Europe

European countries still deal with insolvent firms far more harshly than America does, and most such firms end up in liquidation, a recent Economist analysis found. They often treat creditors badly too, meaning that neither side ends up satisfied. Observers worry that Europe will cope with the coming flood of defaults far less effectively than America, meaning a slower recovery. In recent years several European countries have tried to change their systems so that companies have a better chance of survival.

Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz said on Tuesday it has published its 2007 audited accounts, allowing it to avoid technical default on a $500 million Eurobond, Reuters reported. Bondholders had agreed in November to extend the deadline for receiving the accounts--one of the conditions of the bond--until the end of this year after the financially ailing company missed a summer deadline.

China's Lenovo Group, the world's No.4 personal computer maker, is considering a restructuring because of tough economic conditions, China Business News reported on Wednesday. The influential business newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying Lenovo might merge its Greater China and Russia operations with its Asia Pacific operations. David Miller, president for the Asia Pacific region, is expected to resign and Chen Shaopeng, now president of the Greater China region, would head the merged operations, the newspaper said.

Little Bird, a Dublin film company whose credits include Bridget Jones’s Diary, Into the West and Ordinary Decent Criminal, has gone into receivership after failing to raise funds, The Sunday Business Post reported. Kieran Wallace, an accountant with KPMG in Dublin, has been installed as receiver of Little Bird Holdings. The group consists of 32 companies in five countries, many of which are continuing to trade.

British children's clothing retailer Adams Childrenswear Ltd. is on the brink of a form of bankruptcy protection, a spokeswoman for the 75-year-old company said Monday, which would make Adams the latest well-known British retailer to fall victim to the economic downturn. The spokeswoman said the central England-based kids clothing retailer had applied to go into administration on Wednesday and was expected to be placed in the hands of administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers on Monday.

The Financial Times reported that, as a symbol of the extraordinary boom of the past decade, the rise of the big emerging economies rivalled the soaring US housing market. China led the way, followed at a slower pace by the likes of India and Brazil. Though they tried to insulate themselves against the boom-bust cycle by building up foreign exchange reserves, no amount of inoculation could render them completely immune to the virulence of the financial contagion that swept the world in September and October.

Britain's economic downturn claimed another prominent retailer Wednesday as music, games and DVD retail chain Zavvi filed for a form of bankruptcy protection, blaming the collapse of the Woolworth Group's distribution arm, the Associated Press reported. Ernst & Young administrators, appointed to run the company, said that they would continue to trade "with a view to selling all or part of its business as a going concern." Zavvi, created by a management buyout of the Virgin Megastores just over a year ago, is Britain's largest independent entertainment retailer.

Italian airport officials say 14 flights at Rome's main airport have been canceled because Alitalia ground workers are in union meetings, the Associated Press reported. The officials say the flights, including eight destined for other countries, were scrapped Monday morning at the peak of the Christmas holiday season at Leonardo da Vinci airport. The workers are protesting hiring procedures by the new Alitalia, which is launching on Jan. 12 after a group of Italian investors officially took possession of the bankrupt company's profitable assets.

King Albert II of Belgium named a former premier to begin consultations on forming a new government after Prime Minister Yves Leterme was toppled by the financial crisis, Bloomberg reported. Wilfried Martens, 72, who ran nine Belgian coalitions from 1979 to 1992, was tapped by the monarch to take soundings from political leaders and report back “quickly” with recommendations, according to a statement late yesterday. Leterme quit over his cabinet’s role in the breakup of Fortis, knocked from its perch as Belgium’s biggest financial-services firm by the banking crisis.

Ireland's finance ministry said it will inject €5.5 billion ($7.66 billion) into three banks and take large stakes in them, days after a loan-accounting scandal at Anglo Irish Bank Corp. further weakened the country's already fragile banking sector, The Wall Street Journal reported. The government said it would make an initial investment of €1.5 billion in Anglo Irish in exchange for preference shares that will give it 75% of the voting rights of the bank.