Liberty Steel Group said on Wednesday that it had appointed a committee to restructure and refinance the group after Greensill Capital, its biggest lender, filed for insolvency in March, Reuters reported. The move comes after Sanjeev Gupta’s family conglomerate GFG Alliance announced that its Australian unit had agreed terms to refinance its exposure to Greensill. Liberty Steel, which is also under the GFG umbrella, said in a statement that four new board directors would form a Restructuring and Transformation Committee (RTC) to focus on fixing or selling underperforming units.
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Diplomatic moves to ease transatlantic air travel could unleash fierce competition to entice passengers back into near-empty cabins at a time when tottering airlines can ill afford a price war in the world’s richest aviation market, Reuters reported. Talks between Brussels and Washington, D.C., on resuming mass travel for vaccinated tourists have raised hopes of a summer rebound - further buoyed by new EU reopening proposals. Airlines are desperate for good news after a year of COVID-19 lockdowns that pushed many to the brink of collapse, or into the arms of governments.
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While the drama of Greensill’s collapse is unfolding in financial centers like London and Zurich, and has sparked a scandal at the top of British politics, blue-collar towns could face the worst consequences if GFG fails to refinance, the Wall Street Journal reported. GFG employs about 35,000 people, mainly in economically deprived parts of Europe, Australia and the U.S., with some sites at risk of closure if Sanjeev Gupta doesn’t secure new finance and governments don’t step in.
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A U.S. bankruptcy court will allow Grupo Aeromexico, which operates Mexico's largest airline, to increase the size of its fleet of planes, the company said on Friday, Reuters reported. Last week, Aeromexico agreed to purchase two dozen Boeing planes as part of a deal that should yield an estimated $2 billion in savings due to better conditions in some long-term maintenance for its existing fleet and leasing contracts.
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The European Union on Monday announced a road map to allowing vaccinated people from outside the bloc to travel to Europe, foretelling a more normal and connected continent after more than a year in which its boulevards and beauty have been off-limits to most of the world, the Washington Post reported. The proposal, which could be in place by the end of June, will give hope to travelers from the U.S. and other countries with aggressive coronavirus vaccination programs who are eager to return to some of the globe’s most popular destinations.
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It was a flashpoint in the world of distressed investing: Sanjeev Gupta’s infamous metals empire was falling apart as Greensill Capital imploded, Bloomberg reported. As turnaround specialists sought to grab debt of one his key assets on the cheap, a single U.S. private-equity firm swooped in to buy up the lion’s share — at full price. While the supply-chain saga has sparked a lobbying scandal in the U.K. political establishment, for troubled credit creditors it shows the everyday challenges of deploying the $15 billion lying idle in distressed funds.

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Brazilian iron ore miner Samarco Mineração SA filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection Monday, after initiating similar proceedings in Brazil earlier this month amid mounting creditor litigation, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Samarco needed to seek protection under chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, as well as Brazilian insolvency laws, after bondholders and bank lenders filed lawsuits in both countries to freeze and start the process of seizing the company’s assets, according to a sworn declaration by Chief Financial Officer Cristina Morgan Cavalcanti.
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Coming on the heels of a Moody’s Investors Service’s assessment of the territory’s financial outlook on the bond market and the solvency of its Government Employees’ Retirement System, Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. renewed his pitch to legislators to refinance the territory’s bond debt, the Virgin Islands Daily News reported. In an analysis published Monday, the financial services firm said the recent ruling of the Third U.S.
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Exxon Mobil Corp. can move forward with a U.S. lawsuit seeking $280 million from two Cuban companies as compensation for a refinery and other assets seized from the oil giant after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, a judge in Washington said, Bloomberg News reported. The ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta keeps alive Exxon’s suit against a Cuban government-owned conglomerate, Corporacion Cimex SA, and state-run oil company Union Cuba-Petroleo, known as Cupet. Over the years, the U.S.
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Canadian National Railway on Tuesday offered to buy Kansas City Southern for $33.7 billion, topping a $29 billion bid put forward last month by a rival railroad operator, Canadian Pacific, the New York Times reported. The competing offers underline the riches expected to come from trade flows after the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement was passed into law last year. A merger with either suitor would create a railroad line that stretches from Canada to Mexico.
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