Headlines

Ghana received “overwhelming” participation and support from its international bondholders to restructure $13 billion of eurobonds, a key step marking the conclusion of the West African nation’s debt rework, Bloomberg News reported. Eligible holders representing 98.6% of outstanding bonds agreed to a debt exchange following a consent solicitation, paving the way for the government to issue new bonds to investors to replace existing ones, Minister of Finance Mohammed Amin Adam said in the capital, Accra on Thursday. Investors will swap their securities for new notes on or around Oct.

Investors holding Ethiopia’s defaulted dollar bonds have rejected the debt-restructuring terms proposed by the government for the $1 billion issue, Bloomberg News reported. An ad hoc committee representing holders of the sovereign notes maturing Dec. 2024 said Ethiopia’s proposal of an 18% haircut on the bond’s principal is “wholly inconsistent” with the nation’s economic fundamentals. “The committee does not consider the illustrative terms to be a reasonable starting point for negotiation,” it said in a statement Thursday.

Swiss inflation weakened to the slowest pace in more than three years, pointing to further monetary easing by the country’s central bank, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 0.8% from a year ago in September, Switzerland’s statistics office said Thursday. That’s much lower than the 1% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey and compares with 1.1% in August. Costs for holidays and air travel fell, as did prices for gasoline, heating oil and diesel, offsetting higher charges for clothing and footwear, according to a statement.

The Philippine central bank will likely use quarter-point moves to slash its benchmark interest rate by around 175 basis points through the end of next year, according to Governor Eli Remolona, Bloomberg News reported. A 25 basis-point cut is on the cards for the Oct. 16 policy meeting, followed by a reduction of the same size in December, Remolona said. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is unlikely to resort to half-point cuts as the economy remains robust, he added.

Triton Partners is poised to hand over the keys of personnel provider Univativ to private credit fund Pemberton Asset Management, an existing lender to the company, Bloomberg News reported. A spokesperson for Pemberton confirmed the transfer of ownership of Univativ. Triton will retain an economic interest in the German firm, which finds jobs for university graduates, according to the Pemberton representative. Triton’s acquisition of Univativ was financed by a unitranche loan from Pemberton in 2017. The parties at the time did not disclose the overall size of the loan facility.

A shrinking and rapidly aging population has forced Japan, which for centuries was mostly closed off to immigrants, to allow foreign workers to enter the country and potentially stay for good, the New York Times reported. Most come from other parts of Asia, including China, Vietnam and the Philippines. That transition to employing more foreign workers has proceeded gradually at big companies in major cities over the past decade.

Italy plans to raise taxes on the companies that benefitted most from the economic turbulence of recent years in order to help bring down the country’s budget deficit, Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said, Bloomberg News reported. Giorgetti said that he is looking at levies that would apply to companies in a number of industries, without offering any further detail. Italy’s benchmark stock index fell as much as 1.5%. The 57-year-old finance chief faces a delicate balancing act in trying to persuade Italian executives to accept his plans without provoking a public backlash.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) requires more manpower to expedite the handling of bankruptcy cases and help in the faster resolutions of stressed assets, its president Ramalingam Sudhakar said on Tuesday, the Economic Times of India reported. “Give me the number, I will give you the results,” Sudhakar said at a function to mark the eighth foundation day of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) here. The head of the adjudicating authority was responding to concerns about delay in the admission and clearances of insolvency cases.

Latam Airlines Group SA is tapping global debt markets for the first time since the carrier emerged from its chapter 11 bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The Santiago-based airline is selling $1.2 billion in dollar notes maturing in 2030. Initial price talks are taking place at a yield in the low-to-mid 8% range. Latam, the largest carrier in South America, exited the chapter 11 process in late 2022 with 35% less debt, placing a renewed focus on customer service. It recently returned to the New York Stock Exchange, with an offering of American depositary shares.

Shares of Chinese property developers rallied most on record after Beijing joined its peers to ease rules for homebuyers, following the Asian nation’s call to stem the property market decline, Bloomberg News reported. A Bloomberg Intelligence gauge of Chinese real estate stocks surged as much as 31% — a record — on Wednesday, following the Monday announcement that the nation’s capital will make it easier for non-residents to buy property in core areas and cut minimum down payment ratios. The index has risen 92% over the last five trading days.