Headlines

China’s slowing growth and a glut of ships have hit earnings for vessels carrying coal and other dry bulk commodities so hard that owners face forced sales, emergency capital raisings and possible bankruptcy, the Financial Times reported. Charter fees are not covering vessels’ operating costs, let alone their financing, in the latest bad news for the many private equity firms that have invested in the sector. Short-term charter rates for Capesize ships — the largest kind — were as low as $4,897 a day on December 23, down from more than $20,000 a day in August.

David Cameron’s claim that British membership of a reformed EU is vital to Britain’s economic security is today backed by an overwhelming majority of economists in an annual Financial Times survey. Regardless of the UK prime minister’s renegotiation of Britain’s terms of EU membership, most of the more than 100 economists thought economic prospects following a Brexit would be hit if voters decided to leave. Economic arguments are central to both the “in” and “out” camps as they prepare for a referendum on whether the UK should leave the EU. It could be held as early as June.

Vroom & Dreesman, the largest Dutch department store chain, has been declared bankrupt, it said in a statement published on its website on Thursday. V&D, with 10,000 workers at 67 stores, has suffered in recent years as the Dutch economy stagnated and on-line stores won away customers. After weak sales in the Dutch holiday season, which falls in early December, it filed for protection from creditors on Dec. 22. A statement on the company's website said it hopes to remain in business after a restructuring, and that it has been contacted by "dozens" of potential investors.

Nigeria has asked the World Bank and African Development Bank for $3.5bn in emergency loans to fill a growing gap in its budget in the latest sign of the economic damage being wrought on oil-rich nations by tumbling crude prices, the Financial Times reported. The request from the eight-month-old government of President Muhammadu Buhari is intended to help fund a $15bn state deficit, which has been deepened by a hefty increase in public spending as the west African country attempts to stimulate a slowing economy.

Vroom & Dreesman, the largest Dutch department store chain, has been declared bankrupt, Reuters reported today. V&D, with 10,000 workers at 67 stores, has suffered in recent years as the Dutch economy stagnated and on-line stores won away customers. After weak sales in the Dutch holiday season, which falls in early December, it filed for protection from creditors on Dec. 22. The company said that it hopes to remain in business after a restructuring, and that it has been contacted by "dozens" of potential investors.

Spain's multinational Abengoa SA said on Wednesday it is seeking buyers to revive transmission-line and other construction projects in Brazil that the company had suspended after filing for creditor protection in Spanish courts, Reuters reported yesterday. The company, which owns energy, telecommunications, transportation and environment businesses, is looking for "a market solution" for projects it has been contracted to build and operate in Brazil. Abengoa is trying to reach an agreement with creditors before a March 28 legal deadline to avoid becoming the country's biggest-ever bankruptcy.

Brazil’s government yesterday said that it repaid $14 billion advanced to it by state-controlled institutions, effectively erasing controversial public financing operations that are at the heart of impeachment proceedings pending against President Dilma Rousseff, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The move, observers say, could take some political pressure off Rousseff and her administration, which have been accused by her opponents of using the operations to hide the severity of the country’s widening budget gap.

The People’s Bank of China has suspended at least two foreign banks from conducting some cross-border yuan business until late March, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The clampdown comes as the growing offshore-onshore spread makes it profitable for those who skirt capital controls to buy the currency at a discount in Hong Kong and sell it in Shanghai.

Malaysia’s anti-graft agency submitted results to the attorney general of a probe into hundreds of millions of dollars that ended up in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s private accounts before the 2013 general elections, Bloomberg News reported today. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said that it made several proposals and recommendations for action in the case, according to a statement Thursday.

Tor Krussell of Altor says that there is no evidence that the OW Bunker Board made any decisions that led to the bankruptcy, ShipandBunker.com reported today. Swedish private equity fund Altor, former owner of now defunct OW Bunker, says that while the company's advisors have yet to examine a new 400 page report released as part of OW Bunker's bankruptcy proceedings, it notes that from its own investigations, OW Bunker's management was not responsible for the company's demise.