An Essen court will decide Tuesday if it will grant another extension for billionaire investor Nicholas Berggruen and creditors of retailer Karstadt to continue sales negotiations for the insolvent German department store chain, a spokesman for Karstadt's insolvency administrator said Sunday, Dow Jones reported. Berggruen and Karstadt's creditors were unlikely to reach an agreement on Berggruen's takeover plan for Karstadt before a midnight Sunday deadline to sign a contract.

Bankruptcy decisions made by US courts could be enforceable in England and Wales after an important court ruling that lawyers say could have implications for former UK clients of collapsed bank Lehman Brothers and those of the fraudster Bernard Madoff, the Financial Times reported. The Court of Appeal recently ruled in the case of a trust created by Eurofinance SA that English courts could recognise overseas insolvency proceedings made by US courts. Previously US bankruptcy judgments were not enforceable in the UK unless a separate UK action had been started on the same grounds.

A U.S. federal magistrate has shielded Nortel Networks Corp. from action by U.K. pension regulators who fear the troubled company will walk away from obligations to 40,000 retirees, leaving a $3.4 billion funding shortfall, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Recommendations issued Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge relieve the company of worry that the U.K.'s Pension Regulator will intrude as Nortel negotiates a bankruptcy exit plan, at least until a federal district judge reviews and acts on Thynge's recommendations.

Center Nalozbe, one of the troubled financial firms in what is considered to have been a management buyout chain at brewery Pivovarna Lasko, will go into receivership after efforts for court-mandated debt settlement failed, STA, the Slovenian Press Agency, reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

The number of people seeking employment assistance from the State continued to rise in July, with the Live Register jumping by 8,500 during the month and the unemployment rate rising to 13.7 per cent, its highest in 16 years, The Irish Times reported. The Central Statistics Office said the adjusted Live Register rose to 452,500 last month, with a net figure of about 1,700 more people signing on each week. This brings the unadjusted increase in the year to July to 34,403, a rise of 8 per cent. This compares with the increase of 9 per cent, or 37,420, recorded in June.

The trial of a lawsuit by Lyondell Chemical Co. creditors against billionaire Len Blavatnik that claims a 2007 merger drove the company into bankruptcy is set to begin in New York next month, Bloomberg reported. Summonses were filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan listing Blavatnik and 41 other people and companies that allegedly played a role in Lyondell’s takeover by Luxembourg-based Basell AF SCA. A pretrial conference is set for Sept. 13.

Greece met all its targets under an austerity plan mapped out by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, according to the external agencies monitoring the program, but they warned that overspending by local governments, hospitals and social-security funds were offsetting a better-than-planned fiscal performance by central government, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Shares in AIB fell sharply on the Dublin market today as the bank reported increased losses in the first half of the year, with bad debts increasing over the period, The Irish Times reported. The bank's stock fell as much as 13 per cent in early trade before regaining some ground to trade 5.6 per cent down at 93 cent by 5pm. The bank recorded a pre-tax loss of just over €2 billion for first half of the year, with its Irish operations posting a €2.3 billion loss before provisions.

Ireland’s Financial Regulator has appointed independent consultants to review Ireland's credit unions in a bid to curtail rising bad debts and mounting losses in the sector, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. The move comes amid fears about the scale of bad debt in the sector after it was revealed earlier this year that a number of credit unions around the State face serious solvency issues. Last week, the Central Bank and the regulator announced the appointment of Grant Thornton to carry out the large-scale review, which was requested by Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan.

Borletti Group's new offer to acquire insolvent German retailer Karstadt includes a €100 million investment and wouldn't separate the department chain into several units, as proposed by investor Nicholas Berggruen in June, the Italian group's head, Maurizio Borletti, said Wednesday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Berggruen won a bid to acquire Karstadt in June, but the deal is contingent on reaching agreements on rental and other conditions with Karstadt's creditors. The final agreement has been held up as Berggruen and creditors discuss formal details ahead of an Aug.