Europe

According to information from Creditinfo Iceland, 5,938 companies and 17,541 individuals were in default on January 1, Iceland Review reported. said. According to Rakel Sveinsdóttir, managing director of Creditinfo Iceland, default claims had increased slowly but surely for a year before the collapse of the Icelandic economy in October. After that the speed of new defaults being registered increased fivefold. The Central Bank of Iceland has requested data from the Icelandic banks on the debts of individuals and companies to examine the effect the crisis has on the real economy.

U.S. private-equity firm KPS Capital Partners LP has signed a letter of intent to acquire certain assets of Waterford Wedgwood PLC, the historic crystal and ceramic maker that filed for insolvency this week, the group's administrators, Deloitte LLP, said Thursday. Deloitte said it was continuing to talk to other potential buyers as well, The Wall Street Journal reported. Deloitte and KPS officials said they couldn't comment on the size of the potential deal.

Clifford Chance LLP has disclosed that the economic downturn may force it to lay off up to 8 percent of the lawyers currently at its London office, the third round of layoffs at the firm in the past year or so, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. “Our clients and their legal services needs have undergone significant change over the past year,” said Jeremy Sandelson, London regional managing partner. “We need to reflect that in the London office, and that includes ensuring that our level of staffing is appropriate for today's economic realities.

Bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s affiliate Luxembourg Residential Properties Loan Finance filed for bankruptcy court protection in New York, Bloomberg reported. The Chapter 11 petition lists assets and debt of more than $1 billion each. According to court documents, the Luxembourg-based company is affiliated with Lehman Brothers and seeks to be consolidated with Lehman’s bankruptcy case. Luxembourg Trading Finance S.a.r.l. owns 100 percent of the affiliate’s equity, according to court documents. Lehman filed the largest bankruptcy in history on Sept.

Litigators from the London office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges have been retained by Kaupthing bank for an expected civil suit against the British government, The AmLaw Daily reported. The Reykjavik-based bank, which was nationalized in October, claims that it collapsed because U.K. authorities forced its British subsidiary into bankruptcy at the height of the banking crisis. Read more.

The Irish government has indicated that it may be ready to help current and former Ireland-based employees of Waterford Wedgwood to secure their pensions, after the luxury tableware company was put into receivership this week, the Financial Times reported. Waterford Wedgwood had a pension deficit of €111 million (£100 million) on October 4 which, together with its debts of just less than €450 million, are seen as the main issue for any prospective buyer.

Russia's gas price dispute with Ukraine escalated Tuesday, disrupting deliveries to the European Union in the midst of a bitter cold spell, with a number of countries reporting that gas supplies had been suspended or reduced, and Germany predicting a possible shortage, the International Herald Tribune reported. Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia, Turkey, Greece, the Czech Republic and Austria reported that gas supplies had been suspended or reduced after Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, reduced gas shipments through Ukraine.

Japan's Sony Corp is likely to announce closures of Japanese factories and major divisions early next month, the Times of London said on Monday, but the company denied any such plan existed. The maker of Bravia flat TVs and PlayStation video game consoles faces halting sales and mounting piles of inventory in the wake of the financial crisis, even as a stronger yen bites into earnings.

Iceland's state-run Kaupthing bank will sue the British government for its decision to force the bank's British subsidiary into a form of bankruptcy, the Icelandic Prime Minister's office said Tuesday. The committee appointed to run Kaupthing, which collapsed last autumn, is taking Britain to court because it forced the unit Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander into administration at the height of Iceland's financial crisis, according to the prime minister's press secretary, the Associated Press reported.

Talks to salvage Waterford Wedgwood were under way with at least three US parties on Monday night after the owner of the historic crystal and porcelain brands was forced into receivership, the Financial Times reported. Lenders, led by Bank of America, called in their loans to the company, which can trace its roots back to 1759, after talks with a US private equity investor collapsed at the weekend.