German do-it-yourself chain Praktiker AG is closing its stores in Turkey and withdrawing from the country after failing to sell the nine stores its operates there, Reuters reported. The company, which is battling to return to profit, said on Monday its Turkish subsidiary filed for managed insolvency proceedings with an Istanbul court earlier in the day. "We cannot afford a persistent loss-maker like Turkey.

When the eurozone financial crisis was still unfolding in early 2011, a senior German official speculated on the most worrying problem ahead, the Financial Times reported. “Cyprus,” he said, rather surprisingly. Some people might think it was too small to endanger the stability of the eurozone. But “its banking sector is overblown and it’s heavily exposed to the crisis in Greece. It could be a nightmare to resolve.” The divided island, half-in and half-out of the EU, is still on the German radar. But now the nightmare is a reality.

The Serious Fraud Office trial of three men associated with the collapsed firm Dominion Finance is due to begin in Auckland this morning, The New Zealand Herald reported. Dominion Finance Group and North South Finance were operating subsidiaries of the NZX-listed Dominion Finance Holdings. Both offered property and commercial loans. DFG went into receivership in September 2008, and NSF went into receivership in July 2010. DFH entered voluntary administration in October 2008 and was placed in liquidation in February 2009. It is estimated the group owes creditors $400 million.

Foreign and domestic investors are preparing to pounce on bad debts held by Chinese banks—a potentially lucrative but risky area that has disappointed investors in the past, The Wall Street Journal reported. Specialist investors are starting to raise funds on the expectation that the country's lenders, under pressure to improve their balance sheets, will soon sell nonperforming loans. Distressed-debt investors buy bad loans from banks at a fraction of the amount the banks originally lent.

A radical new option for the financial rescue of Cyprus would force losses on uninsured depositors in Cypriot banks, as well as investors in the country’s sovereign bonds, according to a confidential memorandum prepared ahead of Monday’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers, the Financial Times reported. The proposal for a “bail-in” of investors and depositors, and drastic shrinking of the Cypriot banking sector, is one of three options put forward as alternatives to a full-scale bailout.

Struggling Japanese electronics maker Fujitsu is slashing 5,000 jobs, or nearly 3 percent of its global workforce, as it seeks to boost profitability by reshaping its computer-chip business and its overseas operations, the Associated Press reported. Fujitsu said Thursday the job cuts will be completed by the end of this fiscal year next month, and will rely on early retirement, layoffs and other methods. Details were undecided.

A group representing contractors predicts some businesses will not survive Mainzeal Construction going into receivership, Radio New Zealand reported. The future of Mainzeal is unclear after the company was put in receivership on Wednesday, jeopardising the jobs of hundreds of employers as well as sub-contractors. Mainzeal is New Zealand's third largest construction firm, behind Fletcher Construction and Hawking, and has been involved in projects worth $7.5 billion throughout New Zealand since being founded in the late 1960s.

The breadth of a plan to narrow the gap between rich and poor, and the fact that it came out at all, heightened the sentiment that China's leaders may be ready to take on powerful interests quickly rather than laboriously trying to reach a broad consensus first, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Euro zone finance ministers will discuss on Monday a Cypriot proposal to order an independent report on whether the country is fully complying with laws against money laundering, a senior EU official said, Reuters reported. The report would be a response to German and others' concerns that Cyprus, which asked the euro zone for financial help last June, has been a tax haven for rich Russians.

China has pledged to increase minimum wages and force state-owned companies to hand over more of their revenues to the public as part of a push to tackle growing inequality, the Financial Times reported. The chasm between China’s rich and poor is seen by analysts as a significant threat to political stability, with discontent over inequality spilling over into angry online comment and, on occasion, street protests. Unveiling a 35-point plan on Tuesday, the State Council, or cabinet, said it wanted to lift as many as 80m people from poverty by 2015.