Australia

Criminal charges have been laid against Lombard Finance & Investments directors Sir Douglas Graham, Michael Reeves, William Jeffries and Lawrence Bryant, The National Business Review reported. The Securities Commission has confirmed the criminal charges, ending earlier speculation, and said the new charges relate to the same allegations as the civil proceedings announced earlier this week.

Forest Enterprises Australia Ltd (FEA) has entered voluntary administration, with the troubled timber plantations operator bemoaning a supposed lack of patience among its bankers, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on an Australian Associated Press story. FEA, which had expected to report an operating loss for the half year ended December 31, 2009, said on Wednesday that its revenue over the past 18 months had been hurt by the impact of the global financial crisis on markets for forestry investment, timber and export wood fibre.

Entellect Solutions’ plans to become a major player in the education software sector has suffered a set back, with wholly owned subsidiary MXL Consolidated being placed into voluntary administration, Computerworld Australia reported. The deal is a major blow as MXL, a provider of web-based student administration and curriculum management software, is responsible for conducting the significant majority of trading operations of the Entellect group.

Wilbur Ross, the billionaire US turnaround specialist, has bought a 21 per cent stake in Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Money for £100 million as the group prepares to make a major assault on the UK banking market, The Scotsman reported. Ross, nicknamed the "King of Bankruptcy", is also prepared to pump in "hundreds of millions" more to fund acquisitions, including Virgin's £2 billion bid for 318 Royal Bank of Scotland branches. Virgin will join Clydesdale Bank owner National Australia Bank and Santander in submitting a bid for the RBS assets ahead of tomorrow's deadline.

Lehman Brothers Australia Ltd. will remain in liquidation after the High Court of Australia ruled Tuesday against an arrangement that would have left creditors with small recoveries on complex structured debt products and also would have also prevented creditors from suing Lehman entities, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The City of Swan, in Perth, and the Parkes and Wingecarribie councils in New South Wales state all lost millions of dollars investing in Lehman's structured products prior to the firm's collapse in September 2008.

The Australian company behind denim fashion label ksubi has restructured the business after a period of voluntary administration, CBC News’ Trading Room reported. ksubi Pty Ltd said on Friday the company was now controlled by a consortium of industry-experienced management, including investor Harry Hodge, co-founders Dan Single and George Gorrow, and shareholders of Bleach Pty Ltd. "In January 2010 ksubi entered into voluntary administration through Grant Thornton in an effort to restructure and consolidate the denim fashion label's business," ksubi said in a statement on Friday.

The Australian arm of recruitment advertising firm TMP Worldwide was placed into voluntary administration on Wednesday after falling victim to the global financial crisis, industry publication Recruiter reported. According to a report in The Australian newspaper, around 200 jobs are at risk at six locations around the country.

The window has reopened for Canberra to acquire the water rights to the nation's biggest irrigator, southwest Queensland's Cubbie cotton station, if voluntary administrators fail to sell the struggling operation. As floodwaters poured into massive dams that can hold enough water to fill Sydney Harbour, promising two full crops of cotton worth up to $280 million, sources told The Australian the administrators were negotiating with the federal government.

Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank president, is returning early from a conference in Australia to take part in a summit meeting of European leaders this week, amid speculation over possible action to ease the debt crisis several countries are facing, The New York Times reported. Mr. Trichet will attend the meeting Thursday of the European Council called by Herman Van Rompuy, the bloc’s first full-time president, an E.C.B. spokesman said Tuesday. He said Mr. Trichet was only invited to the meeting on Monday. The E.C.B.

Australian firms will find it easier to sell bonds in the U.S. after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government said it would reverse a court decision that ranked shareholders equally with creditors, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. said, BusinessWeek reported. Some U.S. private placement investors had put Australian bonds into the “too-hard basket” on concerns that the Sons of Gwalia ruling would lower their ranking in the event of a default, ANZ head of debt capital markets Brad Scott said in a Feb. 5 briefing to investors.