Halliwells' now infamous Spinningfields property deal is being investigated as the administration of the now-defunct law firm enters its next phase, LegalWeek.com reported. The Spinningfields landlord, Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM), is seeking advice from Eversheds real estate litigation partner Will Densham to see if any money can be recovered from Halliwells. This includes looking over the controversial multimillion-pound payout received by Halliwells' equity partners in 2007. Halliwells took out a 25-year lease on the building at 3 Hardman Square, of which 23 years remain.

European speculative-grade companies are expected to be able to refinance $316 billion of debt maturing in the next four years to 2014 in the high yield bond market together with bank funding, rating agency Moody's Investors Service Inc. said in a report Tuesday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The European high-yield bond market has boomed in 2010 as lower-rated companies have refinanced existing debts and investors jumped on the opportunity to top up their low returns in the current low-yield environment.

French strikers are extending their protest against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposed overhaul of the pension system as the government rebuffed calls to drop its plan to increase the retirement age, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported. The Paris metro and long-distance trains will be disrupted for a second day after some unions opted to stay off the job, as did port workers in Marseille. The government said it won’t back down on a plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60, saying it’s necessary to save the pension system.

Singapore billionaire Peter Lim increased his offer for Premier League soccer club Liverpool FC to £320 million ($508 million), hoping to trump a bid by New England Sports Ventures LLC of the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported. Meanwhile, lawyers for current co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett said in a London court that they had received a bid from a U.S. hedge fund, as they tried to prevent Liverpool's board from completing a sale of the club to NESV. The board last week voted to accept a roughly £300 million bid from U.S.

Galway-based Airline Aer Arann has signed an investment agreement which should ensure the survival of the company as a going concern, the High Court heard yesterday, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Speaking at a hearing on the progress of Aer Arann’s examinership process, counsel for the Examiner, Rossa Fanning said that a signed investment agreement had been executed. The plans should result in Aer Arann leaving examinership. The agreement is with the Stobart Group, a listed UK logistics company, which announced that it was heading a consortium that was investing in the airline.

Greece's deficit-reduction efforts are starting to bear fruit in the debt markets, where the nation sold a batch of short-term bills at a yield lower than a previous, similar auction, The Wall Street Journal reported. Hungary, which isn't a member of the 16-nation euro zone, also cut its funding costs at an auction Tuesday, as investors appeared increasingly confident about the government's pledge to bring the budget deficit to below 3% of gross domestic product in 2011, from this year's target of 3.8% of GDP.

The battle for control of Liverpool went to court on Tuesday, with a bank trying to force through the sale of the Premier League club to the owners of the Boston Red Sox over the objection of the current American owners, the Associated Press reported. Royal Bank of Scotland, which holds the bulk of Liverpool's debt, is seeking a court order preventing co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. from removing two of the three rival board members supporting a 300 million-pound ($476 million) sale to the Boston group.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has given itself increased power to limit individual banks’ borrowing from its lending operations, The Irish Times reported. The bank changed its rules following an annual review, but made the move while talks are continuing about the need to tackle the dependency of some institutions on ECB funds. Five Irish banks, State-controlled Anglo Irish and AIB, and Bank of Ireland, Irish Nationwide and the EBS, will be seeking cash from the ECB in return for around €35 billion worth of bonds from State toxic assets agency, Nama.

Only months after two emergency rescues and a wrenching series of mergers among Spanish cajas de ahorros or savings banks, a second round of consolidation is being predicted by the country’s bankers, officials and financial analysts, the Financial Times reported. With Spain’s economy still stagnant after the global crisis and the collapse of the domestic housing bubble, commercial banks and unlisted cajas have been amassing unwanted real estate on their books, while bad loan ratios rise and the pie of profitable banking business continues to shrink.

Former Arcandor AG Chief Executive Officer Thomas Middelhoff’s home and office were searched yesterday as part of a probe into the company’s bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported. Bochum prosecutors are investigating about 20 people over Arcandor’s demise, Gerrit Gabriel, a spokesman for prosecutors, said in an interview today. Investigators raided premises at nine sites throughout Germany, he said. Cologne prosecutors are leading a related probe, he said.