Premier Hotels Ltd, one of the subsidiaries of hotel management firm Prem Group, is facing liquidation after failing to agree a deal on a six-figure rent arrears bill with one of its landlords, The Irish Times reported. The company, which was a joint venture with developer Paddy Kelly and his family until they exited last year, has called a creditors’ meeting for early next month to appoint a liquidator. The company’s latest accounts only show figures for the year 2007 when it lost €245,000 before tax.

PCCW and its chairman's privately owned fund plan to rescue debt-laden Vivacom, Bulgaria's biggest fixed-line operator, by jointly investing €180 million ($232 million) in return for a 51 percent stake, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. PCCW executive director Alex Arena met Vivacom's senior lenders on June 22 to discuss the matter, the South China Morning Post reported, citing people with direct knowledge of the meeting. It was unclear how much of the investment would come from PCCW, the paper said.

The Commercial Court has agreed to fast-track a landmark legal challenge by a developer against the National Assets Management Agency. The legal challenge by businessman Paddy McKillen and several of his companies presents a "very real threat" to the vital work of the Agency, the court heard on Monday, with the State arguing that the matter must be decided urgently, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. McKillen and 15 of his companies are seeking to prevent the transfer of €90 million worth of loans from Bank of Ireland to NAMA, claiming that the loans are not impaired.

What is the definition of a failed stress-test exercise? If you're an investment banker, the answer is simple: one that doesn't lead to any lucrative mandates to raise bank equity, The Wall Street Journal Heard on the Street blog reported. On that basis, the European exercise, whose results are due Friday, looks doomed. Finance ministers from several countries under the most scrutiny, including Greece and Spain, have been quick to declare their banking systems sound.

The stress test conducted on nationalized German lender Hypo Real Estate uncovered a possible capital shortfall of €2 billion ($2.59 billion) under adverse circumstances, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Hypo Real Estate is thus the first bank to appear to fail a test of its soundness conducted by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors, which also is reviewing the health of 90 other major banks. However, analysts said the result is far from surprising and says little about how the overall process will play out.

George Osborne and Vince Cable will spell out next week the dangers of a double-dip recession caused by a drying up of bank lending to Britain's hard-pressed small and medium-sized businesses, The Guardian reported. A green paper, to be rushed out by the chancellor and business secretary before next week's parliamentary recess, will acknowledge the scale of the lending rationing crisis, which could "abort" the fragile recovery.

HBJ Gateley Wareing's partnership has approved the firm's purchase of Halliwells' Manchester commercial practice, LegalWeek.com reported. The acquisition was confirmed by a partnership vote held last Friday. The Halliwells commercial practice covers employment, intellectual property, construction, corporate, pensions and corporate recovery, and accounts for more than 300 members of staff.

Greece raised €1.95 billion ($2.53 billion) in a debt auction Tuesday, passing its second market test in a week ahead of a key fiscal checkup by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, the Associated Press reported. The sale came a week after Greece tapped the market for the first time since receiving joint EU and IMF rescue loans, selling €1.625 billion in 26-week bills at a 4.65 percent yield. Debt-ridden Greece narrowly avoided bankruptcy in May and was pledged up to €110 billion in rescue loans from the IMF and the 15 other EU countries using the euro.

Online reservation company 1800Hotels has continued to make “numerous” holiday bookings even after seeking bankruptcy protection last Tuesday, a leading US travel company has claimed to a Florida court, The Irish Times reported. Mark Travel, which handles reservations for major tour operators, said the firm’s Dublin-based parent company was trying to compel it to take these bookings without showing any ability to pay. The bankruptcy laws were supposed to act “as a shield, not a sword.

The results of European Union stress tests designed to uncover the depth of rot in the continent's banking system come out later this week - and an accurate reading would go far to answer the key question of whether Europe's debt crisis is finally over, the Associated Press reported. Some experts expect gloom whatever the result: Bad news could send markets into a tailspin again. Too rosy a picture, on the other hand, may alarm investors that the tests have not been rigorous enough.