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☆ Companies rush to take on more debt, despite high bankruptcy filings and interest rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCompanies rush to take on more debt, despite high bankruptcy filings and interest ratesCNBC's Kristina Partsinevelos, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss corporate bankruptcy filings hitting 12-year highs, companies rushing to take on more debt and Powell's approach to monitoring business debt.

☆ HSBC takes $300 mln hit on Russia business sale, says deal on track for 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Lawrence White | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Europe's biggest bank has taken a $300 million loss on the expected sale of the business, HSBC said as it reported its annual results for 2022. HSBC said in July last year the deal was pending approval from Russia's government and regulators, shortly before Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said Russia would block the sale of foreign banks' Russian businesses. Credit Suisse last July was banned from disposing of shares in its Russian unit by a Moscow court which also ordered the seizure of 10 million euros ($10.7 million) from the Swiss bank. HSBC's operations in Russia consisted of a corporate banking business which offered a range of lending and investment banking services to domestic and multinational customers. It employed around 200 people on the eve of Russia's invasion, HSBC Chief Financial Officer Ewen Stevenson said at the time.

☆ Italian banks' lending to firms stagnates in December
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A monthly report on the balance sheets of domestic banks showed loans to non-financial companies were flat year-on-year in December compared with a 2.7% expansion the previous month. Extraordinary government support measures during the pandemic and the energy crisis fuelled strong growth in corporate bank lending, but the trend has weakened as support measures have been gradually unwound. Banks' corporate loans totalled 649.2 billion euros at the end of December, down from 666.3 billion euros a month earlier. Thursday's data also showed Italian residents' deposits with domestic banks fell to 2.71 trillion euros ($2.92 trillion) compared with 2.74 trillion euros the previous month. Gross unpaid loans declined to 30.15 billion euros at the end of December from 34.01 billion euros a month earlier.

Finance chiefs are coming into the year grappling with a variety of challenges, from rising interest rates and inflation to managing labor disruptions, pricing and inventory. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CFO Journal The Morning Ledger provides daily news and insights on corporate finance from the CFO Journal team. “But…there’s more and more of a belief that any kind of downturn will be short and shallow, frankly. Some finance chiefs, meanwhile, are finding opportunities to expand in the volatile economy. You can’t take everything that your vendors are sending you.”Labor woes persistHiring, however, remains a challenge for finance chiefs.

☆ Bank of America announced a new class of managing directors — here are all 87 names in corporate and investment banking
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Alex Morrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bank of America has announced a new class of 360 managing directors. Insider has the list of the 87 new MDs for the firm's Global Corporate and Investment Bank. It's managing director promotion day at Bank of America. On Thursday, the class of 360 managing directors across the firm were announced internally, up 15% from the 314 promoted in 2022.Insider has the list of the 87 employees who were promoted in the firm's Global Corporate and Investment Bank — the division responsible for dealmaking. That's down 17% from 105 new MDs last year in the division, likely a reflection of a difficult year in investment banking across Wall Street that saw revenues drop in excess of 50%.

Koch unit Georgia-Pacific used a corporate bankruptcy maneuver known as the Texas two-step, forming a new Texas subsidiary, Bestwall, that took on the company's asbestos liability. The latest court documents, filed on Wednesday, provide new detail about how Koch has benefited from the case. Koch has received more than $5 billion since Bestwall filed for bankruptcy in 2017. Representatives for New Georgia-Pacific and Koch Industries did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. New Georgia-Pacific's shareholder equity is forecast to be about $27.8 billion after accounting for the Koch dividends, according to the Wednesday court filing.

☆ Davos 2023: Europe must seize catch-up chance - EU's Gentiloni
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The logo of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 is seen at Davos Congress Centre, in the Alpine resort of Davos, Switzerland, January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Arnd WiegmannDAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 18 (Reuters) - An improved economic outlook gives Europe the chance to double-down on efforts to boost its industrial competitiveness in key sectors from clean energy to semiconductors, EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Wednesday. Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Gentiloni said the bloc could avoid an all-out recession this year and get away with what he called a "limited contraction" of the economy in the first quarter. Gentiloni said that was leading to a new readiness to envisage industrial cooperation at EU level to make the bloc less dependent on others. Reporting by Mark John in Davos; Editing by Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Special Report: Boy Scouts, Catholic dioceses find haven from sex abuse suits in bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Kristina Cooke Mike Spector Benjamin Lesser Dan Levine Disha Raychaudhuri | Kristina Cooke | Mike Spector | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +19 min

The Boy Scouts, for instance, said on a website the group set up for restructuring that it launched a “comprehensive noticing campaign” in the media. He sought compensation in the Boy Scouts bankruptcy in June, long after a deadline of November 16, 2020 for filing claims. The Boy Scouts bankruptcy reorganization plan, approved by a judge in September, halts all lawsuits against the Boy Scouts, local councils, churches and other organizations that chartered scouting activities. His case was halted by the Boy Scouts bankruptcy. Later that year, in August, he filed his lawsuit against defendants including a Boy Scouts local council and DeSandre.

This is why we have seen less activity," said Dirk Albersmeier, co-head of global M&A at JPMorgan. In the fourth quarter, there has been a 56% contraction in global M&A to $641.2 billion, partly caused by a 66% drop in private equity activity. Top rainmakers expect a pickup in cross-border M&A activity. Going forward, private equity funds are expected to kickstart the recovery as they seek assets at a discount. We were probably more optimistic a year ago," said David DeNunzio, global head of M&A at Wells Fargo.

☆ ZKB not poaching Credit Suisse clients - CEO in paper
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] The logo of Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB) bank is seen at its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland September 24, 2020. REUTERS/Arnd WiegmannZURICH, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB.UL) is not trying to poach clients from embattled Credit Suisse (CSGN.S), the state-backed cantonal bank's chief executive said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday. Amid a social media storm that sparked unfounded speculation about its stability, Credit Suisse reported sharp outflows in October as wealthy clients moved assets elsewhere, although its chairman has said the situation has since stabilised. ZKB CEO Urs Baumann told the Neue Zuercher Zeitung his bank was not actively approaching Credit Suisse clients and said ZKB was not using its state backing as a marketing tool amid such market jitters. Asked would it mean for the Swiss banking sector and for ZKB if problems at Credit Suisse intensified, he said:"We want a strong CS.

In this article BTC.CM=ETH.CM= Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTKris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, speaking at a 2018 Bloomberg event in Hong Kong, China. Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesKris Marszalek wants everyone to know that his company, Crypto.com, is safe and in good hands. While no evidence has emerged of wrongdoing at Crypto.com, Marszalek's business history is replete with red flags. Over the course of 2008 and 2009, Marszalek and his partner were transferred nearly $3 million in payments from Starline, according to the documents. As a result, when the bank forced Starline into liquidation, Marszalek and his partner were forced into bankruptcy as well.

☆ Crypto meltdown a boon for bankruptcy lawyers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Andrew Goudsward | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

“You’ve got to pay the gravedigger,” said Adam Levitin, a law professor at Georgetown University who specializes in bankruptcy law. Law firm billing rates are normally not public, but in bankruptcy cases lawyers for the debtor company must detail their billings and request a judge's approval for their fees. The lawyers are paid from the assets of a bankruptcy estate, and experts said judges rarely demand significant reductions in professional fees. Lawyers in the crypto cases must deal with a host of issues new to bankruptcy law, including whether digital assets deposited on a platform are owned by the customer or the platform itself, according to bankruptcy law experts. Levitin, a former member of the restructuring department at law firm Weil, Gotshal, & Manges, said such complex questions call for top-shelf lawyers.

☆ With Debt Coming Due, Investment-Grade Companies Are Paying Up, Too
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Nina Trentmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

What’s more, volatile markets have resulted in fewer opportunities for companies to sell their debt. Investment-grade U.S. companies have between $550 billion and $750 billion coming due per year from 2023 through 2027, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., with about $59 billion left to pay off or refinance in 2022. Of the $615.54 billion, $504.31 billion were new issuances, compared to $111.23 billion in refinancings, Dealogic said. But investor demand for bonds has been stronger in recent days, leading Amazon.com Inc. and others with near-term debt coming due to the market. Among the businesses that recently took out bond debt at a higher cost is retail giant Walmart Inc.

FRANKFURT, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Germany's Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) has a stark warning to European companies borrowing from U.S. lenders: They will drop you when times get tough. "There was evidence of non-German banks in this country taking lending off the table while German banks were going longer-credit during the pandemic, in 2020," he added, again without citing examples. Deutsche Bank has long highlighted a need for Europe to have strong banks to vie with U.S. and Chinese competitors, but the latest rhetoric signals a more aggressive tone. Campelli called for a "concerted approach" by politicians and regulators to support European banks. He said he wanted strong European banks in Germany and pushed back on being a mere U.S. bank.

Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s 30-year-old founder, became the face of the company and, to some, crypto at large. The first red flagsNot long after Bankman-Fried started FTX, crypto began to boom. Venture capital money flooded into all things blockchain and crypto, and crypto platforms moved to attract customers beyond the technologists and blockchain evangelists that once fueled its rise. These digital tokens use blockchain technology, in which computers contribute to a shared ledger that can be used to track digital assets. Graeme Sloan / Sipa USA via APThe Wall Street Journal and CNBC, also citing anonymous sources, reported that Alameda had used FTX funds for trading.

☆ Some CFOs Are Boosting Their Credit Lines as Insurance Against Recession
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Kristin Broughton | Nina Trentmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

In addition to recession-planning, some companies are expanding their credit lines in response to higher input and inventory costs, corporate bankers said. Term loans are also funded at the outset, unlike credit lines. Photo: Xcel EnergyThe company increased its revolving credit lines primarily because it is expanding and also confronting higher commodity costs, Mr. Johnson said. Xcel doesn’t typically allow its commercial-paper balances to exceed 40% of its total borrowing capacity under its revolving credit lines, Mr. Johnson said. Bombardier in the third quarter closed on a new $300 million, five-year revolving credit facility.

☆ FTX is just the tip of the iceberg. Meet 16 lawyers whose bankruptcy battles, from Revlon to JCPenney, are setting them up for a boom in business
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Despite the economic downturn, just 312 corporations filed for bankruptcy this year as of October. Here are 16 lawyers who may benefit as more companies negotiate with lenders and restructure their debt. FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday after questions were raised about its capital, leading customers to flee the exchange. Despite the high-profile nature of FTX's bankruptcy, such filings actually fell to a new low in 2022. As of end of October, there were just 312 corporate bankruptcy filings, down from 410 filings in 2021, and 640 in 2020, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence report.

☆ Britain's new PM is a fan of crypto. There are hopes he'll give the industry a boost
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Dan Kitwood | Getty ImagesU.K. cryptocurrency firms and investors have high hopes that new prime minister Rishi Sunak could turn around Britain's fading crypto aspirations. Crypto isn't exactly high up on his priority list, but industry insiders say there's reason to be optimistic. Before Sunak's appointment as PM, confidence in the U.K.'s position in the global crypto market had been waning. In a survey of 300 British fintech founders, only 9% believe it's leading the way on crypto. Yet the U.K. is home to a fairly active crypto market.

☆ European banks are posting bumper profits — but don’t buy their shares yet, strategist says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Those are comments from one investment advisor despite lenders on the continent posting bumper third-quarter results this week. Barclays on Wednesday reported net profits of £1.5 billion ($1.73 billion), while Deutsche Bank revealed a net income of 1.12 billion euros ($1.11 billion). Deutsche Bank's net interest margin grew to 1.5% in the quarter, up from 1.4% in the prior quarter and from 1.2% in the year-ago period. But this income source for banks is unlikely to be long-lived as European capitals debate imposing a "windfall tax" on banks' profits. Hickmore said that senior debt from European banks is more attractive now as they are immune to many risks banks face.

☆ Deutsche Bank logs ninth straight quarter of profit with big earnings beat
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Silvia Amaro | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In this article .BBKA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTwatch nowDeutsche Bank on Wednesday crushed market expectations for the third quarter, amid higher interest rates and turbulent market trading. The bank reported a net income of 1.115 billion euros ($1.11 billion) for the quarter. Here are other highlights for the quarter: Revenues rose 15% from a year ago, and hit 6.92 billion euros. As a result, additional contingent risk fell to 0.2 billion euros, from the 0.6 billion euros at the end of the second quarter. Higher interest rates for longer?

FRANKFURT, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) on Wednesday posted a better-than-expected 475% jump in third-quarter profit as investment banking revenues rose thanks to a trading boom and despite a slump in dealmaking. Deutsche is also trimming staff at its investment bank, people with knowledge of the matter have told Reuters, as a pullback in financing deals compels lenders to limit costs. Revenue from the investment bank's origination and advisory business declined 85% in the quarter, compared with expectations for a 61% drop. The investment bank in recent years recovered from being its problem child to its strongest revenue generator thanks to a coronavirus pandemic trading boom and the dealmaking frenzy. Among Deutsche's other major divisions, corporate bank revenues rose 25%, while private bank revenues were up 13%.

☆ European banks’ perfect moment will prove fleeting
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Oct 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Europe’s big banks are enjoying a perfect moment. That dream scenario allowed Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), Barclays (BARC.L) and Banco Santander (SAN.MC) to report chunky profits in third-quarter results released on Wednesday. Barclays’ revenue from trading fixed-income securities, currencies, and commodities in the first nine months of 2022 was 63% higher year-on-year. Deutsche, Barclays and Santander have slashed their group-wide stock of loan-loss provisions since 2020, and in the latter two cases they’re even below pre-pandemic levels. Deutsche Bank and Barclays were down 0.5% and 0.9% respectively.

☆ JPMorgan investment banking chief Hernandez to retire in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Oct 17 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) said on Monday that Carlos Hernandez, its executive chair of investment and corporate banking, will retire at the end of the first quarter next year. Hernandez, 61, is a 36-year veteran of the company and has helped grow several segments of JPMorgan including its treasury services, investor services and global equities business, according to an internal memo that was confirmed by a company spokesperson. He will work closely with Jim Casey and Viswas Raghavan, co-heads of global investment banking, to ensure a smooth transition, according to the memo. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Khushi Mandowara; Editing by Vinay DwivediOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Junk-Rated Companies Search for the Right Time to Tap Investors
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Nina Trentmann | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +8 min

While there is limited pressure overall as many businesses refinanced in 2020 and 2021 when funding was cheaper and investor appetite stronger, high-yield companies with immediate financing needs have to find the right time to tap investors, corporate bankers say. Adding loans and revolving-credit facilities, speculative companies have maturities of around $1.47 trillion through 2027, ratings firm Moody’s Investors Service said last week. And the high-yield bond market isn’t closed, it has just become more expensive, bankers said. Movie theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. on Friday said that its subsidiary Odeon Finco PLC priced a $400 million bond. Bankers said they have received few calls from triple C-rated companies in recent months looking for maturity extensions.

☆ A weed gummy theory for the Fed’s high-stakes interest rate gamble
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Here’s the thing: The Fed right now is wearing blinders, and it only cares about bringing down inflation, my colleague Paul R. La Monica writes. The Weed Gummy TheoryThere’s an analogy offered by investment analyst Peter Boockvar last month that I can’t stop thinking about. He compared the Fed to an eager but inexperienced consumer of weed gummies, which, notoriously, take longer than anyone expects to kick in. Bankruptcies: Rate hikes make it more expensive for companies to pay down debt, increasing the risk of corporate bankruptcies and defaults. The so-called PPI, which tracks what suppliers charge other businesses for goods and services, showed prices going up 8.5% from a year ago.

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