Headlines

Euro group president Jeroen Dijsselbloem said yesterday it was too early to say if Greece would need a further bailout when its EU programme finishes at the end of this year. He said he would return to the issue in September, the Irish Times reported. The head of the euro group of euro zone finance ministers was speaking as those ministers signed off on an €8.3 billion loan to Greece, in one of the final major tranches of loans due to the country under the terms of its second bailout.

Is China different? Or must its borrowing binge, like most others, end in tears? This is now a hotly debated topic, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. On one side are those who predict a Chinese “Minsky moment” – a point in the credit cycle at which, as Hyman Minsky foretold, panic grips the financial system. On the other side are those who insist that China’s debt mountain poses no threat to the planned growth of the economy: the authorities say it will be above 7 per cent and above 7 per cent it will be. Which side is right? “Neither” is my answer.

The Securities and Futures Commission has obtained a Hong Kong court order to appoint interim receivers to take over the management of decorative paper maker Qunxing Paper after its major subsidiary secretly started a bankruptcy proceeding on the mainland, the South China Morning Post reported. The regulator said yesterday that it got an order from the Court of First Instance, for which it urgently applied last Friday, to appoint Roderick Sutton, Fok Hei-yu and John Batchelor of FTI Consulting to act as interim receivers to investigate Qunxing's affairs.

The Central Bank says it will not disclose how much SME debt has been restructured by the pillar banks, the Irish Examiner reported. In reply to a letter by Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath, Cyril Roux, the deputy governor of the Central Band, said the focus was on securing long-term forbearance arrangements for customers in arrears. The two pillar banks are currently meeting their quarterly targets, he added.

Europe’s two-speed economy was underscored in data today showing strengthening in the German labor market just as Italy’s jobless rate reached a record. Overall euro-area unemployment was at 11.9 percent in February, lower than the 12 percent median forecast of 32 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. In Italy it rose to 13 percent, while in Germany the locally defined jobless rate for March stayed at the lowest in at least two decades.

A tough retail environment has claimed another victim, with the collapse of an 80-year-old family-owned jewellery store chain, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Bevilles, which employs about 477 people across 27 stores, has entered voluntary administration.More than half its staff reportedly face redundancy. The retail sector has been hit with a wave of collapses since the financial crisis, especially in fashion, including stores such as Brown Sugar, Bettina Liano, Ed Harry, Ojay, Colorado, Snowgum and Fletcher Jones.

The specter of default in China’s trust loans market is deepening the distress of property developers that also borrowed in dollars, Bloomberg News reported. Eighteen companies owing $15.2 billion, from behemoth China Vanke Co. to junk-rated Glorious Property Holdings Ltd., have “material exposure” in excess of 10 percent to trust financing, a form of non-bank lending that’s helped homebuilders proliferate in China, Moody’s Investors Service said. This year alone, the number of Chinese junk developer bonds whose yields have increased to distressed levels has almost doubled to 19.

Portugal's international creditors have put off paying out the remainder of the country's bailout until late June, allowing euro-zone countries to avoid having to decide whether to extend another lifeline before Europe-wide elections, The Wall Street Journal reported. The delay frees up European finance ministers to focus on Greece when they meet in Athens on Tuesday and Wednesday. They are expected to sign off on paying the remainder of Greece's euro-zone bailout, some €10.1 billion ($13.9 billion), over the next few months.

Codere SA’s bid to restructure 1.1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) of debt has stalled one month before the Spanish gaming company must reach an accord with creditors or seek full creditor protection, Bloomberg News reported. Codere’s bondholders rejected the company’s latest debt proposal today, saying it was “less favourable” than previous offers, according to a letter sent to the company’s board of directors.

A team led by chief executive Patrick Rowland has emerged victorious in the race to take control of beleagured sports chain, Elvery Sports, beating challenges from British retailer Sports Direct, which is controlled by Mike Ashley, and Irish chain Heatons, in which Mr Ashley also has a stake, the Irish Times reported. The Mayo-headquartered chain was placed into examinership in February after being granted High Court protection from its creditors, including Nama, which is owed € 23 million.