Investors including Elliott Management Corp., Centerbridge Partners LP and Varde Partners LP will provide 1.17 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of new loans in exchange for a 50 percent stake, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. The renewable-energy producer’s existing shareholders, including a company part-owned by the founding Benjumea family, will be left with about 5 percent. Abengoa has until Oct.

Oi SA is expected to burn less cash this quarter thanks to a June petition to win court protection from creditors, which is temporarily sparing Brazil's largest fixed-line phone carrier from paying debts, executives said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Chief Executive Officer Marco Schroeder told analysts on a conference call that planned changes in industry rules under discussion in Congress could help improve the outlook for Oi's operations. The company released weak quarterly results earlier on Thursday.

The International Monetary Fund said Thursday that it would grant Egypt a $12 billion loan over three years to help Egypt mend its ailing economy after years of unrest, the International New York Times reported. The I.M.F. said the loan, which is subject to approval by its executive board, comes in support of a government overhaul that aims to stabilize Egypt’s currency, reduce the budget deficit and government debt, and bolster growth and create jobs. “Egypt is a strong country with great potential but it has some problems that need to be fixed urgently,” I.M.F.

With Venezuela's economy veering into depression and Venezuelans scrambling to find basic goods, the government's decision to keep servicing the country’s $68bn in external bonds has been called everything from “crazy” to “a crime against humanity.” Putting bondholders above Venezuelans, these critics argue, is just morally wrong, Bloomberg News reported. But such charged rhetoric is no substitute for a sober analysis of Venezuela's debt predicament. Seen in that light, the wisdom of defaulting is less clear cut.

Belgian financial services group KBC has cut its forecast for loan-loss provisions in Ireland and announced a €39.5 million second-quarter net profit for its Irish arm, the Ifish Times reported. KBC Bank Ireland, which has €14 billion of Irish loans still outstanding, slashed its full-year Irish loan-loss provisions to a range of zero to €40 million, from a previous guidance of between €50 million to €100 million. The bank said first-half profits reached €73.7 million.

The bed bank arm of Lowcost Travel Group, Lowcostbeds, had yet to enter insolvency this week, raising fears of knock-on failures and of holidaymakers arriving at hotels to find rooms unpaid for. Lowcost Travel ceased trading on July 15 with up to 300,000 customers of online agent Lowcost Holidays booked or abroad and a £65 million black hole in its accounts.

Grupo Bom Jesus, a Brazilian grain producer that filed for bankruptcy protection in May, has offered creditors stakes in a farm that could be later sold, in an effort to restructure 2.6 billion reais ($826 million) in debt, Reuters reported. According to documents that Bom Jesus filed in a court in the midwestern town of Rondonópolis, one part of the plan calls for an auction of farms and a grains trading subsidiary to raise cash. The company plans to continue operations while negotiating the debt restructuring.

New economic data for China broken down by region shines a light on how uneven growth is around the country and how the nation’s statistics are still suspect, The Wall Street Journal reported. The figures that have trickled out in recent days, measuring gross domestic product in the first half of 2016 by individual province, have revived old questions over China’s statistical methodology.

Phone carrier Oi SA, which filed in June for Brazil's largest ever in-court reorganization, will present a plan to overhaul business and repay creditors later this month or by early September, Chief Executive Officer Marco Schroeder said on Wednesday. Schroeder told reporters in Rio de Janeiro, where Brazil's largest fixed-line phone operator is based, that suppliers and creditors will be offered terms of the business reorganization plan, which involves a debt-for-equity swap. He declined to elaborate.

Brexit will come at a cost for the UK financial-services industry, no matter what agreement the government secures in its negotiations with the European Union, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the Irish Times reported. Banks may be hit hard if Britain loses single-market access as companies would lose passporting rights that allow them direct access to clients in the EU, the London-based research group said in a report published on Wednesday.