Japanese producer-distributor Movie-Eye Entertainment, distributor of Oscar-winners Crash and Million Dollar Baby, has filed for bankruptcy according to a fax sent to creditors yesterday. Movie-Eye increased spend on film in anticipation of becoming a listed company last year but the global financial crisis, Japanese recession and underperforming box office led to losses of $45 million (Y4.29 billion) over the period.

The world economy cannot sustain any further rise in the oil price, the International Energy Agency’s chief economist warned as oil prices rose toward a record high for the year. Fatih Birol told the Financial Times that prices higher than about $70 could dampen a world economic recovery. “If we go one step further, if we see prices go much higher than that, we may see it slow down and strangle economic recovery,” he said of oil prices on Friday, when the European benchmark was around $70.

Debt-ridden Eftpos technology company ProvencoCadmus, whose major shareholders include some of New Zealand's richest people, yesterday called in receivers after failing to secure support for its badly needed recapitalisation from key investors, The New Zealand Herald reported. A few hours after its shares were suspended from trading on the NZX yesterday morning, the company issued a statement saying it had asked its bank ANZ National to appoint receivers, "as the company will not have sufficient funds to meet its working capital requirements".

British clothing and footwear retailer JD Sports Fashion Plc said on Tuesday it has further diversified its business with the acquisition of rugby brand Canterbury for 6.5 million pounds ($11.01 million). JD said it purchased the key trading assets and trade of Canterbury Europe Limited along with the global rights to the Canterbury and Canterbury of New Zealand brands, which are over 100 years old, from the firm's administrators.

Ford Motor Co. has slowed the bidding process for its Volvo unit in an effort to get a better price for the Swedish car brand, according to a person close to the U.S. company, The Wall Street Journal reported. The knowledgeable person said Ford has decided to wait for General Motors Co. to wrap up the sale of its Opel unit in Germany, and is hoping to invite a loser in that two-way bidding race to bid for Volvo. The person added there currently are three bidders for Volvo: a group led by China's Geely Holding Group Co., Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co.

A selloff in Chinese stocks Wednesday, in part on fears that loan growth could be braking, sent a jolt through other regional markets from Mumbai to Sydney, The Wall Street Journal reported. Hopes of a world-wide economic recovery increasingly center on continued growth in the developing world, and China in particular. The Australian dollar has been rising on expectations of Chinese purchases of the country's metals and other resources. U.S. and European banks and consulting firms hope China's continued growth will generate fee income that has become scarcer at home.

In pursuit of middle-class prosperity, South Koreans have looted their household savings like no other people on Earth, The Washington Post reported. They have collectively binged on private schools and fancy cars, language camps and new apartments, foreign travel and designer shoes. The consequences of South Korea's collapsed savings rate are beginning to register in the country's slowing rate of growth, economists said. For nearly 40 years, growth galloped along at between 6 and 8 percent, as banks were flush with household savings that fueled business investment and research.

Australian-based clothing company Pacific Brands has finally completed the closure of its New Zealand factories, with its Christchurch and Palmerston North plants permanently shutting down over the next two days, The National Business Review reported. The company, which produces labels such as Bonds and Jockey, first announced the closures in March as part of a new strategy which also saw seven Australian factories close. Last month, the clothing company revealed it had raised $326 million in a share offer, with Pacific Brands looking for working capital and money to pay off debt.

The number of companies forced into liquidation jumped by 20 per cent in the 12 months to May, driven by the end of mining and property booms in Queensland and Western Australia, a report shows. The report by insolvency practitioners SV Partners based on Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) data shows there were 2934 court-ordered liquidations in the year to May 30, up from 2428 in the year to May 2008, The Australian reported on an AAP story.

When top US and Chinese officials meet on Monday for the first high-level talks of the Obama administration, the American complaints about China’s currency that long bedevilled relations will barely be on the table, the Financial Times reported. For years, Washington alleged that Beijing unfairly manipulated its currency, the renminbi, to support exports, and demanded that China allow it to appreciate to force structural changes in its economy.