A liquidation proceeding against Blue Chip’s sole remaining investment vehicle, Northern Crest, has failed, clearing the way for the investment company to migrate to Australia, The National Business Review reported. If the company moves to Australia there are concerns that investors of the failed Blue Chip schemes will not be able to pursue claims under New Zealand legislation. The Registrar of Companies had brought the liquidation proceeding against the ASX-listed but New Zealand-registered company on three grounds.

Italian automaker Fiat SpA is still interested in Germany's Opel despite losing a bid to take over the General Motors Corp unit, Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Friday, Reuters reported. Fiat lost out last week to Canadian car parts maker Magna International Inc in a bid for Opel, but Marchionne's comments suggested Fiat might yet be a factor in the deal. "The deal technically is not closed, we will see," Marchionne said, adding that Fiat had not yet used a €1 billion ($1.42 billion) line of credit from banks.

The Chinese government’s largest investment ever in a Western company, a proposed $19.5 billion stake in the Australian-British mining giant Rio Tinto Group, collapsed early Friday, dealing a blow both to China’s global corporate ambitions and to its efforts to gain clout in the natural resources market, The New York Times reported. The board of Rio Tinto announced the decision after meeting in London on Thursday, saying the company had ended the deal it struck in February to sell the stake to China’s state-owned Aluminum Corporation of China, also known as Chinalco.

The Chinese bidder for Hummer says it plans to give the gas-guzzling vehicles new life by promoting the brand around the world, including China, and by investing in clean-engine technologies. However, little in the short history of Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. suggests how it might pull off the turnaround of General Motors Corp.'s Hummer brand, a collection of rugged sport-utility vehicles based on the concept of the U.S. military Humvee vehicle, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Rod Petricevic and Robert Roest, directors of the collapsed Bridgecorp Group of companies, are banned from directing or managing a company in New Zealand for five years, The National Business Review reported. The Deputy Registrar of Companies Peter Barker found the failings of Mr Petricevic and Mr Roest to be "serious and fundamental". The ban is separate from the criminal charges that Mr Petricevic and Mr Roest are also facing. Mr Barker said that nothing in his decisions altered any arguments made by Mr Petricevic or Mr Roest in any other proceedings.

Debt defaults by Asian companies so far this year have risen to the highest level since Asia was hit by the 1997-98 financial crisis and will likely rise even higher as the global recession hurts the region's export-dependent economies, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said Thursday. As of May 22, nine issuers out of Asia Pacific had defaulted, matching the historic high posted in 1998, S&P said. Defaults this year, all involving junk-grade companies, affected debt worth $7.3 billion.

New figures from both sides of the Tasman confirm that New Zealand exporters will continue to face hard times in their biggest market as the global economic crisis drags Australia into recession, The New Zealand Herald reported. New Zealand's transtasman trade suffered a 20.7 per cent hit in April - led by a halving in the value of crude oil - and the release of Australia's latest national accounts data tomorrow is expected to report a further contraction in gross domestic product for the March quarter.

General Motors Corp. reiterated Tuesday its operations in Thailand and Southeast Asia are unaffected by the bankruptcy filing in the U.S., Dow Jones Newswires reported. "GM Asia-Pacific, including GM Thailand and Asean, will be an important part of the New GM and will maintain normal business operations," Steve Carlisle, president of General Motors' Southeast Asia operations, told reporters. Read more. (Subscription required.)

General Motors Corp. may continue growing in China, its second-largest market, as ties with the city of Shanghai ease local drivers’ concerns about the automaker’s collapse into bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported. “In times of duress, it’s nice to have a 50-50 partnership with a very wealthy and powerful city,” said Michael Dunne, managing director of JD Power & Associates China, an automotive consultant.

A bond default by a Chinese timber company is the latest example of trouble emerging from complex debt deals that foreign investors rushed to strike in China during the past few years, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mandra Forestry Finance Ltd. missed a May 15 payment on $195 million in senior debt that was issued four years ago and matures in May 2013, the company said. Mandra said it is reviewing alternatives, which could include selling the firm.