Headlines

Russia faces a growing risk of recession as a hemorrhaging of $100 billion in capital this year may bring the economy to a near standstill, according to analysts and government officials, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product will expand 1.2 percent in 2014, according to the median estimate of 37 economists in a Bloomberg survey. That compares with a 2.2 percent forecast in last month’s poll. The economy may stagnate at rates below 1 percent and contract if capital outflows reach $150 billion, Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said at a conference in Moscow today.

The Bank of England urged banks on Thursday to consider the risk of future spikes in interest rates when they approve mortgages, and prepared tools to rein in potentially dangerous lending, Reuters reported. British house prices have risen by around 10 percent over the past year, and the central bank said mortgages were higher as a share of home-buyers' income than at any point since 2005, although other indicators remained weaker than average.

Kiev must impose tough reforms and austerity, otherwise even with billions of dollars of aid Ukraine will default in 2014, the coup-imposed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk warns. It comes after the IMF agreed a bailout package worth up to $18 billion, RT.com reported. “Our forecast predicts a 3 percent drop in GDP, provided we pass the stabilization package of laws the government proposes. If the laws are not passed, we forecast a default, and a 10 percent drop in GDP,” Yatsenyuk told the parliament on Thursday.

Among the various US property assets controlled by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), the zombie corpse of Anglo, there appears to be a circus, the Irish Times reported. Okay, that’s not quite true – it’s actually a shopping centre in Tampa, Florida called the Channelside Bay Mall – but the legal furore surrounding the bank’s efforts to offload it is turning into a circus. IBRC, which has Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the US, has been hit with a blizzard of lawsuits in recent weeks over Channelside.

The International Monetary Fund is expected to announce a rescue package for Ukraine of about $15bn as early as Thursday in hopes that the initial aid payments could be made by the end of April, according to officials involved in the negotiations, the Financial Times reported. The programme, which will come in a traditional IMF bailout known as a “standby arrangement”, is being rushed to the fund’s board because of concerns Kiev is running out of foreign currency reserves.

Chinese investment conglomerate Citic Group, whose businesses span property, mining, energy, banking and a soccer team, plans a massive restructuring that will allow it to tap more overseas capital for its sprawling empire, the Financial Times reported. Citic’s announcement follows on the heels of plans from a number of other Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) – including oil giant Sinopec – to raise money from the sale of a profitable business without giving up control.

Deutsche Lufthansa said Wednesday that a strike planned for Thursday at Frankfurt airport and six others in Germany would cost it millions of euros in damages and force the cancellation of close to 600 flights, The Wall Street Journal reported. Trade union Verdi called on ground staff, baggage handlers and maintenance staff at the seven airports to strike during the early shift as part of a dispute over pay.

Lenders to Pescanova SA, the Spanish fishing company trying to avoid liquidation, won’t back a shareholder restructuring plan and will seek to take control of the company, according to two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. The banks plan to find an industrial partner to manage the business, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak about it.

Later this week, a consultation closes on the Insolvency Service’s proposals to update elements of insolvency regulation and alter the fees-setting mechanisms used by the UK’s insolvency practitioners, economia reported in a commentary. While the proposals on the profession’s regulation and creditor engagement are broadly on the right lines, the same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the plans to prohibit insolvency practitioners from charging fees on an hourly basis in cases with no engaged creditors or creditor committees.

Wet chemicals equipment processing specialist, RENA, has started insolvency proceedings under self-administration as it attempts to restructure after failing to gain a financing solution for debts encountered at a subsidiary, SH+E, PV-Tech reported. The company said that the insolvency proceedings only related to its German operations of RENA GmbH, while other domestic and foreign subsidiaries of the RENA Group would continue operating as normal. Jürgen Gutekunst, RENA founder and shareholder said: “Our core business at RENA has developed positively over recent months.