Headlines

The owners of Chilean salmon farmer Nova Austral SA have presented a debt restructuring plan that would transfer ownership to creditors — but it may pit bondholders against a bank, Bloomberg News reported. Nova Austral, owned by Norwegian private equity firm Altor Equity Partners, presented the plan Wednesday at a Chilean court. It proposes a $487 million capital increase to turn part of its debt into stock. Norway’s DNB Bank ASA, one of its largest creditors, will receive five shares for every dollar it’s owed.

FTX Dubai, which was created just months before the global crypto exchange collapsed last November, is asking to be exempt from U.S. bankruptcy proceedings, TheStreet.com reported. “FTX Dubai is balance-sheet solvent. Therefore, the debtors believe that a solvent voluntary liquidation procedure in accordance with the laws of the United Arab Emirates would allow a timely distribution of the positive cash balance after payment of all outstanding liabilities and liquidation of all assets," court documents said.

Asian regulators have stolen a march on the U.S. by clarifying crypto rules, exemplified by Hong Kong’s first licenses for trading platforms under the city’s new digital-asset framework, Bloomberg News reported. Hong Kong opened up to mass-market trading following confirmation Thursday that HashKey Exchange and OSL had won permits that legalize the retail trading of tokens, part of the city’s push to become a global hub for virtual assets.

Private equity giant KKR & Co. is poised to hand over embattled payments firm Unzer to a group of creditors, Bloomberg News reported. Debt providers Alcentra Asset Management Ltd, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Partners Group have agreed in principle to take over a majority stake in Unzer, providing fresh equity while foregoing some debt. KKR is set to retain a minority interest as part of the deal. The transaction still requires regulatory approval.

Germany's largest real estate group Vonovia slipped to a 2 billion euro ($2.19 billion) second quarter loss and wrote down the value of its properties by 3 billion euros on Thursday in the latest sign of stress in the country's property sector, Reuters reported. After a decade-long property boom, Germany is undergoing a sharp reversal of fortune after an era of cheap money ended. Vonovia's quarterly loss compared to a profit of 1.8 billion euros a year earlier, and Germany's biggest landlord confirmed its forecast for a 2023 drop in a key profit measure.

British employers reduced the number of new permanent staff they hired through recruitment agencies by the most since mid 2020 last month due to concerns about the economic outlook, adding to signs that the market is becoming tougher for job seekers, Reuters reported. A gauge of permanent staff hiring by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and accountants KPMG fell to 42.4, the lowest since the 34.3 in June 2020 when the country was in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Egypt unexpectedly resumed its cycle of monetary tightening, seeking to tame inflation that’s running at an all-time high, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee raised the deposit interest rate by 100 basis points to 19.25% and the lending rate to 20.25%, according to a statement Thursday. Rates are now the highest since at least 2006, and above the previous peak reached during the currency crisis of 2016-2017. Of 11 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, only BNP Paribas SA correctly predicted the hike, with the rest seeing no change.

The Cuban Central Bank issued rules this week banning state and private businesses from using ATMs and limiting cash transactions between them, as it seeks to tame runaway inflation and off-the-books business amid a grave economic crisis, Reuters reported. The regulations went into effect on Thursday. They limit cash transactions to 5000 pesos and will be implemented gradually over six months, official media said. The government pegs the dollar at 24 pesos and for select companies, tourists and residents at 120 pesos, though it has few to exchange.

Colombia’s government is betting that its proposed public pension fund would reinvigorate investment flows in the local bond and equity markets, according to a top Finance Ministry official, Bloomberg News reported. The fund could be used to stimulate local markets while also facilitating access to long-term capital, José Roberto Acosta, the Finance Ministry’s Public Credit Director, said during an event at Bloomberg’s Bogotá office. “The Finance Ministry is concerned because the equity market is nonexistent, and the corporate bond market has also been dry for a long time,” Acosta said.

Half a year after China lifted Covid-19 restrictions and reopened its borders, few international travelers are coming—another sign of decoupling between China and the West that could have negative repercussions for a long time, the Wall Street Journal reported. Foreign travelers’ absence is particularly evident in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, where the numbers of foreigners who visited in the first half of the year totaled less than a quarter of comparable figures in 2019, before the Covid pandemic.