An Italian labor union said it may appeal a Rome court ruling to declare ferry operator Tirrenia di Navigazione SpA insolvent and will fight against the state-owned company’s breakup, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. “We fear that after the insolvency, Tirrenia will be broken up into many companies, hurting its service and workforce,” Giuseppe Caronia, general secretary of the Uil Trasporti union, said. “We have nothing against the company’s sale in one piece to investors willing to keep the jobs and a state stake.” Uil Trasporti has called a strike on Aug.

Bondholders who own the debt of insolvent German retailer Karstadt's properties have called another special meeting in London on Sept. 2 to discuss some of the terms of billionaire investor Nicholas Berggruen's takeover offer, according to a notice from the group reviewed by Dow Jones. The bondholder group, which represents senior class A noteholders in the Fleet Street Finance Two PLC securitization, has called the meeting ahead of an Essen court deadline to reach an agreement with Berggruen over his takeover plan by midnight Sept. 2.

Youth unemployment across the world has climbed to a new high and is likely to climb further this year, a United Nations agency said Thursday, while warning of a “lost generation” as more young people give up the search for work, The New York Times reported. The agency, the International Labor Organization, said in a report that of some 620 million young people ages 15 to 24 in the work force, about 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009 — the highest level in two decades of record-keeping by the organization, which is based in Geneva.

McInerney Holdings, one of the country's oldest house builders, is fighting for survival this week as it aims to strike a deal which would restructure its €236 million debt pile, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. The company is the latest in a long line of construction firms to be hit by the slump in property prices and the collapse in construction activity. At latest count, construction firms accounted for one in three insolvencies in Ireland.

The McCormick Macnaughton Caterpillar dealership in the Republic has been taken over by Canadian firm Finning, but the group’s rental businesses have ceased trading, The Irish Times reported. Assets belonging to three rental-related companies in the McCormick Macnaughton group, including three premises, will be sold off at an auction scheduled for September 4th. Management at Finning, the world’s largest Caterpillar dealer, took over the running of the dealership in west Dublin on Monday.

U.K. banks and other creditors are speeding up commercial-property sales of distressed assets partly because they are concerned the recent increase in prices may be leveling off, The Wall Street Journal reported. But buyers shouldn't expect cheap property to flood the market and reduce prices. While banks will accelerate property sales, they will continue to sell assets in an orderly manner to protect prices in a recovering market, observers said. The assets coming on the market include distressed real estate taken over as well as troubled loans whose borrowers have defaulted.

VAT Nadra Bank, under temporary administration by Ukraine’s central bank, said it finished restructuring foreign debt as the lender seeks to qualify for government aid, Bloomberg reported. Nadra, based in Kiev, has restructured $877 million of international obligations, including Eurobonds, the bank said today on its website, without providing the terms of its agreement with creditors. Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tigipko said May 21 that the government was ready to help the bank once the international debt was restructured.

Like a shipwrecked sailor on a starvation diet, the new British coalition government is preparing to shrink down to its bare bones as it cuts expenditures by $130 billion over the next five years and drastically scales back its responsibilities, The New York Times reported. The result, said the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a research group, will be “the longest, deepest sustained period of cuts to public services spending” since World War II. Until recently, the cuts were just election talking points, early warnings of a new age of austerity. But now the pain has begun.

The Duchess of York is doing "everything she can" to avoid bankruptcy as she struggles to manage debts running into millions of pounds, The Guardian reported. Sarah Ferguson has paid off all her personal debts, her spokesman said, and her business debts – some of which are disputed – were "being managed", although voluntary bankruptcy was still an option. Ferguson's money woes became public after a newspaper claimed her personal and business debts had risen to almost £5m, prompting fears in the royal family that bankruptcy was now her best option.

With loan default rates continuing to cause headaches for banks, it seems an increasing number of lenders are dabbling in debt-for-equity swaps as a viable alternative to insolvency, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. As the downturn continues to bite, and investors as scarce as hen's teeth, there's very little appetite for business assets in Ireland at the moment. Fire-sales can result in lower loan recoveries and because of this, liquidation is often not the best option for banks who wish to recover some of the debts owed to them when companies default on loans.