Anglo American is preparing for a fight in South Africa over its restructuring plans as it considers whether to exit its investment in the country’s largest iron ore miner, the Financial Times reported. Kumba Iron Ore is on a long list of assets Anglo is considering putting up for sale as part of proposals outlined last week by Mark Cutifani, chief executive, to arrest the miner’s underperformance in a deepening commodities downturn. Mr Cutifani said Anglo must concentrate on its most profitable assets and could end up with a portfolio of about 20 mines from more than 50 today.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm will spend Christmas and the following two months in the maximum-security prison in Plymouth, south of Boston, after being denied bail, the Irish Times reported. A spokeswoman for Plymouth County Correctional Facility confirmed that they were holding the 49-year-old former banker. He is being held in custody pending his extradition in a Boston court in early March 2016. The Dubliner’s prisoner identity number is “68201.” The all-male prison holds about 1,000 county, state and federal inmates.

A deal to reduce Greece’s debt burden could include capping interest payments, extending debt maturities and linking debt repayments to economic growth, according to a paper drawn up by the eurozone’s bailout fund, The Wall Street Journal reported. The nine-page document, dated Aug. 10 and seen by The Wall Street Journal, was put together by the European Stability Mechanism, the Luxembourg-based eurozone bailout fund, and outlines different options to reduce Greece’s large debt load.

Matteo Renzi, Italy’s centre-left prime minister, is facing a political backlash over the €3.6bn rescue of four small banks last month, after thousands of retail investors who lost money in the deal have mounted increasingly vocal protests, the Financial Times reported. The public opposition has led Italian officials to consider the rare step of paying a “social subsidy” to the most financially vulnerable junior bondholders who took a hit in the agreement to save Banca Etruria, Banca Marche, CariFerrara and CariChieti.

Spanish engineering group Abengoa and creditor banks agreed on Thursday to put on hold an option of selling shares in its Abengoa Yield business as a means of raising money, two banking sources briefed on the talks said, Reuters reported. Abengoa, trying to avoid becoming Spain's biggest-ever bankruptcy, is negotiating a multi-million-euro lifeline with creditor banks which have asked the company to guarantee it with assets.

In recent years, investing in Greece has always been a bit of an all-or-nothing affair as the lure of sky-high returns has always been tempered by the very real prospect that you might lose your shirt, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. And so it was last week when a group of prominent investors came here to gauge whether, in the wake of Greece’s close brush with leaving the euro last summer, it was safe to invest in Greek assets again.

The Italian government will pocket over €4 billion ($4.4 billion) in proceeds from a tax amnesty it launched as part of a broad crack down on Italian money stashed abroad, The Wall Street Journal reported. The additional money will be a boon for the government, as it seeks to meet its budget targets amid a new slowdown in growth in the eurozone’s third-largest economy. However, doubts remain as to whether the amnesty will mark a real change in a country where tax evasion remains a scourge.

In theory, the outlook for Greece is better than anyone dared hope just a few months ago, The Wall Street Journal reported. Despite the trauma of the standoff between Athens and its creditors in the first half of the year, which culminated in the imposition of capital controls and the government’s 11th-hour acceptance of a new bailout, it now looks as though the economy will have flatlined in 2015, defying recent predictions of a 2.3% slump. Athens forecasts that the economy will shrink by just 0.7% next year and that growth will return in the second half of the year.

Spain's Abengoa needs 450 million euros ($496 million) in liquidity, adviser KPMG said in a meeting with creditor banks late on Wednesday although banks said the company needs less, a source present at the talks told Reuters. Abengoa, trying to avoid becoming Spain's biggest-ever bankruptcy, is negotiating a multimillion-euro lifeline with creditor banks which have asked the company to guarantee it with new assets.

Russia lashed out against the International Monetary Fund and the Ukrainian government on Wednesday as it prepares for a legal battle with Kiev over repayment of $3bn in Ukrainian debt, the Financial Times reported. Anton Siluanov, finance minister, said if Kiev failed to redeem the $3bn bond within 10 days of its December 20 maturity or accept a restructuring proposal tabled by President Vladimir Putin last month, Russia would sue Ukraine. “Well all right, go to court,” Mr Putin told Mr Siluanov in a televised government meeting.