Headlines

China Cinda Asset Management Co., a state-owned financial institution, is pulling out of a planned large investment in the consumer-finance arm of Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co., dealing a setback to the fintech giant’s lending-business revamp, the Wall Street Journal reported. Beijing-based Cinda, which is one of the country’s four big bad-debt managers, said Thursday that its board of directors made the decision to back out “after further prudent commercial consideration and negotiation” with the recently established Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co. It didn’t provide more details.

If last week's developments at China's most indebted property developer are anything to go by, 2022 might see Beijing soften its attempts to purge the sector and make more allowances for economic stability, Reuters reported. China Evergrande Group, whose rocky financial situation has roiled Chinese property firms and global financial markets over the past year, got a reprieve this week after investors agreed to extend a payment date on a yuan bond.

Mexican carrier Aeromexico said on Monday that its shareholders have approved a capital increase as part of its restructuring plan to emerge from bankruptcy, Reuters reported. In two meetings held on Friday, shareholders agreed to hike the share capital by $4.267 billion, which is subject to a third party making a public tender offer of its current shares. The increase will come from the issuance of some 682 trillion common shares, which will be paid for through a $3.44 billion debt capitalization and an $828 million injection. Aeromexico's biggest creditor in its U.S.

Local creditors of Latam Airlines Group SA are up in arms over a bankruptcy plan that would leave them with next to nothing even as holders of overseas bonds get almost all their money back, Bloomberg News reported. BancoEstado SA, a Santiago-based bank acting on behalf of local noteholders, has asked Latin America’s largest airline to improve its terms. The investors are threatening to sue if their demands aren’t meant, and contend that as a Chilean company, Latam should have filed for protection in local courts — instead of New York — that would have treated domestic creditors better.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that a collective global effort is needed to deal with the problems posed by cryptocurrenices, Reuters reported. "The kind of technology it is associated with, the decision taken by a single country will be insufficient to deal with its challenges. We have to have a similar mindset," Modi said at the World Economic Forum's virtual Davos Agenda conference. India has been mulling virtual currency-related regulations which were widely expected to be introduced in the winter session of the parliament in December before being shelved.

Canadian businesses reported widespread challenges with supply chains, labor shortages and their ability to meet strong demand in a Bank of Canada survey that will stoke worries about inflation and fuel expectations of a rate hike as early as next week, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank’s quarterly survey of executives paints a picture of an economy pressed up against its limits. Over two-thirds of respondents expect annual consumer price gains to surpass 3% over the next two years.

Ukrainian sovereign dollar bonds tumbled into distress territory and Russian bonds suffered sharp falls on Monday as fears of another Russian military foray into Ukraine showed no sign of easing, Reuters reported. The premium investors demand to hold Ukraine bonds over safe-haven U.S. Treasuries as measured by the JPMorgan EMBI Global Diversified index surged past 1,000 basis points for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in March 2020.

China Evergrande Group on Thursday secured a crucial approval from onshore bondholders to delay payments on one of its bonds, as other cash-strapped developers also scrambled to negotiate new terms with creditors to avoid defaults, Reuters reported. Struggling with more than $300 billion in liabilities, sector giant Evergrande was seeking more time for bond coupon and redemption payments to avoid a technical default that would have complicated its politically sensitive restructuring.

Several of China’s largest banks have become more selective about funding real estate projects by local government financing vehicles, concerned that some are taking on too much risk after they replaced private developers as key buyers of land, Bloomberg News reported. At least five state-run banks have imposed new restrictions this year on loans to weaker LGFVs seeking to buy land and develop new real estate projects, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.