Headlines

British builder Kier Group on Wednesday reported a 14.5 percent slump in first-half underlying earnings on higher expenses, a day after it hired former Carillion CEO-designate to run the company, Reuters reported. Underlying operating earnings fell to 51.8 million pounds for the six months ended Dec. 31 from 60.6 million pounds, as administrative costs jumped nearly 35 percent to 202 million pounds during the period.

Less than a year after Greece emerged from a multibillion-euro international bailout, Athens is witnessing an investor boom, the International New York Times reported. Hip new hotels with Acropolis views are dotting the skyline. Construction workers are tearing into dwellings owned by Greeks needing cash and converting them swiftly to short-term rentals, Airbnbs or fancy new homes for foreigners.

For Irish businesses and for the Government’s Brexit economic planning, the latest events threaten that the uncertainty will just roll on, perhaps into the latter part of next week, just before Brexit is scheduled on March 29th, The Irish Times reported. They also show that the risk of a disruptive no-deal Brexit is not off the table.

The financial woes of Dogus Holding AS are only getting worse even as the Turkish owner of the Salt Bae steakhouse chain goes on a selling spree to help restructure debt, Bloomberg News reported. The Istanbul-based investment-holding group, controlled by Turkish billionaire Ferit Sahenk, has been disposing mainly of hotels over the past year as part of a December agreement with lenders to renegotiate the terms on $2.5 billion of debt.

An economic slowdown and extremely tight credit conditions pushed corporate debt to a record high in China last year, according to experts, CNBC reported. Defaults for Chinese corporate bonds — issued in both U.S. dollars and the Chinese yuan — soared last year, according to numbers from two banks. Yuan-denominated debt rose to an “unprecedented” 119.6 billion yuan ($17.8 billion) — four times more than 2017, according to a February report by Singapore bank DBS.

State Bank of India’s (SBI) chairman said on Wednesday that putting Jet Airways into bankruptcy is the “last option” and that its lenders are making every effort to keep the airline flying, Gulf News reported. “We believe that it is in everybody’s interest that Jet Airways continues to fly,” SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar told reporters after a meeting with government officials, adding that placing Jet into bankruptcy would mean grounding the airline.

Fonterra went into the black in its first half but the co-op faces an uphill battle to meet its earnings forecasts for the year while it reduces debt and streamlines its operations. The dairy giant reported net profit of $80 million in six months to January, up from a loss of $348m a year earlier, but said its net earnings before interest and tax dropped by 29 per cent to $323m, The New Zealand Herald reported. Newly-appointed chief executive Miles Hurrell said the result was "not be where it should be".

Two former senior executives with the Quinn group are “very reluctant” witnesses in the action by Sean Quinn’s adult children disputing any liability under guarantees for loans of more than €415 million, the High Court has been told, The Irish Times reported. Dara O’Reilly and Liam McCaffrey had left the Quinn group after companies were sold, are now employed by the new owners of Quinn Industrial Holdings and both have been subject to “threats and acts of violence”, their counsel Ross Gorman said.

The European Union’s top antitrust regulator is facing calls to resign after a “historic” court ruling involving a small Italian lender upended Brussels’ approach to bank rescues and prompted calls for compensation, Reuters reported. In a blow to EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, EU judges ruled on Tuesday that Italy’s plan for the rescue of Tercas bank five years ago was legal, overturning the Commission’s earlier decision that had forced the recouping of financial aid to the lender.

Stores are closing daily on the U.K.’s shopping streets in a crisis reminiscent of the U.S. retail apocalypse, and there’s no sign of a bottom, Bloomberg News reported. The latest casualties include Kate Middleton’s fashion favorite L.K. Bennett, cake baker Patisserie Valerie and entertainment retailer HMV, which has collapsed into insolvency twice. Department-store chain Debenhams Plc is shutting dozens of outlets as it fights billionaire Mike Ashley’s bid for management control. Rival House of Fraser is shrinking after being rescued by the tycoon last year.