Dubai International Capital, the private equity arm of the Gulf Arab emirate, said it will focus on bringing German aluminium maker Almatis out of bankruptcy after a long-running battle with a dissident lender ended, Reuters Africa reported. Oaktree Capital Management LP withdrew its opposition to DIC's plan to retain control of the bankrupt firm after a settlement offer was leaked. Oaktree and Dubai have been battling over the best way to refinance Almatis, which filed for bankruptcy in the United States with more than $1 billion in debt, for the past year.

The new Northern Rock Plc retail bank, born from the ashes of the original lender which was Britain's first major credit crisis casualty, posted a maiden loss on Tuesday and saw deposits plunge by a tenth, Reuters reported. State-owned Northern Rock Plc, which manages new mortgages and savings, posted a loss of 140 million pounds ($216.5 million) for the six months ending June, due partly to costs for its spin-off from the original company.

Cash flow problems remain rife among small businesses as banks continue to restrict credit, according to the Small Firms Association (SFA), The Irish Times reported. The representative group for small business in Ireland has repeated its calls for Government intervention, arguing in its autumn economic statement there is “clearly a market failure” in the provision of loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). One-fifth of its members have seen the amount of working capital available to them decrease in the last three months, said the SFA.

Wind Hellas is reviewing initial offers for the group as it restructures its debt for the second time in eight months, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The troubled Greek telecommunications company has received preliminary expressions of interest in the group, it said in a statement released late Monday. The company, suffering under the Greek government's austerity measures, said it would consider a sale or investment offer as part of its restructuring. Potential investors have until Sept. 15 to make a binding offer for the company.

Banks are finally getting tough with private equity. They have taken control of almost €50 billion ($65 billion) of private-equity-backed companies in Europe since the beginning of 2009 as a result of those companies defaulting on their debt, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. This activist approach is a reversal from the times when banks were more inclined to let financial sponsors off the hook than play hardball with them, according to bankers working in restructuring.

Oaktree Capital Management LP is willing to give up its fight for control of Almatis BV, a bankrupt aluminum maker, for full payment of its loans and an end to threatened legal action, according to a "confidential" court filing on Monday, Reuters reported. In a letter dated July 27 to an Almatis lawyer, Oaktree's lawyer outlined six conditions for ending Oaktree's battle with Dubai International Capital LLC over the European aluminum company.

A U.K. Court of Appeal ruled in favor of hedge funds that maintained their client money, held in the main European arm of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., wasn't properly protected when the investment bank collapsed, The Wall Street Journal reported. The development is the latest aspect of the complex effort to return cash and other assets to Lehman's clients after the bank failed in September 2008. Lehman's bankruptcy, with more than $600 billion in total assets, ranks as the largest U.S. corporate failure.

AIB’s pretax losses could be as high as €3 billion when the bank releases its interim results this week – a key week for the European banking sector as a range of banks provide updates on impairment charges, capital strength and cost reduction programmes, The Irish Times reported. The extent of the decline in the bank’s pre-provision operating profits and its update on impairments to development loans that have not been transferred to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) are set to be under the spotlight on Wednesday.

The four-star Osprey Hotel and Spa in Naas has become the latest hospitality victim of the recession as failures in the sector continue to mount, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. AIB appointed a receiver over Naas Developments Limited, the company behind the hotel, last week. The Leinster area appears to be bearing the brunt of the hospitality downturn and the latest appointment brings to eight the number of hotels which have entered receivership in the area in recent months.

Two decades after embarking on perhaps the most dramatic – and chaotic – privatisation drive in history, Russia is planning to sell stakes in major state companies to help balance its budget and restructure its economy, reversing a recent policy of boosting Kremlin control over big business, The Irish Times reported.