Creditors for the parent company of collapsed discount store chain Chickenfeed are waiting to retrieve tens of millions of dollars, as lengthy proceedings to recover the funds are still in the early stages, The Examiner reported. Retail Adventures, owned by Tasmanian businesswoman Jan Cameron, was Australia's largest discount variety store operator but went into liquidation in February. Liquidators are now pursuing more than $100 million from Ms Cameron for insolvent trading, preferential payments and an invalid loan.

The Adelaide company that 18 months ago became the first to face a board spill under the controversial 'two strikes' rule on executive pay has fallen into voluntary administration with debts of more than $100 million, Business Spectator reported on an Australian story. Penrice Soda Holdings appointed McGrathNichol as a voluntary administrator to allow the business to continue to trade and to achieve fresh financing to continue its turnaround strategy under chief executive Guy Roberts.

Personal insolvency in Australia has increased by 6.1 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, despite the number of personal insolvency agreements being at their lowest since 2007, The Australian reported. The closures in the Victorian car manufacturing industry and the decline in the West Australian mining sector are being blamed for the results, with those states showing the highest increases in personal insolvency in statistics released by the Australian Financial Security Authority yesterday.

Australians are among angry bitcoin users taking legal action to recover millions of dollars in cash and virtual currency lost when Japan’s Mt Gox exchange crashed in February. The Australian can reveal that at least two Australians are part of a class action being prepared by London legal firm Selachii aimed at recovering lost money and bitcoin. Australians also are among those who have lost hundreds of bitcoins. Coffs Harbour-based Pantelis Roussakis said he had lost 222 bitcoins.

A tough retail environment has claimed another victim, with the collapse of an 80-year-old family-owned jewellery store chain, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Bevilles, which employs about 477 people across 27 stores, has entered voluntary administration.More than half its staff reportedly face redundancy. The retail sector has been hit with a wave of collapses since the financial crisis, especially in fashion, including stores such as Brown Sugar, Bettina Liano, Ed Harry, Ojay, Colorado, Snowgum and Fletcher Jones.

A disproportionate number of ACT companies, including those in construction, are going broke because they are under-capitalised, according to liquidator Eddie Senatore, who has more than 25 years' experience in insolvency, The Canberra Times reported. This occurs when a company cannot afford operational expenses because of a lack of capital. For the ACT, the problem accounts for 16 per cent of insolvencies, almost twice the national average at 9 per cent.

A disproportionate number of ACT companies, including those in construction, are going broke because they are under-capitalised, according to liquidator Eddie Senatore, who has more than 25 years' experience in insolvency, The Canberra Times reported. This occurs when a company cannot afford operational expenses because of a lack of capital. For the ACT, the problem accounts for 16 per cent of insolvencies, almost twice the national average at 9 per cent.

National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB) fell in Sydney trading after flagging a possible increase in provisions at its British operations, overshadowing a 7 percent increase in first-quarter profit, Bloomberg News reported. Shares of Australia’s biggest bank by assets slid as much as 2.8 percent, the biggest intraday decline in three months, and traded 1.9 percent lower at A$34.50 at 11:53 a.m. in Sydney. Provisions for some tailored business loans and compensation to U.K. customers for wrongly sold payment-protection insurance may rise, the Melbourne-based lender said in a statement today.

Australia’s unemployment rate climbed to the highest in more than 10 years in January, spurring traders to pare bets on an interest-rate increase and sending the Aussie to its biggest drop in almost three weeks. The jobless rate rose to 6 percent from 5.8 percent, the statistics bureau said in Sydney. The median estimate was an increase to 5.9 percent in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. The number of people employed fell by 3,700. International carmakers Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co.

Insolvency firm Ferrier Hodgson has been appointed as voluntary administrator by the board of bankrupt contractor Forge Group, sources close to the situation told The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk. The next step is that lender ANZ Banking Group will take control by appointing KordaMentha as receiver. ANZ extended Forge an additional $11 million line of credit in the past fortnight, which was being used to pay Forge employees and for other working capital expenses.