What We’re Reading This Week [November 2, 2021]

Hertz is making big news just months after emerging from its successful Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As reported by NBC News, Hertz has signed deals with Tesla (to add at least 100,000 Teslas to its fleet), Uber (to make up to half of those Teslas available to Uber drivers), and with Carvana (to sell its used vehicles to the used vehicle retailer for resale). Hertz had shed much of its rental car fleet during its bankruptcy and the pandemic-caused travel downtown, giving it the opportunity to rebuild its fleet with environmentally friendly alternatives.

A report on stablecoin from the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets was released on Monday, as covered by Reuters. The report recommends that Congress “urgently” pass a law to regulate stablecoin issuers. However, federal agencies such as the SEC and CFTC may be able to police certain aspects of stablecoin activity absent legislation. We’ve previously covered the risks that stablecoins posed to the financial system here.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Yango Group Co., a Chinese real estate developer, has proposed a bond exchange, pushing out maturities until September 2022, in hopes of preventing a default. The developer cited governmental policy, credit issues and consumer sentiment as reasons for it not having access to typical refinancing options.

As ESG continues to drive investment decisions, the Wall Street Journal considers an investor’s proposal that Shell—one of the best performing oil and gas companies on ESG metrics—divide into a “green” Shell and a “brown” Shell and sell off its oil operations.