Headlines

Abengoa SA, the Spanish renewable-energy company scrambling to avoid bankruptcy, reported a 1.2 billion-euro ($1.3 billion) loss for 2015 after its business was revalued amid a financial restructuring process, Bloomberg News reported. The Seville-based company shifted to a loss after posting net income of 125.3 million euros the previous year, according to a regulatory filing Monday. The loss was mainly due to “negative impacts” of 878 million euros, related to a “viability plan” developed by adviser Alvarez & Marsal, according to the filing.

Examination by AIB as to how William and Sheila Moran, the former owners of Morans on the Weir, in Kilcolgan, Co Galway, spent €24,000 a month on living expenses over 38 months to the end of 2014, is continuing, the Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Brian McGovern was yesterday told the bank is reviewing some new information it has received over the past two weeks, and is waiting for more that is pending. The case was adjourned to April 4th.

Beijing has mothballed two pioneering outbound investment schemes, according to people with knowledge of the situation, in its latest bid to stem capital outflows and shore up the renminbi. The halt in the allotment of quotas reflects fears over the massive amount of cash — some economists estimate up to $1tn last year — that has left the country through official and unofficial channels as economic growth slows and the renminbi continues to depreciate, the Financial Times reported.

Italy — the eurozone’s third-largest economy and second-largest manufacturer — did finally emerge from a bruising triple-dip recession in 2015 when it recorded 0.7 per growth, the Financial Times reported. But hopes of a strong acceleration in the pace of the recovery in 2016 have already dimmed thanks primarily to international factors, such as emerging market weakness and the turmoil afflicting the global financial markets since the start of the year. That sparked a sharp drop in Italian equity prices, particularly those of the country's banks.

Indebted Spanish energy firm Abengoa, on the brink of becoming the country's largest ever bankruptcy, does not have enough cash to pay February wages, its chairman told local employees in an emailed letter on Friday. According to the document, seen by Reuters, Jose Abascal also said negotiations between the firm and creditors over a wide-ranging refinancing deal were close to the finish line and he hoped the situation could be resolved "in the next days." An Abengoa spokeswoman declined to comment.

A currency crunch in Africa’s top economy is escalating into a French fry shortage, The Wall Street Journal reported. U.S. dollars have become increasingly scarce over the past 18 months as global oil prices crashed, depriving Nigeria of most of its export revenue. So the central bank has toughened rules governing how easily businesses can purchase them. That helped the central bank freeze its reserves at about $28 billion, down around 20% from a year ago. But commerce is paying the price.

A Belgian magistrate judge is investigating whether the Swiss bank UBS engaged in fraud, money laundering and other crimes in an effort to help wealthy individuals avoid taxes, the Brussels prosecutor’s office said on Friday, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. UBS is suspected of having directly approached Belgian customers, without going through its Belgian subsidiary, to encourage clients to engage in transactions meant to evade taxes. UBS acknowledged the inquiry, but it said little more.

A new deadlock over Greece’s finances is complicating last year’s brittle bailout deal, just as the country nears a showdown with the rest of Europe over efforts that would keep migrants stuck within its borders, The Wall Street Journal reported. The struggle on two fronts risks overwhelming the fragile government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his ruling left-wing Syriza party, which barely managed to keep Greece in the euro last summer, even before the migration crisis deepened the strains between Greece and the rest of Europe.

Commodities trader Noble Group Ltd. on Thursday swung to a net loss of $1.67 billion for the 2015 fiscal year, its worst annual financial performance since its Singapore listing in 1997, largely due to an impairment charge related to its coal assets, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company’s performance is the latest sign of weakness in the commodities trading industry. Lower demand from China and a stubbornly slow pace of recovery in the global economy have hit companies like Noble, which make their money as middlemen between producers and consumers of commodities.

Officials from China’s central bank are urging Beijing to tolerate a sharply higher fiscal deficit to help stabilize growth, in an acknowledgment that a reliance on cheap bank loans has run its course as a way to boost the economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The call comes as central bankers and finance ministers from the Group of 20 major economies are gathering in Shanghai to discuss new solutions to support global growth, including a focus on fiscal expansion and long-term overhaul rather than credit-driven growth.