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Bonds issued by the Ukrainian government hit new lows Wednesday despite assurances from foreign governments and global institutions that they would continue to buttress Ukraine’s wartime finances, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. On Wednesday, a Ukrainian government bond coming due in September was quoted between 36 and 40 cents on the dollar, down from 65 cents on Friday, according to data from FactSet. A 2033 bond was quoted between 23 to 26 cents on the dollar Wednesday, down from 45 cents Friday. Last week, Ukraine’s bonds rallied after the country’s forces appeared to be holding off an invasion of the nation’s capital, and governments around the world pledged billions in financial assistance to Kyiv. But news that Russian forces, frustrated in their plans for a quick victory, shifted to a strategy of pummeling civilian areas in an attempt to demoralize Ukrainian resistance has brought anxiety over the outnumbered Ukrainian military back into focus.

Swiss-based Russian gas pipeline operator Nord Stream 2 AG said yesterday that it has not filed for insolvency, Reuters reported. "We do not confirm the media reports that Nord Stream 2 has filed for bankruptcy. The company only informed the local authorities that the company had to terminate contracts with employees following the imposition of U.S. sanctions on the company," Nord Stream 2 AG said in emailed comments. The firm, based in Zug, Switzerland, was considering filing for insolvency, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters earlier this week, as it attempts to settle claims ahead of a U.S. sanction deadline for entities to stop dealings with it. Separately, Zug's cantonal economy director, Silvia Thalmann, said that process had not been activated. "We know that Nord Stream 2 is facing enormous payment difficulties. The company has not until now filed for bankruptcy with the Zug Commercial Registry Office," she said.

A fugitive Malaysian financier said he won support from allies of former U.S. President Donald Trump for a possible settlement of a probe into the looting of funds from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, a former Goldman Sachs banker testified on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Tim Leissner offered a glimpse of what he had heard from financier Jho Low about the attempted deal, on the sixth day of his testimony at the trial of Roger Ng, another former Goldman banker. Ng, 49, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to launder money and violate an anti-bribery law. Leissner, a former Goldman partner, said he had no independent verification of the information. Leissner testified that Low, whom he described as the mastermind of the scheme, told him at a 2017 meeting that Low and his lawyers were in talks with the Trump administration about the potential for a multi-billion dollar deal that would spare several people from U.S. charges. Low told Leissner he had met with Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, in Beijing and had hired Chris Christie, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, as his lawyer with the promise of a $10 million fee if the settlement was successful, Leissner said. Christie said he represented Low in civil forfeiture actions in California that resulted in Low surrendering $700 million to the U.S. Department of Justice. He said he never entered into an agreement to receive a fee if charges were dropped in exchange for payment to the U.S. government.

The Swiss-based company which built the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is considering filing for insolvency, two sources familiar with the situation said, as it attempts to settle claims ahead of a U.S. sanction deadline for other entities to stop dealings with it, Reuters reported. The United States sanctioned Nord Stream 2 AG last week after Russia recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine prior to its invasion of the country, which has prompted a wave of economic sanctions by the West. Nord Stream 2 AG, which is registered in Switzerland and owned by Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom, last year completed the $11 billion project which was designed to double the capacity to pump gas from Russia to Germany. Two sources said that Nord Stream 2 AG has been working with a financial adviser on clearing some of its liabilities and could formally begin insolvency proceedings in a Swiss court as soon as this week. The 1,230 km (767 mile) pipeline had not begun commercial operations because it was pending certification in Germany, which last week put this process on hold as a result of the escalating Ukraine crisis. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued an executive order on Feb. 23 authorising "the wind down of transactions involving Nord Stream 2 AG" or "any entity in which Nord Stream 2 AG owns, directly or indirectly, a 50 percent or greater interest" by March 2. Gazprom paid half the cost of building Nord Stream 2, with the remainder of the $11 billion pipeline project financed by British oil and gas major Shell, Austria's OMV, France's Engie and Germany's Uniper and Wintershall DEA.

Creditors from Samarco Mineracao SA, a Brazilian iron-ore producer jointly owned by Vale SA and BHP Group, rejected the new restructuring plan proposed by the company, Bloomberg News reported. The ad hoc group of bondholders consider that even under the new plan, presented Wednesday, Vale and BHP would still not pay for what creditors see as their share of the repairs from the 2015 deadly dam disaster, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. They also complain that the two shareholders would have priority over creditors in receiving back loans made to the firm. Creditors are preparing an alternative restructuring plan for the mining company that will include a new controlling shareholder group to take control after its approval, the people said. The group, which had already hinted at this project in December, is working with Tito Martins, former Chief Financial Officer from Vale and former Chief Executive Officer of Nexa Resources, according to a statement on Tuesday. Samarco, which filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2021, will have a creditors meeting to vote a plan for restructuring its about 50 billion reais ($10 billion) in debt on March 10.

Restructuring bankers have visited Sri Lanka to discuss proposals with the government on raising funds to help manage a debt crisis that has left the South Asian country struggling to pay for imports and stoked political controversy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Advisers from investment banks including Rothschild & Co. and Lazard Ltd. have recently met with government officials and discussed potential plans to help the nation raise cash, including asset sales and securitized debt facilities. Rothschild declined to comment. Lazard and the Sri Lankan government didn’t immediately return requests for comment. Sri Lanka’s central bank two weeks ago said that it and the government were “committed to [honor] all forthcoming debt obligations and thereby maintain Sri Lanka’s unblemished record of debt servicing” and that it didn’t believe the government needed to restructure its debts. The nation has faced an economic crisis since 2020. That year, its economy contracted 3.6% in real terms, the deepest recession since its independence from the U.K. in 1948, according to the central bank.

The nation’s biggest banks are monitoring the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine to get ready for potential economic sanctions or cyberattacks, the New York Times reported. The Biden administration is in regular touch with banks about the possibility of economic penalties on Russia. Those talks are aimed at preparing lenders and minimizing the potential disruption to financial markets if broad sanctions are rolled out. Carrying out severe economic punishments would be a complex undertaking, requiring American banks to cut off lending to Russian companies, sales of sovereign bonds and, potentially, cross-border payments. Such severe measures have never been applied to an economy as large as Russia’s. Lenders could be impacted if the escalating conflict spurs volatility in stock markets and commodity prices. But a key emerging threat to banks is the danger of cyberattacks, which could be Russia’s way of retaliating if financial and economic sanctions are imposed. The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a group that shares cyberintelligence across the financial industry, said it was looking out for threats. “Our global intelligence team has set up the appropriate communication channels to equip the financial services industry with the pertinent cybersecurity information and guidance,” Steve Silberstein, the chief executive of FS-ISAC, said in a statement. The Treasury Department met with bank chiefs, including Brian Moynihan of Bank of America and Charles W. Scharf from Wells Fargo, on Wednesday for a previously scheduled meeting to discuss cyberdefenses. The next day, government officials from the White House and several agencies met with executives from large U.S. lenders to discuss their response to potential Russian hacking threats.

A group of Latam Airlines Group SA’s creditors said they are prepared to provide alternative financing if a bankruptcy judge rejects a financial lifeline from another creditor group, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The splinter group of creditors, which includes Pentwater Capital Management LP, Invictus Global Management LLC and Avenue Capital Group, said it is ready to backstop $400 million of a rights offering and roughly $3.27 billion in the sale of convertible notes. The creditors, whose unsecured debts include lease claims and unsecured notes maturing in 2024 and 2026, said their proposal would increase the restructuring plan’s equity value to $7.79 billion from $7.61 billion, according to the commitment letter and related materials viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The offer is an alternative to an existing financing deal proposed by another group of creditors including Sixth Street Partners that Latam is hoping to get court approval for in order to end the bankruptcy brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the current offer was presented in November, dissenting creditors, including the holders providing the new deal, have contended that Latam is paying an unreasonable amount of fees to secure the funding it needs.