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Law firm leaders say aggressive debt collection is a last resort and open communication is the best way to avoid billing conflicts [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grupo Aeromexico has two loan repayments scheduled for this year, including a fixed rate loan portion secured by the Ex-Im Bank in the USA and loans secured by credit card sales in the United States. The group also has senior trust bonds issued in Mexico that will be repaid next year. Aeromexico has paid off two aircraft finance leases and now owns the respective units. As of March 31, 2024, the airline has 144 aircraft in its fleet, including Boeing 787-9s, 737s, and Embraer 190s. They have signed lease commitments for additional aircraft in the coming years. [Extracted from the article]

Enva will add Duston - which has been operating in the waste oil recovery sector for 55 years - to its specialist waste business and provide services for the collection of hazardous waste from industries, including the manufacturing and industry. Recycling company Enva has acquired waste oil collection specialist Duston Oils in Northampton, UK. [Extracted from the article]

UK operator CityFibre has enough money to connect eight million homes to fibre, the company said after raising £4.9 billion debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the need for change in Ukraine's insolvency legislation and procedures. Studies have placed Ukraine at 145th position in relation to closing a business in the 2010 rankings compiled by the World Bank. The author informs that the economic environment in Ukraine is not conducive and creditors are not willing to adopt insolvency proceedings as a debt recovery method and are more willing to adopt precourt debt restructuring. The law requires equity holders of a debtor to take adequate measures to prevent insolvency. The main statutes governing insolvency proceedings in Ukraine are the Law on Restoring Debtor's Solvency or Declaring a Debtor Bankrupt and the Commercial Procedure Code of Ukraine.

Mauricio Minas, the member of Bradesco's board responsible for the bank's digital operations and who oversees Bradesco's new digital bank Next, subscribes to this perspective. Eduardo Rosman, bank equity analyst for BTG Pactual, believes this shift will lead to a reversal in the fintech explosion that has splintered the financial market into such a large number of new players. He will need all his experience, he admits, because one of the key problems of being a startup bank in Brazil is the adverse selection issue: those coming to seek credit from startups are often higher risk. When asked if the bank's core focus is growth rather than profitability - in line with the tech startup model - Prado replies: "We do worry about profitability. [Extracted from the article]

This article focuses on the valuation of equities by investors in Russia as of 1998. Despite the difficulties presented by unclear accounts, restructuring issues and macroeconomic and political uncertainty, the valuation of Russian stocks is now entering a more scientific stage, based on fundamental analysis. This is likely to become easier as the economy recovers, which should reduced the payments crisis and the associated problems of bad debts and barter. The future will also see the further adoption of western-style accounting methods. Nevertheless, accurate valuations ultimately depend less on the sophistication of the methods used than on the subjective assumptions of the analyst about companies' prospects.

Avation is currently finalising the sale of two ATR72-600 aircraft previously on lease to Loganair and an ex-Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-800. Singapore-based, London-listed aircraft leasing company Avation has said it will focus solely on new technology aircraft going forward. [Extracted from the article]

The article reports on the merger between Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) as announced by the European Central Bank (ECB). It mentions that the merger is expected to reduce losses suffered by the banks to reduce the cost-to-income ratio and increase return on equity. It also highlights the need for higher capital ratio that allows Banco to increase bad-debt coverage.

Embattled Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesia now faces a lawsuit in Australia after two Ireland-based vehicles (designated activity companies) managed by US firm Avenue Capital Management - Greylag Goose Leasing 1410 and Greylag Goose Leasing 1446 - filed a bankruptcy claim against Garuda at the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia. Following Garuda's restructuring approval, the group fleet going forward including Citilink counted 109 approved aircraft - 37 Boeing 737-800 leases; 39 A320 leases, 10 A320neo leases, 11 A330-300s, five A330-900neos and seven ATR72-600s. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses various support systems available for supporting banks, foreign financial institutions and investment companies in Kuwait. Governments all over the world including Kuwait are implementing various methods to stimulate growth in their economies that were adversely affected by the global financial crisis. In March 2009, the legislature passed Law Decree No 2 of 2009, known as the financial stability law. The law was promulgated to promote confidence in the business and banking sector of Kuwait and to stimulate the economy by implementing measures targeting tumultuous business entities. Assistance provided by the state included providing guarantee deficits relating to specific bad debt provisions to Kuwaiti banks.

BT reopens former £90m UK Court repayments case At the end of March, the UK telco incumbent managed to lift a stay on the case in the the UK High Court that initially claimed that HMRC owed them £91.8 million plus interest in overpaid tax. In 2017 however, HMRC launched a legal application to throw out out BT's FTT case, a application that has not gone through, while BT wrote the High Court last August to lift the stay on that case. [Extracted from the article]

Although the years of explosive growth and enthusiasm in many of Asia's structured finance markets are devolving into sobering times as financial and economic stresses persist, several rays of hope are shining through. Some of the optimism comes from the rising popularity of synthetic CDOs and the promise of substantial issuance of RMBS in Taiwan. But collectively, issuance in South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, is moving at a far slower pace than in previous years, due to slower growth of consumer financial assets and higher levels of bad debts and bankruptcies.

The article focuses on the impacts and benefits for the nation's steel and metal companies and highlights Indian government's plan to reduce the number of indebted companies putting pressure on the banking. Topics discussed include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's effort to empower the Reserve Bank of India to fix the banking industry's non-performing assets (NPAs), and India's steel policy aimed at increasing capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030.

The article informs that Thomas Miller is acquiring the managing general agency and insurance services operations of Zeller Associates. It mentions that Zeller Associates is a provider of risk related and insurance services mainly for shipping, trade and transport. It also mentions that ZASS International, focusing on recoveries and subrogation, debt collection and salvage sale services.

The article offers information on the Swiss Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act (DEBA) for the debt collection before the involvement of any legal entity. Topics discussed include information on seizure of assets in case of bankruptcy where legal entities are involved; efforts of government to mitigate the negative effects of unjustified payment orders; and the information on abolishment of Foreign trustees to exercise sovereign powers on Swiss territory.

The article looks at the condition of Kazakhstan's banking sector on the macroeconomic front as of January 2010. It discusses several controversies which put the country's financial services institutions in bad light among foreign investors including the allegations of fraud involving BTA chairman Mukhtar Abllyazov and the government's inclusion of trade finance in the restructuring plans of BTA and Alliance. It also mentions the impact of the accumulation of bad debts of Kazakh banks on bank lending and interest rates.

The hedge fund management firm is a division of Leucadia Asset Management, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Jefferies Financial. FourSixThree Capital, a New York-based hedge fund management firm established in 2020, has acquired a stake in Singapore-based, London-listed aircraft lessor Avation. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on the status of the banking sector in Egypt, as of March 2008. It states that the banks have tackled their previous bad debt portfolios and are beginning to make new loans, especially in the retail market with products such as mortgages, automobile loans and even credit cards. In the corporate market, the banks are beginning to differentiate themselves by turning their hand to small and medium enterprises (SME) lending and microfinancing. According to the article, the central bank has overseen consolidation that has cut the number of banks to 41 from 62 since September 2004.

The article provides information on the most important value added tax (VAT) issues facing investors in Hungary. The Hungarian VAT law does not provide for any bad debt relief. It also contains a simplification for certain call off stocks. VAT exemptions in the real estate sector are defined by the Hungarian Statistical Code.

The article discusses the key differences between the Russian value added tax (VAT) system and more mature VAT systems, as well as the difficulties taxpayers experience in pursuing VAT refunds in Russia. The differences include cross border refunds, cross border services, bad debt relief and not recovering input VAT on VAT free services supplied offshore. For exporters consistently in an excess VAT position, the options available for securing genuine economic value for such excess VAT are limited.

This article offers basic facts about the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). SEPA is an area where citizens, companies and other economic players will be able to make and receive payments in euros whether between or within national boundaries under the same basic conditions, rights and obligations, regardless of their location. Its purpose is to eliminate the national differences in payment instruments and processing infrastructures in Europe. The different SEPA payment instruments are described. By the end of 2010, SEPA will be implemented for the infrastructure, with the phasing-out of national instruments and the completion of transformation of national infrastructures into SEPA-compliant ones.

This article discusses the slowdown in the sale of bad debts in China in 2004. The Chinese government's efforts in setting up asset management companies to take non-performing loans was a failure. The condition of the country's foreign capital in the non-performing loans (NPL) market is a growing problem to the government. The paucity of NPL sales that foreign investors could sink big chunks of capital into has left many investment bankers and their advisers in the market frustrated. There are glimmers of hope though. A new directive from the State Development and Planning Commission told the asset-management companies it had simplified approvals of debt sales. The Asian Development Bank is working closely with the Chinese authorities to advise them on how to hasten NPL disposals. China's asset-disposal companies and foreign investors have disagreed about how to value an NPL in a growing economy. Although warnings about the perilous state of China's banking system have at times reached fever pitch, the huge growth in lending accompanying the booming economy has camouflaged the NPL problem. China has the second largest NPL stock in the world after Japan. So despite the griping, few are walking away from the country's distressed debt market. INSET: Chasing domestic partners.

The UK government has called for evidence to review how secondary capital raises are conducted on the London Stock Exchange [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alpha Bank, the Greek banking group, has begun bookbuilding for its €800m share sale intended to strengthen its balance sheet as it enters a new stage of growth following the clean-up of Greece's banking sector since the eurozone crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Round Hill Music Royalty Fund, the London-listed investment trust focused on song royalty streams, said on Thursday it intends to launch a share sale to finance its $120m forward pipeline of acquisitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In exchange for the sale of their ownership interests in the AOEs, the sellers will receive a portion of the AOE note issuance proceeds and the E-notes from the AOE issuers. Each of the AOEs expects to use the proceeds from the issuance to acquire from the sellers beneficial interests in AOEs that directly or indirectly own in the aggregate 20 aircraft and their related leases. MAPS 2021-1 Trust, the $540 million asset-backed securitisation (ABS) launched last week by Apollo Global Management and its affiliates, priced on 8 June at a 2.52% coupon on the senior tranche. [Extracted from the article]

NPL securitisation and equity participation are two ways to tackle the bad debt problem, say observers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs related to financial law in the Asia Pacific Region. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in Hong Kong, China has proposed amendments to the Codes on Takeovers and Mergers and Share Buybacks to improve investor protection. China has continued its effort to crackdown bad debts. High-frequency trading (HFT) operators were mandated to maintain strict records of risk control systems and trading data under the tougher rules for algorithmic trading.

The article focuses on rankings given to various banks worldwide, as of June 1, 1996. After four years as the largest bank in the world Sumitomo Bank Ltd. of Japan has finally been knocked off the top spot in this year's survey. Since it is the first major Japanese bank so far to announce provisions for bad debt. Large-scale mergers and the decision by Japan's Sumitomo Bank to bite the bullet over provisioning have brought about the major changes in this year's rankings. The new Chase has rocketed to ninth position while Sumitomo has fallen from first to sixth. A glance over the rest of the top 200 shows that the banking industry is continuing along a healthy path. All the top 10 have recorded market capital of $20 billion or more, 21 banks made a profit of over $1 billion and only two banks reported a loss in 1995. Another characteristic of the last 12 months has been mergers among several of the top banks. In addition to the Chase-Chemical marriage, First Chicago and NBD Corp. joined forces in the U.S. and now stand at 42 in the world rankings.

Many Latin American banking systems are today in a state of convulsion. Up and down the continent, banks are restructuring their portfolios or unloading bad debts on the state, merging or being taken over, or just plain going to the wall. Themes are often the same but underlying causes are specific to each country. In Mexico, banks have been knocked sideways by mounting bad debts caused by skyrocketing interest rates that followed Mexico's currency devaluation in December 1994. In Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy, the financial sector is recovering from last year's government-imposed credit squeeze and adjusting to life without hyper-inflation. In Argentina, where banks also enjoyed years of very high inflation, the sector has undergone a rapid consolidation, with scores of weaker banks taking their last gasp in 1995 as liquidity drained from the system. Even in booming Chile, where the economy is still growing at 7% a year, there is something of a shakeout in the financial system.

The troubled Japanese banks face major problems of low capitalization as of December 1995 and the situation will exacerbate if they make bad-loan provisions. There was an alarmingly low level of equity to assets ratio in the 50 Japanese banks at the end of March 1995. Japan's banks need to recapitalize before writing bad debts out of their balance sheet. The average net profit of the top 50 banks was just $49 million as of December 1995. However, outside Japan, Asian banks are growing rapidly. The top 50 Asian banks increased their shareholders' equity by an average of 29.7% during 1994. On an average, assets of the top 50 Asian banks grew by 19% during 1994. By comparison, the top 50 U.S. banks grew by only 7.9% by equity and 10.7% by assets. But capitalization levels in Asia still lags behind those in the U.S. and Latin America. State Bank of India declared a year end net profit of $227 million. Singapore banks are the best capitalized banks. All six banks of Singapore in the top 100 list of Asian banks had unadjusted equity to asset ratios of more than 10%.

Brazilian banks seem to have almost unlimited access to Euromarket borrowing. Some banks are able to issue bonds larger even than their net worth. The logic behind the issuance is simple and not dissimilar to that in other Latin American countries. Brazilian banks can raise funds overseas in dollars at between 300 and 500 basis points over the U.S. treasuries. Local Brazilian interest rates are much higher, federal government dollar-linked notes pay about 25 percent all but the largest companies pay real interest rates of 25 percent or more for loans. The market for Brazilian bank debt is becoming increasingly polarized. As spreads over treasuries narrowed during last year, retail investors became increasingly unwilling to buy paper from the best names, such as Banco Bradesco, which pays as little as 325 basis points over treasuries. Private-sector banks also have an excellent bad-debt record. Their ratio of non-performing loans to all loans at private banks is, on average, less than 1 percent their provisions average 304 percent of bad debts.

Non-performing loans by Japanese banks may total as much as Yen175 trillion - but you wouldn't know that from the official figures. Both the Japanese Ministry of Finance and the banks themselves have conspired to keep the true extent of the bad-debt crisis under wraps, partly from embarrassment and partly from fear of panicking depositors. That wouldn't be so bad if they were tackling the problem - but they're not, says the article. Welcome to the grave new world of Japanese banking, where normal business has been suspended as banks look for a solution to the bad debt crisis. And where, detractors say, secrecy and subterfuge are preventing any solution being found to this industry-wide problem. Last March 11 banks in Tokyo, Japan put the total value of non-performing loans (including those to bankrupt companies) at Yen 8.435 trillion, or 3.1% of all outstanding loans. This figure conveniently ignores all restructured loans where the banks have consented to reduce interest rates as part of a rescue package. It also excludes loans that banks have parked on the books of subsidiaries, and those where borrowers make token payments to escape formal classification as non-performing.

The banking sector in central Europe, like every other branch of the region's economy, is having a tough time adjusting to the demands of the market. For bankers, indeed, the pain is twofold, their own problems like bad debts, limited services, outdated technology are compounded by the prolonged and deep recession the region has endured since the overthrow of communism in 1989. Every day brings fresh trouble for the banks' biggest customers, undermining the ability of bankers to modernize their own operations. In fairness, the banking problems inherited from the old regimes are not entirely or even largely the fault of the region's bankers. This applies especially to the mountains of bad debt most banks in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have buried deep in their balance sheets. Dealing with these problem loans has been the bankers' most urgent task in the last two years as of 1993. Those which are successful should survive to lend another day those which are not might eventually be forced to close down altogether.

This article focuses on the status of problem debts of the Bank of Tokyo (BoT). According to the president of BoT the situation continues to improve. The bank still have quite an amount of bad debt. On the domestic side, the bank needs to address the so-called undisclosed portion which refers mainly to the so-called interest-reduced loans, made mainly to the non-bank institutions, especially the housing loan companies. BoT had about 900 billion yen of accumulated bad debt from mainly Latin America. But with the Brady programme implemented, the bank has taken advantage of it to reduce its exposure. The main bulk of this debt is no longer from Latin America but includes debt owed by Russia and some eastern European countries. In Japan, the banks economy slowed beginning 1991. Stocks and real estates declined, weakening Japanese banks' asset position. This has now affected the lending attitude for both international and domestic lending. The situation is now recovering. For the bank it is much clearer than for other banks. If one take the coming one to two years, the Japanese banks' general attitude is towards rebuilding and restructuring their portfolio.

The article focuses on the relations of the Bank of Tokyo (BoT) with local Asian companies. BoT wanted to be principal sub-underwriter in Cheung Tai Hong's U.S. $31-million initial public offering (IPO). BoT's action illustrated the extent to which it will go to cultivate its business ties in Hong Kong and to evolve a strategic presence in Asia. It was the first investment house to underwrite a B-share, for Shanghai Dajiang, which happens to be part of the Thai conglomerate CP group. However, financial deregulation in Japan, the bad-debt problems and sluggish economic activity, lending by Japanese banks rose 0.1% in May 1994 from a year earlier, a record low according to the Bank of Japan have shrunk profits, sending a signal for a change in strategy. A Japan's wholesale foreign exchange bank, BoT stands the best chance to succeed, according to analysts. How BoT fares in Asia will depend as much on its ability to extract value from its overseas network as on its skill to operate within the spheres of influence that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has maintained over banks.

The article reports on the success and challenges facing bad-debt asset management company China Cinda Asset Management Corp. in China. Jason Bedford, an independent specialist on Chinese non-performing loans (NPLs) considers Cinda as an interesting business and potentially attractive for investors. However, it highlights the impact of the increase of bad debt on the company's performance as China's finance industry has been penetrated by politics.

Carbios, the French sustainable plastics company, has unveiled plans for a €105m capital raising to finance the next stage of its growth, with the backing of major shareholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B Full and partial cash sweep b : The transaction will include a full cash sweep for the first year of the transaction and subsequently partial cash sweeps until the ARD. KBRA has noted that Regional 2021-1, the $255 million asset backed securitisations (ABS) launched by Falko Regional Aircraft, contains several transaction features that have not been observed in any rated aviation ABS transactions before 2021: B Collections test b If on a single payment date, lease collections are less than 70% of what is due for the two most recent payment dates or 50% for the current payment date, the transaction will begin to use any excess cash to pay down the series A loans. B Faster amortisation profile b : The loans will amortise on a straight-line schedule based on the aircraft type and loan series, which is faster compared to most other recent KBRA-rated aviation ABS transactions, observes the rating agency. [Extracted from the article]

Long-awaited amendments to European securitization law come into force on Friday, which should make non-performing loans securitization easier at a time when bad debt levels are set to rocket. Tom Brown reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creditor committee of Suriname bondholders says that it requires both further economic data and confirmation that it will have a say on the country's economic programme before its members can participate in a consent solicitation launched last week. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organon, a spin-off from US pharma company Merck, has launched the first $3bn piece of a total $9.5bn capital raising, which will give the soon-to-be independent group its own debt capital structure and fund a one-off special dividend to Merck. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banks are taking another look at funding conditions in the euro market after a strong week of recovery for senior debt spreads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moncler, the Italian luxury jacket maker, has agreed to buy smaller domestic rival Stone Island in a €1.15bn cash and share deal, as corporate bankers expect cheap debt and Covid-19 recovery to create many M&A opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the move of the government of India to overhaul its insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings to address the bad debt problem in the country. It highlights the new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code which has been lauded as a game changer since it can help bad debt in banks and jumpstart the credit environment. However, it also mentions the issues associated with the framework in which the threshold for the commencement of its process could be a problem.

The article reports on the emerging issue of handling bad debts disposal in Vietnam's banking system. It notes that a high ratio of bad debts from outstanding loans has caused an adverse effect on overall economic development. The Vietnam National Assembly has taken steps to reduce bad debts of credit institutions to less than three percent of the total outstanding loans by 2020.

Chinese creditors are seeing their efforts to enforce rights and foreclose loans weakened by increasing government oversight [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]