Hong Kong

Noble Group, the Hong-Kong based commodity trader, has asked lenders to waive a debt covenant tied to a $1.1bn credit line that matures next year while it continues work on a plan to recapitalise the business, the Financial Times reported. Noble wants the banks to set aside the condition on the borrowing facility given the risk that a measure of net debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation could rise above an agreed limit this year, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda) will meet on Thursday to decide whether an extension of one of Noble Group’s loan facilities will trigger a payout on credit-default swaps (CDS) linked to the struggling commodities trader, the Financial Times reported. The “general interest question” was submitted on Monday and the derivatives trade body accepted it for review by one of its determinations committees on Tuesday.

Just days after Noble Group Ltd. secured a $2 billion loan extension, some investors in the credit protection market are looking to get paid. The International Swaps & Derivatives Association has been asked to decide whether a four-month loan extension from the Hong Kong-based company’s banks constitutes a so-called restructuring credit event, Bloomberg News reported. An anonymous party filed a petition on Monday asking the determinations committee to consider the question, which could mean payouts for holders of credit-default swaps on almost $5 billion of company debt.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda) will meet on Thursday to decide whether an extension of one of Noble Group’s loan facilities will trigger a payout on credit-default swaps (CDS) linked to the struggling commodities trader, the Financial Times reported. The “general interest question” was submitted on Monday and the derivatives trade body accepted it for review by one of its determinations committees on Tuesday.

Noble Group took another tumble on Wednesday following a report the company’s main banks are in last-ditch talks over whether to give the commodities trader more time to find a white knight investor or to force it into restructuring or liquidation. the Financial Times reported. The FT reported banks including HSBC, Société Générale, ABN Amro, Citigroup and ING have appointed legal advisers as they weigh extending a $2bn credit line to the Hong Kong-based, Singapore-listed company to allow it to continue its search for a major new investor.

Noble Group Ltd.’s crisis deepened on Tuesday after S&P Global Ratings flagged the risk that the embattled commodity trader may default on its debt, triggering a 36-minute plunge in the company’s shares, an exchange query, and a trading halt ahead of an announcement, Bloomberg News reported. “The negative outlook on Noble reflects the potential that the company will face distress and a non-payment of its debt obligations over the next 12 months,” S&P said in a statement late on Monday as it cut the company’s ratings by three steps to CCC+.

Hong Kong's Court of Appeal on Wednesday began hearing Moody's appeal against a tribunal decision that partly upheld regulatory action imposed on it for a report on Chinese firms, in what is considered a landmark case for the financial centre. Moody's Investors Service Hong Kong said in April it would challenge a March 2016 ruling by the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal (SFAT) upholding the securities regulator's claim that Moody's broke rules governing how regulated firms should behave when it published the report.

Kingdom Jewellery is trying to stand out among the eerily quiet luxury stores in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, once the world’s most expensive shopping district in terms of rents. But while it has hung signs promoting a “crazy sale” and payment by instalments in the window, buyers are still scarce, the Financial Times reported. “Our customer flow has dropped 60-70 per cent” since the peak of Chinese luxury spending in 2013, says manager Jacky Sze.

Crypto-currency exchange Bitfinex, which lost $72 million to hackers last week, told customers on Sunday they would lose just over 36 percent of the assets they had on the platform but would be compensated for these losses with tokens of credit, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The Hong Kong-based exchange said losses from the theft would be shared, or "generalized", across all the company's clients and assets, widening the group of those affected announced last week.

Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd., which last year became the first Chinese real estate developer to default on dollar bonds, is seeking to use U.S. bankruptcy law to help its debt reorganization in a Hong Kong court, Bloomberg News reported. The Shenzhen, China-based company filed a Chapter 15 petition in Manhattan court Thursday. Companies use that provision of U.S. bankruptcy law to deal with U.S. creditors or lawsuits when reorganizing in another country.