Headlines

Market fears over Venezuela’s creditworthiness are approaching panic levels as the price of oil plunges, the Financial Times reported. The cost of insuring the South American country’s government debt against default surged to a new high on Wednesday after Opec cut its demand forecast for next year and Brent crude prices fell below $65 a barrel. The five-year credit-default swap on Venezuelan government debt surged more than 832 basis points — its biggest one-day jump on record — to 4019.57 basis points.

Germany's Yi-Ko Holding, formerly the biggest operator of Burger King restaurants in the country, has filed for insolvency, Yi-Ko's lawyers said, putting 3,000 jobs at risk. Burger King had told Yi-Ko three weeks ago to shut down its 89 restaurants across Germany immediately, saying the franchisee had violated its rules on the treatment of employees. The move did not affect the remaining 599 Burger King restaurants in Germany.

Moving to battle high unemployment and a stagnant economy, the Socialist government of President François Hollande on Wednesday announced a long-promised program meant to stoke growth and create jobs, the International New York Times reported. The measures, including allowing more retail stores to open on Sundays, fall far short of what some experts say is needed to revive the stagnant French economy. Nonetheless, important members of Mr.

The European Central Bank on Thursday will again offer banks a chance to get cheap long-term loans, but a disappointing uptake could put it under more pressure to help kickstart the moribund economy, FMT.com reported. By pumping more liquidity into the financial system, the Frankfurt-based central bank aims to boost the eurozone economy via private-sector loans and, in turn, halt a stubborn drop in inflation. The ECB unveiled a lending programme called the Targeted Long-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO) in June, announcing eight rounds of borrowing to banks until 2016.

Eneva SA, the ailing Brazilian producer controlled by Germany's E.ON SE, filed late on Tuesday for credit protection in a Rio de Janeiro court after failing to refinance part of its 2.33 billion reais ($900 million) in outstanding debt, Reuters reported. In a statement, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said the bankruptcy protection petition will allow it to preserve cash and continue its operations. Banks, which were the biggest chunk of Eneva's creditors, refused to renew an accord to refinance the company's debt after expiring Nov. 21, the statement noted.

Kuwait is finalising what will be the Gulf's first insolvency legislation designed to help failed businesses recover from financial difficulties rather than be shutdown, leaving creditors out of pocket, ArabianBusiness.com reported. The draft law would allow companies at the brink of financial collapse to seek court protection and business rehabilitation, instead of liquidation, DLA Piper regional managing partner Abdul Aziz Al Yaqout, who has been working on the legislation, told Arabian Business.

Investment Dar, the Kuwaiti firm best-known for its stake in luxury carmaker Aston Martin, hopes to complete a second debt-for-assets deal with creditors by the end of March, it said in a bourse statement on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The sharia-compliant firm said on Nov. 18 it had received the backing of a "significant majority of investors" for the proposal, which would see creditors voluntarily exchanging debt for ownership of a portfolio of assets.

Brazilian officials are pushing conservative policies that President Dilma Rousseff recently criticized as a threat to the poor, amid investors’ calls to shore up her government’s credibility and avoid a credit-rating downgrade, The Wall Street Journal reported. Members of Ms. Rousseff’s newly appointed economic team are signaling that they are considering unpopular measures such as tax increases and spending cuts, which the Brazilian leader adamantly opposed during her recent re-election campaign. Her administration has also cut to 0.8% from 3% Brazil’s 2015 growth forecast.

Greek financial markets plummeted on Tuesday as investors took fright at the premier's decision to hold a no-confidence vote in his administration fuelling fresh political instability and fears of the radical Syriza party taking power, The Independent reported. The Athens share index fell by almost 13 per cent, the biggest single-day drop since 1987 and a heftier decline than any registered in the recent years of financial crisis in the Mediterranean country. Yesterday has already been named “Black Tuesday”.

More than 23,000 defaulting mortgage holders are facing the prospect of legal action to repossess their homes and investment properties as banks step up efforts to confront the arrears backlog, the Irish Times reported. New figures from the Central Bank suggest that banks had proposed solutions for 93 per cent of arrears cases by the end of September, exceeding their year-end target to propose solutions in 85 per cent of cases. In almost half of those cases, however, the proposed solution involves loss of ownership.