Headlines

Russian Railways JSC has been ruled in default by a derivatives panel after missing a bond interest payment, the first such decision since Russia was slapped with extensive sanctions that complicated financial transactions, Bloomberg News reported. A failure-to-pay credit event occurred after a coupon due on March 14 failed to reach investors by the end of a 10-day grace period, according to the Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee. The decision could set a precedent for the Russian government and local companies which have found themselves in a similar position.

The credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded its assessment of Russia’s ability to repay foreign debt, signaling rising prospects that Moscow will soon default on external loans for the first time in more than a century, the Associated Press reported. S&P Global Ratings issued the downgrade to “selective default” late Friday after Russia arranged to make foreign bond payments in rubles on Monday when they were due in dollars. It said it didn’t expect Russia to be able to convert the rubles into dollars within the 30-day grace period allowed.

During a hearing Friday, lawyers for the University of Sudbury supported efforts to have a historic sexual assault claim removed from Laurentian University's insolvency process, CTVNews.ca reported. Under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), all claims against LU are to be dealt with as a whole. But Aron Zaltz, lawyer with Preszler Injury Lawyers, argued Friday that a complex claim like this should not be dealt with as part of insolvency. The $5 million claim dates to 1979 and involves a late professor who worked at the University of Sudbury.

Italy plans to beef up its scrutiny of corporate takeovers with a new dedicated division at the cabinet office to oversee merger deals involving strategic companies, two sources close to the matter told Reuters. Prime Minister Mario Draghi's 14-month old government has used so-called "golden powers" to set conditions on scores of mergers and has blocked several attempts by China to extend its presence in the euro zone's third-largest economy.

Sri Lanka’s politics have been dominated for much of the past two decades by a single family. Now a deepening economic crisis is threatening the Rajapaksa clan’s grip on power, the Wall Street Journal reported. Public dissent has been growing in the island nation of 22 million as energy shortages have led the country to resort to rolling blackouts and Sri Lankans have waited for hours in lines to obtain basic goods such as cooking gas and medicine. Dwindling foreign-currency reserves have left the country struggling to pay for imports and on the verge of a sovereign-debt default.

When it opened in 2020, business was booming at Chunks, a store serving dozens of portions each day of Britain’s best known takeout meal: battered and deep-fried cod with fries, or chips as they are known here. But even before the war in Ukraine further pushed up the shop’s bills for energy, fish and cooking oil, inflation had already forced the owners, Sayward and Michael Lewis, to raise their prices twice, the New York Times reported. Now, with another spike in prices driving away customers, Chunks is on the brink of failing.

Russia will take legal action if the West tries to force it to default on its sovereign debt, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper on Monday, sharpening Moscow's tone in its financial wrestle with the West, Reuters reported. "Of course we will sue, because we have taken all the necessary steps to ensure that investors receive their payments," Siluanov told the newspaper in an interview. "We will present in court our bills confirming our efforts to pay both in foreign currency and in roubles. It will not be an easy process.

Russia will halt bond auctions for the remainder of 2022 due to prohibitive borrowing costs, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was quoted as saying by Izvestia, Bloomberg News reported. “We do not plan to go to the local market or foreign markets this year,” Siluanov told the Russian outlet. “It makes no sense because the borrowing cost would be cosmic.” With Russia under financial and economic sanctions by the U.S.

Germany's energy network regulator on Friday said it would ensure ongoing operations at Gazprom Germania, a trading, storage and transmission business abandoned by Russia's Gazprom, and called on market operators not to cut ties, Reuters reported. With assets and subsidiaries in Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, the Czech Republic and outside Europe, the firm's activities are essential for the European gas market and its supply to industry and households.

The Russian central bank sharply cut its key rate to 17% on Friday and said future cuts were possible, as emergency steps had contained the risk to financial stability, brought deposits back to banks and helped limit the threat of inflation, it said, Reuters reported. Last month, the central bank kept its key interest rate at 20% following a massive emergency hike in February and said it would start buying OFZ government bonds, warning of an imminent spike in inflation and a looming economic contraction. Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb.