Europe

Troubled memory-chip maker Qimonda AG on Sunday secured a rescue package of €325 million ($452 million) in loans from a German regional government, parent company Infineon and a Portuguese state bank, the Associated Press reported. The Economy Ministry in the German state of Saxony, where Qimonda has a major plant, said in a statement that it achieved a "breakthrough" when Portugal agreed to join the rescue package through its state investment bank. The company has a facility in Porto, Portugal.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it expects to post its first-ever operating loss in the fiscal year through March 2009 and barely eke out a net profit, showing how severely the global economic downturn is hitting even the world's most competitive companies, The Wall Street Journal reported. Japan's biggest company by market cap said it expects consolidated operating loss of ¥150 billion, or about $1.68 billion, in the fiscal year through March 31, 2009, hurt by sliding demand in the U.S., Europe and Japan and the rising yen against the dollar.

Ukraine’s hryvnia pared a record two-day plunge after the central bank said a rate above 9 per dollar was “unacceptable,” Bloomberg reported. The currency fell 1.7 percent to 9.1000 per dollar by 6:28 p.m. in Kiev. It pared an earlier 18 percent two-day drop to a record 9.78 after the central bank sold reserves to support the currency. Petro Poroshenko, head of the central bank council, said at a press conference a weak hryvnia is a threat to the economy.

Several former top Alitalia officials have been placed under investigation as part of a probe into the national carrier's bankruptcy earlier this year, the ANSA news agency reported Wednesday. ANSA said Rome prosecutor Nello Rossi had placed eight former top officials, including presidents and CEOs active from about 2000-2007, under investigation. Alitalia, which has been losing some $3 million a day, filed for bankruptcy protection in August, plagued by labor unrest, competition from budget airlines and high fuel prices.

Ukraine’s hryvnia plunged 17 percent in two days to a record low against the dollar as a pledge by President Viktor Yushchenko to support the currency failed to ease concern that most of the country’s loans risk default, Bloomberg reported. The currency fell 7 percent today, reaching 9.65 per dollar at 2:30 p.m. in Kiev, adding to a 44 percent drop this year. It continued to slide after Yushchenko said Ukraine will buy hryvnia and called for licenses to be revoked for lenders found speculating against the currency.

BNP Paribas bowed to the inevitable Thursday and said it was suspending its takeover of the Belgian financial services company Fortis, following a court ruling that effectively froze the deal, the International Herald Tribune reported. BNP Paribas had offered €14.5 billion, or $21 billion, for Fortis after the Belgian company neared collapse in the aftermath of the implosions of AIG and Lehman Brothers. But the Brussels Court of Appeals found on Dec.

A German bank has struck a deal with bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. regarding the exercise and liquidation of currency options contracts nominally worth €139 million, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. According to Judge James M. Peck's order Monday in the the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, if Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank AG exercises a currency option, the transaction will be deemed liquidated at the current market value.

Over 100 companies globally have defaulted on their debt this year, affecting $302 billion worth of securities, but that figure could rise as nearly 900 issuers are poised for credit downgrades, Standard & Poor's said on Monday. Of the 108 defaults this year, 86 are from the United States, seven from Europe, five each from Asia and Canada, three from Latin America, and two from Russia. The figure contrasts with 22 defaults in 2007 and 30 in 2006.

A Belgian appeals court on Friday froze several major deals made by the former Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis NV in October to ward off bankruptcy, Dutch media reported. Dutch national broadcaster NOS said the Brussels Appeals Court reversed earlier decisions upholding the sale of Fortis' operations in the Netherlands to the Dutch state, and Belgian operations to the Belgian state. The deals were not put to shareholders for approval as required under Dutch and Belgian law for transactions involving major operations, and shareholder groups later sued.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Man Group and Nomura on Monday joined a growing list of financial groups acknowledging exposure to the alleged $50 billion fraud surrounding Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff, Reuters reported. A report in the Financial Times said HSBC Holdings Plc had emerged as one of the largest victims, with potential exposure of about $1 billion. RBS said its potential loss could amount to some 400 million pounds ($595 million), if it assumed that the value of its assets in market-making firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC were nil.