Fitch Financial News

A former model for Abercrombie & Fitch has sued the fashion retailer, alleging it allowed its former CEO Mike Jeffries to run a sex-trafficking organization during his 22-year tenure

(Reuters) — S&P Global is the first among the “big three” rating agencies to upgrade Greece to investment grade since the country’s debt crisis in 2010.

‘Know how to diversify your portfolio with US bonds’. My point of view is different, which is why I felt the need to write this edition of Contramoney on the subject. My goal is to lay out the facts as I understand them to be, and then leave it to you, dear reader, to decide what you want to do with your money.

(Reuters) -Fitch on Tuesday placed Israel's sovereign debt rating of «A+» on rating watch negative and warned a major escalation of the ongoing conflict with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas could result in a negative rating action.

BEIJING — An ambassador of an African country to China has criticized the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for restrictive lending policies.

Tata Steel Global ratings agency Fitch Ratings has upgraded the issuer rating on the steel major to “BBB-” from “BB+”, with a stable outlook. The company’s plans to turnaround the UK operations with investments and part funding from the UK government has triggered the rating upgrade.

Oyo Hotels is in talks with Apollo Global Management to refinance a $660 million loan as the once-high-flying startup seeks more time to cut debt following a delay in its initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Oravel Stays Pvt, as Oyo’s parent company is known, is seeking to extend maturity to five years compared with the existing 2026 deadline, one of the people said, asking not to be named as the negotiations are private. A decision could be reached as early as next month, another person said. The discussions with Apollo come after the Softbank Group Corp.-backed firm reported its first ever annual profit, and Fitch Ratings sees earnings improving as travel recovers.

Rating agency Fitch, which downgraded the U.S. top credit rating in August, cautioned about a possible government shutdown after U.S.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd's Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BB' following the disclosure of its intention to sell a 75% ownership in its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) business, held under subsidiary Glenmark Life Sciences Ltd. The outlook is 'Stable', according to the international credit rating agency release today.

New York, it catered to the city's elite, offering everything from tennis shoes to elephant guns. One of its frequent customers, Ezra Fitch, eventually purchased shares in the company in 1900. However, disagreements over the company's direction led to Abercrombie's departure in 1907, with Fitch taking full control.

By Yoruk Bahceli, Karin Strohecker and Dhara Ranasinghe

The US narrowly avoided a government shutdown last week following intense debates between the Democrats and Republicans over budget allocations. This confrontation follows a previous conflict concerning government expenditure, which earlier in the year had risked plunging the nation into a debt crisis. Mint looks at this latest saga and the consequences thereof.

JSW Cement, the building-materials business of steelmaker JSW Group, is in initial talks with Germany's Heidelberg Materials to acquire the latter's 13.4 million-tonne-a-year cement businesses in India, industry sources aware of the talks told ET. The people cited above said the discussions, currently bilateral, began after the JSW Group made an unsolicited offer to acquire Heidelberg's local entities that primarily have capacities in peninsular India. The world's second-biggest cement market, both by capacity and consumption, India has a highly regional and freight-intensive building-materials industry where manufacturing proximity to the end consumption market often determines profitability-linked enterprise valuation multiples in mergers and acquisitions. To be sure, Heidelberg is yet to take a final call on its India exit strategy and according to the people cited above, it is possible that it may eventually decide to opt for a bidding process for the assets to allow other potential buyers to participate and increase competitive intensity for the plants. A Heidelberg Materials spokesperson declined to comment, while the JSW Group did not respond to ET's email seeking comments. Holcim Exit If concluded, it will mark the exit of a second global cement manufacturer from India after Swiss building materials company Holcim Group exited India in 2022, selling Ambuja Cements and ACC to the Adani Group in a closely contested bidding in which JSW Group had also participated. Heidelberg has more than 13 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) cement making capacity in India, of which 6.3 MTPA is with the listed entity HeidelbergCement India, and 7.1 MTPA is with the closely held Zuari Cement.

Sanjeev Sanyal, a Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, while speaking at the Africa Partnership Conference in Mauritius, emphasised on the importance of having clear Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) norms. The two-day Africa Partnership Conference envisaged to spur cross-boundary collaboration, which kicked off in Mauritius on October 2, will be an ideal platform for Indian stakeholders to pursue wider bilateral trade and strategic goals. Sanyal in his address, stressed that ESG norms would soon have a significant impact on various aspects of our global landscape. While the term ESG is widely recognized, precise norms have yet to be established. Currently, ESG norms are being defined by various ad hoc groups and NGOs.

Yields on 30-year Treasuries are on track for their largest quarterly jump since 2009, stoking anxiety that the bond rout of the past few months could reverberate across financial markets.

JPMorgan’s debt capital bankers were expected to price a $US850 million ($1.3 billion) high-yield bond deal for Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources overnight, after running a multi-country roadshow earlier this week.

More junk-rated companies are likely to default on their debt as the US economy slows, according to Franklin Templeton, which is waiting for wider spreads before buying the bonds.  

Indian sovereign bonds' inclusion in the JP Morgan Global Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) may support diversification of the investor base but is unlikely to significantly impact the country’s credit profile and fiscal policy approach in the near term, rating agency Fitch said in a report on Wednesday. “This could serve to lower funding costs slightly, and support further development of domestic capital markets, but direct positive effects on India’s credit profile will be marginal in the near term,” the report stated. The inclusion in the index is likely to facilitate $24 billion of inflows between June 2024 and March 2025, with India expected to account for a maximum weight of 10% of the index. JP Morgan GBI-EM comprises 23 bonds with a total value of $330 billion. “We expect the positive effect on the sovereign rating of India’s inclusion in the JP Morgan Global Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) to be small, especially in the near term, as its impact on fiscal credit metrics is unlikely to be significant,” the report further stated. However, it did note that flows could be greater if other indexes also included Indian government securities. Experts indicate that an inclusion in Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index could bring in another $15 billion in passive flows. “The resulting increase in foreign investor holdings of central government maturities is likely to be large — they accounted for only around 1.6% ($19 billion) of the market as of Q2-2023, including about $12 billion of the bonds issued under the fully accessible route (FAR),” Fitch noted, highlighting that the impact of foreign investors in debt pricing is likely to be limited. Fitch was of the view that the move could stimulate further

The S&P/TSX composite index was bleeding red on Sept. 26, falling 1.2 per cent to 19,556.15 and flirting with the year’s low reached in June.

The U.S. is in a weaker position now than when S&P downgraded its sovereign credit rating in 2011, according to the former chairman of the agency's Sovereign Rating Committee.

Potomac Wealth Advisors founder and president Mark Avallone discusses the markets as a government shutdown looms, inflation and his outlook on the economy ahead of the release of updated economic data.