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Biden Nominee Asked About Discrepancies in Testimony  The American Prospect

The Case for Puerto Rican Independence Current Affairs  Current Affairs

Bond Insurer Stocks Hit in Puerto Rico Proceedings  The Wall Street Journal

Puerto Rico utility's annual budget deficits persist after six years of federal oversight  IEEFA

Puerto Rico sells $3.5B in bonds, sees high demand  Yahoo News UK

Chile Telecom Operator WOM Files for Bankruptcy in the U.S. global.abi.org Mon, 04/01/2024 - 12:14 WOM, once a rising Chilean startup that vowed to challenge the country’s dominant telecom operators, filed for bankruptcy after falling short on a plan to refinance $348 million in debt due in November, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed for chapter 11 protection in Delaware, according to court documents filed today. The filing, which lists between $1 billion and $10 billion in liabilities and same in assets, allows WOM to keep operating while it works on a plan to repay creditors. The mobile network operator bet on cheap plans and a bold marketing campaign to defy Chile’s incumbents, weathering intense competition across Latin America along the way. But it drained cash fast while expanding its user base. Its 2024 bonds had slid to below 30 cents on the dollar amid liquidity concerns and as the company and its bondholders hired advisers ahead of possible talks. WOM, which stands for “Word of Mouth,” was created after Novator Partners LLP acquired the assets of Nextel Chile in 2015 and re-branded the unit. Novator was founded by Icelandic businessman Thor Bjorgolfsson. The company has 21% of the market share for mobile lines in Chile, lagging only Telefonica SA’s Movistar and Entel SA, according to data through September collected by the local regulator. Carlos Slim’s Claro has the fourth biggest share. Read more. Location Chile United States

Thames Water Owners to Start Urgent Restructuring Talks global.abi.org Mon, 04/01/2024 - 12:14 The owners of Thames Water will reportedly start urgent restructuring talks in the coming days as the embattled firm’s parent company Kemble risks entering insolvency within weeks unless lenders agree to a debt-for-equity deal, City A.M. reported. Restructuring experts Alvarez & Marsal will discuss all options with creditors, including bank lenders and bondholders, the Financial Times reported. The news comes as the government tries to avoid a temporary renationalisation of Thames Water after shareholders refused to stump up £500m of emergency funding last week due to the company being “uninvestable”. The nine shareholders, which include the Canadian pension fund Omers and a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, said they had lost patience with regulator Ofwat after its initial assessments on the company’s 2025-2030 business plan. Thames Water has asked Ofwat for permission to hike bills by 56 per cent in real terms by 2030, pay lower fines on issues like sewage dumping and award dividends. The shareholders’ decision has triggered a political headache for Rishi Sunak’s government as it faces the costly prospect of having to temporarily nationalise the company to prevent it from collapsing. The sprawling group that includes Thames Water and Kemble is struggling under a debt pile worth at least £18.3bn, which has become increasingly difficult to service amid higher interest rates. Read more. Location United Kingdom

Thailand's Central Group Wants to Acquire Signa Retail Assets global.abi.org Mon, 04/01/2024 - 12:13 Thai retailer Central Group wants to take over some real estate assets from insolvent Austrian property company Signa, including KaDeWe in Germany and Selfridges in London, Reuters reported. Central Group is interested in Signa's entire luxury group, which also includes Alsterhaus in Hamburg, Oberpollinger in Munich, and Globus in Switzerland, according to a Business Insider report. The report said Central is already substantially invested in Signa's luxury holdings. Signa, the property empire founded by tycoon Rene Benko, has been one of the biggest casualties of Europe's real estate crisis, with creditors filing claims worth billions of euros. The group's holding company, which sits at the centre of a web of hundreds of firms, has declared insolvency, as have its two main units, Signa Prime and Signa Development. Read more. Location Thailand Austria

IMF Confirms Increasing Egypt's Bailout Loan to $8 Billion global.abi.org Mon, 04/01/2024 - 12:12 The executive board of the International Monetary Fund confirmed a deal with Egypt to increase its bailout loan from $3 billion to $8 billion, in a move that is meant to shore up the Arab country’s economy which is hit by a staggering shortage of foreign currency and soaring inflation, the Associated Press reported. In a statement late Friday, the board said its decision would enable Egypt to immediately receive about $820 million as part of the deal which was announced earlier this month. The deal was achieved after Egypt agreed with the IMF on a reform plan that is centered on floating the local currency, reducing public investment and allowing the private sector to become the engine of growth, the statement said. Egypt has already floated the pound and sharply increased the main interest rate. Commercial banks are now trading the U.S. currency at more than 47 pounds, up from about 31 pounds. The measures are meant to combat ballooning inflation and attract foreign investment. The Egyptian economy has been hit hard by years of government austerity, the coronavirus pandemic, the fallout from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and most recently, the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The Houthi attacks on shipping routes in the Red Sea have slashed Suez Canal revenues, which is a major source for foreign currency. The attacks forced traffic away from the canal and around the tip of Africa. Read more. Location Egypt

Japan's Finance Minister Says 'Speculative' Moves in Currency Market Impacting Yen global.abi.org Mon, 04/01/2024 - 12:12 Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Monday there were some speculative moves in the currency market that did not reflect economic fundamentals, repeating his warning against excessive yen declines, Reuters reported. "We will watch currency market developments with a strong sense of urgency, and will respond appropriately against excessive moves without ruling out any options," Suzuki told parliament. Suzuki said various factors are driving currency moves such as the Bank of Japan's decision to end negative interest rates, Japan's current account balance, price moves, geopolitical risks, as well as market players' sentiment and speculative trades. "As for the yen's recent declines, we believe there are some speculative moves that do not reflect fundamentals when taking into account domestic and overseas economic as well as price developments," he said. The yen has been on a downtrend despite the BOJ's decision on March 19 to end eight years of negative interest rates, and hit a 34-year low against the dollar at 151.975 last week. It was fetching 151.315 per dollar early on Monday. Read more. Location Japan

Japan's March Factory Activity Shrinks at Slower Pace global.abi.org Mon, 04/01/2024 - 12:11 Japan's factory activity in March contracted for the 10th consecutive month though the downturn was the least pronounced in four months, helped by softer contractions in output and orders, a private-sector survey showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The final au Jibun Bank Japan manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) was at 48.2 in March, the highest level since November. That matched the flash reading and was better than February's 47.2, which marked the fastest pace of contraction in over 3-1/2 years. The index has remained below the 50.0 threshold that separates expansion from contraction since last June, but conditions for manufacturers were starting to slowly turn up. Output and new orders - the two main subindexes contributing to the headline figure - declined yet again albeit at a slower pace than in February. Global demand remained a major headwind, with new export orders declining at the fastest pace since February 2023, as business confidence soured in key markets including China and North America, according to the survey. Read more. Location Japan

China Gauge Shows Expansion in Factory Activity global.abi.org Mon, 04/01/2024 - 12:11 A private gauge showed China’s factory activity expanded in March, marking a fifth successive monthly improvement in the country’s manufacturing sector and reaching its highest level since February 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported. The China Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 51.1 in March from 50.9 in February, according to data released Monday by Caixin Media Co. and S&P Global. A reading above 50 indicates that the manufacturing sector grew, while a reading below 50 indicates contraction. Monday’s upbeat data comes as both supply and demand grew at a faster pace in March, as expansion in manufacturers’ output reached a 10-month high and growth in total new orders accelerated. Improving external demand also helped push the subindex for new export orders to its highest level since February 2023 as the global economy recovers. However, manufacturers were still reluctant to hire more workers on cost concerns, with the barometer for the labor market remaining in contraction for the seventh straight month. Meanwhile, average input costs fell for the first time since July 2023, though dropping raw material prices could provide leeway for manufacturers to lower product prices amid fierce competition, Caixin said. Read more. (Subscription required.) Location China

China Home Sales Drought Persists in March global.abi.org Mon, 04/01/2024 - 12:10 China’s home sales slump dragged on in March, signaling a much-hoped turnaround for the sector isn’t in sight yet, Bloomberg News reported. The value of new-home sales from the 100 biggest real estate companies slid about 46% from a year earlier to 358 billion yuan ($49.6 billion), following a 60% decline in February, according to preliminary data from China Real Estate Information Corp. China’s protracted property sales drought has weighed on many of the nation’s biggest builders and eroded the balance sheets of the largest state-owned banks as their bad loans swell. Beijing has tasked banks with helping pump up the domestic economy as well as supporting debt-laden developers. Country Garden Holdings Co., once a powerhouse in the residential space, made a surprise announcement late Thursday that it will miss a deadline for reporting annual results. China Vanke Co., at one time the largest listed developer, said net income tumbled 46% last year, sliding more than analysts expected. March is traditionally a quick period for home sales, surging 93% from February, but sales were still weaker than the monthly average in the third and fourth quarters of last year, according to CRIC. Separate figures released Monday showed a mixed picture for home prices in China. Prices of new homes gained 0.27% in March, accelerating from 0.14% in February, China Index Holdings data showed. From a year earlier, they climbed 0.82%. Read more. Location China

Lira Surges as Erdogan Gives Turkey’s Economy Plan More Time global.abi.org Mon, 04/01/2024 - 11:49 Turkey’s lira reversed earlier losses and surged against the dollar on Monday as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated he’ll give his economic team more time to produce results despite facing an unprecedented rout at local elections over the weekend, Bloomberg News reported. Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party suffered a defeat on Sunday, ceding control of many of Turkey’s cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, to the opposition. The president conceded defeat quickly in a speech at half past midnight, saying lessons should be learned from it, while also saying that he expected to see positive results from an economic turnaround program in the second half of the year. The lira climbed as much as 2.2% against the dollar, amid thin trading due to the Easter holiday across many European markets. The Turkish currency was being quoted 1.3% stronger at 31.9615 per dollar as of 3:45 p.m. in Istanbul, and was by far the best performing emerging-market currency on the day. Erdogan’s comments following the vote helped ease pressure on other risk indicators for the country as well, with credit default swaps and 10-year bond yields both falling on Monday. The cost to insure Turkish debt against default for five years dropped six basis points to the lowest level since March 4, and the yield on 10-year lira government bonds fell 41 basis points to 26.4%. Read more. Location Turkey

Cerberus Mulls Bigger Intrum Partnership as Company Tackles Debt global.abi.org Mon, 04/01/2024 - 11:49 Cerberus Capital Management LP and Intrum AB are considering a more extensive partnership as the Swedish debt collector explores options to address its borrowings, Bloomberg News reported. The U.S. alternative investor is looking at further ways to invest in Intrum and its assets after buying a portfolio from the company earlier this year, said people familiar with the matter. Talks are preliminary and might not yield any outcome, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the details are private. Intrum raised net proceeds of 8.2 billion kroner ($769 million) when Cerberus agreed in January to pay 98% of book value for a third of its non-performing loan portfolio. Intrum has been considering alternatives to deal with looming maturities, as its high leverage and business challenges have cut access to debt capital markets. The company owes €5.4 billion ($5.8 billion) with some borrowings due as soon as July. Read more. Location Sweden United States

Opinion | Kamala Harris's Epic Fail in Puerto Rico  The New York Times