Headlines

Czech miners' unions have teamed up with lignite mine owner Pavel Tykac and another investor to make on offer for New World Resources' insolvent mining subsidiary OKD, the unions said on Monday. The unions did not give any details of their offer to NWR, which is mainly owned by a trio of international investment funds. OKD, NWR's main business, filed for insolvency this month after failing to secure government aid. OKD should be able to continue its operations if the offer is accepted, the unions said.

Spain’s acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy is planning to implement new austerity measures if he remains in government after a June election, in a bid to avoid a European Commission sanction for failing to control the public deficit, the Irish Times reported. Earlier this month, Mr Rajoy wrote to EC president Jean-Claude Juncker, requesting leeway on the deficit issue in return for introducing new cuts later in 2016. El País newspaper published the letter on Monday. “In the second half of the year, once there is a new government, we are prepared to adopt new measures,” it said.

Retail tycoon Philip Green's Arcadia group was warned by a senior Goldman Sachs banker that a possible suitor of its BHS department store chain had a history of bankruptcy, British lawmakers were told on Monday, Reuters reported. The 88-year-old, 164-store, BHS was placed into administration, a form of creditor protection, by owner Retail Acquisitions last month, putting 11,000 jobs at risk. Green owned BHS for 15 years before selling it in March last year for a nominal sum of one pound to Retail Acquisitions, a group of little known investors led by Dominic Chappell.

Troubled Australian steel group Arrium Ltd, which collapsed last month after creditors rejected a private equity bailout, will hire a global investment bank to advise on the sale of its profitable Moly-Cop mining supplies unit, the firm's administrator said on Monday. Moly-Cop, which makes steel balls to grind ore, among other items, operates mostly in the United States and Latin America, and had been excluded until now from Arrium's restructuring after a private equity sale collapsed last year.

Kaisa Group, the Shenzhen-based property developer which defaulted on its US dollar-denominated bonds, has reached a milestone in its yearlong debt restructuring negotiations after a plan was formally approved by bondholders, the South China Morning Post reported. In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Sunday, the company said its offshore debt restructuring plan was “duly passed with the approval of the requisite majority of the Scheme Creditors,” at scheme meetings held by courts in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands on May 20.

Greece’s parliament approved a raft of fresh taxes and austerity measures that the country must legislate to unlock further rescue loans, as the country’s most influential creditors—Germany and the International Monetary Fund—remain deadlocked over debt relief, the International New York Times reported. The measures were backed by the 153 lawmakers from the ruling Syriza party and its junior coalition partner, the Independent Greeks, securing the majority in the 300-seat parliament late Sunday.

Beijing has stepped up its battle against bad debt in China’s banking system, with a state-led debt-for-equity scheme surging in value by about $100bn in the past two months alone, the Financial Times reported. The government-led programme, which forces banks to write off bad debt in exchange for equity in ailing companies, soared in value to hit more than $220bn by the end of April, up from about $120bn at the start of March, according to data from Wind Information.

Lawyers in Canada's energy capital Calgary warned on Friday that a judge's decision to grant lenders priority over environmental clean-up costs in oil and gas bankruptcies could lead to a surge in orphaned wells in Alberta, Reuters reported. An Alberta chief justice ruled this week that proceeds from the sale of assets belonging to junior producer Redwater Energy Corp will go first to secured creditors, rather than towards cleaning up the company's inactive oil and gas wells.

Buyers from continental Europe have largely withdrawn from the market in expensive London homes as they await the outcome of the UK’s June referendum on EU membership, the Irish Times reported. Just 9 per cent of people buying “prime” central London houses and apartments in the first quarter of this year came from other EU countries, compared with 29 per cent a year earlier and a five-year average of 20 per cent. This is despite a 10 per cent fall in sterling against the euro that has made UK homes significantly cheaper for European buyers.

Excalibur Steel, a management buyout group interested in purchasing Tata Steel’s British steelmaking operations, is ready to lend its support to rival bidder Liberty House, according to industry sources, the Irish Times reported on a Reuters story. Tata said in March it wanted to sell its UK steel operation, which has been hit by cheap Chinese imports, rising costs and weak demand. The decision prompted a political scramble to find a buyer to save the thousands of jobs at stake. The deadline for final bid submissions is on Monday.