Headlines

Ncondezi Energy Limited has received support “in principle” for a restructuring of an outstanding US$4.3mln loan plus interest, Proactive reported. The restructuring involves a 12-month extension on existing terms, including 12% annual interest rate and the ability for lenders to swap debt for equity in part or in full at a conversion price of 10p per share. Ncondezi can also nominate to pay the loan off through the issue of shares at a 25% to 30% premium to the 30-day average price. Half of the amount owed is to Ncondzei’s largest shareholder while 45% is held by the board and management.

There’s been an uptick in the number of manufacturing companies entering insolvency, according to new research from accountancy Moore, East Midlands Business Link reported. The firm found that in the last year, there has been a 7% rise to 1,466 in manufacturing companies entering insolvency – a five-year high. The research identified that this was driven partly by uncertainty surrounded Brexit coupled with a broader slowdown across the continent. “The latest figures show that the doom and gloom around the UK’s manufacturing sector continues,” said Robert Branch from Moore.

Zambia’s Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) smelter could restart next week after a delay of around a fortnight, mines minister Richard Masukwa told Reuters. The smelter was shut down in early October for annual maintenance, two days earlier than planned due to a leak, Reuters reported. It was initially scheduled to reopen on Nov. 15. “This week we are testing and I hope that next week (the smelter) will be up and running,” Masukwa said on the sidelines of the London Mines and Money conference.

Troubled banks in China are struggling to raise funds as concerns over the health of the financial system grow and confidence in state-led bailouts falters. China’s banking system is facing its greatest challenge in nearly 20 years after years of runaway growth and mounting bad debt levels, which have topped 40 per cent of loans at some small lenders, the Financial Times reported.

Argentina’s President-elect Alberto Fernandez plans to hold debt negotiations with private bondholders and the International Monetary Fund at the same time as part of a strategy to obtain a better deal, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, Yahoo! Finance reported on a Bloomberg News story. Fernandez’s incoming government considers that holding simultaneous, yet separate, talks is likely to give Argentina more bargaining power, as well as the ability to adjust proposals on both ends, the person said. The negotiations are set to begin after Fernandez takes office Dec.

Banknote printer De La Rue warned on Tuesday of “significant doubt” that it can continue as a going concern and said it would scrap its dividend to tackle mounting debt, sending its shares to their lowest in two decades, Reuters reported. The news follows a series of setbacks, including two profit warnings, an investigation into suspected corruption in South Sudan and the loss of a 400 million pound ($513.20 million) contract for Britain’s new passports.

Troubled Singapore water treatment firm Hyflux Ltd. has entered a restructuring deal with Middle Eastern utility Utico FZC. Under the agreement, Hyflux will get investment totaling S$400 million ($293 million) from Utico, according to an exchange filing, Yahoo! Finance reported on a Bloomberg News story. The pact caps drawn out negotiations between the two companies. Hyflux, Singapore’s highest profile debt restructuring, had been looking for a white knight investor after a deal with Indonesian consortium SM Investments fell through in April.

Icon Offshore Bhd has received the nod from its shareholders to move forward with its debt restructuring and cash call proposal, which will greatly help reduce the debt burden that has eaten into the company's earnings, The Edge reported. Icon's second largest shareholder, Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd, which owns an 8.8% stake in the group, indicated at the group's extraordinary general meeting (EGM) today to support the cash call to raise up to RM250 million, the bulk of which will be used to reduce the group's debt and gearing.

A major Chinese commodity trader looks poised to become the most high-profile state-owned enterprise to default in the dollar bond market in over two decades, Bloomberg News reported. In a fresh sign that Beijing is more willing to allow failures in the politically sensitive SOE sector, Tewoo Group has offered an unprecedented debt restructuring plan that entails deep losses for investors or a swap for new bonds with significantly lower returns. Tianjin-based Tewoo Group Co.

As Lebanon’s crisis-hit bonds flash warnings of a sovereign debt distress ahead, any potential restructuring is likely complicated by the absence of widely-used legal clauses barring bondholders from holding up the negotiations in the courts, Reuters reported. Lebanon is one of the few countries - alongside the Bahamas, Azerbaijan, Macedonia and Poland - to not include so-called enhanced collective action clauses, or CACs, in the legal framework governing its recent bond sales.