Headlines

French President François Hollande said on a television interview on Sunday he’d spend at least €4 billion ($4.3 billion) on a new program that will subsidize working youth, The Wall Street Journal reported. During a wide-ranging two-hour interview on French cable channel Canal Plus, Mr. Hollande said his government will start to supplement the wages for those who are working and under 25 years old to incentivize young people to take on short-term jobs and part-time work.

Chinese policy makers are dealing with a financial conundrum. Overall economic growth is slipping, which argues for looser monetary policy. But the risk is that any new money is diverted to the country’s frothy stock markets, the International New York Times reported. Against this backdrop, the central bank and securities regulator appear to be taking coordinated action. On Sunday, China’s central bank freed up roughly $200 billion for new lending, a widely expected stimulus measure devised to pump more money into the economy.

Another Brazilian company has fallen to the corruption scandal surrounding Brazil’s petroleum giant, Petrobras: Schahin Group requested on Friday a bankruptcy court’s protection for 28 of its subsidiaries.

Former Siteserv executive Patrick Jordan has bought aircraft maintenance specialist Atlantic Aviation Group out of High Court protection in a €2.5 million deal, the Irish Times reported. The business, formerly known as Transaero, had been in examinership since January after its Russian parent ran into difficulties, but emerged from the process this week after the High Court approved a rescue deal put together by Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton. Mr Jordan is taking over the company in a transaction understood to be valued at €2.5 million.

Greek officials have made an informal approach to the International Monetary Fund to delay repayments of loans to the international lender, highlighting the parlous state of Greek finances, but were told that no rescheduling was possible, the Financial Times reported. According to officials briefed on the talks by both sides, Athens was persuaded not to make a specific request for a delay to the Fund, which is owed almost €1bn in two separate payments due in May.

In a related story, The Wall Street Journal reported that Europe is losing hope that Greece will adopt the economic policies needed to unlock bailout funds before it runs out of money. Policy makers across the euro currency zone are bracing themselves for brinkmanship in coming weeks that could lead to a resolution—of one kind or another—but only in the face of further political and financial turmoil in Greece. “Greece is moving ever closer to the abyss,” Slovakia’s Finance Minister Peter Kazimir said this week.

Forty-three percent of companies in Colombia's oil sector are at high risk of going bankrupt as the industry reels from the recent halving of oil prices, according to a survey presented to the Andean country's congress this week, Reuters reported. The survey by the Colombia's companies' regulator polled 53 companies with total assets of about $10 billion but it did not include state-run oil producer Ecopetrol or two Toronto-listed companies, Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp and Canacol Energy Ltd.

Ukraine plans to tell investors on Friday that it will allow a state-owned bank to default unless a deal with creditors can be agreed as the embattled country takes an ever tougher approach to debt negotiations, the Financial Times reported. While attending International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, Ukraine’s minister of finance Natalie Jaresko will probably say that a three-month extension on debt issued by Ukreximbank is crucial to the success of the country’s sovereign-debt restructuring.

Art work and office buildings are being sold by bankruptcy receivers for the Espirito Santo group of companies that collapsed last year amid fraud allegations, The Wall Street Journal reported. The 36-story Espírito Santo Plaza in Miami went on the block in April after Luxembourg officials managing the bankrupt companies hired Florida’s EXAN Capital to manage the sale. The office and condominium tower, located in Miami’s Brickell Avenue financial district, is expected to fetch at least $120 million based on market prices.

A reorganization plan to help oil rig supplier Sete Brasil Participações SA remain in business should be ready by the end of June, after shareholders and creditors agreed to extend financing as credit dried up, the president of Brazil's state development bank BNDES said on Thursday. Last week, commercial banks signed a memorandum of understanding to avert demanding repayment of as much as 11 billion reais ($3.7 billion) in loans to Sete Brasil that matured this month, extending them for a further 90 days.