Headlines

Last week the Australian Securities and Investments Commission fired a shot across the bows of insolvency companies, The Weekly Times reported. In forcing Tony Matthews, of ­Anthony Matthews and Associates, into an “enforceable undertaking” ­arrangement, ASIC has effectively placed all insolvency practitioners on notice that creditors have every right to expect prompt, efficient, diligent and judicious action in relation to companies in financial strife.

Ecuador repaid $650 million of its foreign debt due Tuesday, marking the first time in the South American nation’s more than 180-year history that it’s repaid global bonds on time, even as a collapse in the OPEC country’s crude prices saps liquidity needed to keep the government operating normally, Bloomberg News reported. President Rafael Correa, who led the nation’s default on $3.2 billion of overseas debt seven years ago, said on his Twitter account Tuesday that the government would also meet public workers’ December salary payments without problems.

If General Motors can continue selling its Chevrolet brand of cars even after filing for the biggest industrial bankruptcy in the world in 2008, why is that Kingfisher Airlines is not flying, nor are its bankers able to recover dues from it despite promoter Vijay Mallya's and group companies' loan guarantees? The difference may lie in how courts look at bankrupt companies, attitude of the borrowers and the lethargy of bankers, The Economic Times reported.

The collapse of oil prices has claimed its first bankruptcy victim in Norway’s offshore industry, and analysts warn more may follow, Bloomberg News reported. Dolphin Group ASA, a seismic surveyor that maps the seabed for oil and gas reservoirs, became the first Oslo-listed company in the industry to file for bankruptcy Monday. One of its competitors, Polarcus Ltd., is in talks on restructuring debt -- but the threat won’t stop there, with insolvency cases bound to multiply among drillers as well, analysts say.

Portugal faces fresh concerns relating to one of its smaller banks after shares in Banif tumbled Monday amid concerns about its ability to pay back loans it received in a bailout of the country’s banking sector, the International New York Times reported. Banif was one of the smaller banks to receive emergency lending as part of the international bailout of 78 billion euros, or $85.7 billion, that Portugal negotiated in 2011.

Greece’s leftist-led government on Monday signed its first major privatization deal, granting a German company the right to lease and manage more than a dozen regional airports, the International New York Times reported. The contract, worth 1.2 billion euros, or $1.3 billion, is part of an effort to privatize state assets and adopt economic changes demanded by international creditors under Greece’s €86 billion bailout program. Some other measures are under debate in the Greek Parliament and are scheduled for a vote Tuesday night.

Pravin Gordhan, South Africa’s third finance minister in less than a week, insisted on Monday that the government was committed to fiscal discipline as he sought to reassure investors following days of extraordinary turmoil that wiped billions of dollars from the value of the nation’s equity and bond markets, the Financial Times reported.

Seismic surveyor Dolphin Group is filing for bankruptcy, the firm said on Monday, after a prolonged fall in crude prices has reduced the amount of work available from oil companies, Reuters reported. Oil companies have slashed spending as crude price have dropped around 67 percent since mid-2014. Seismic surveyors, which map out the seabed in search of oil and gas deposits, have suffered as a result. "Due to the continued deterioration in the oil service market Dolphin has had to make the decision to file for bankruptcy," the firm said in a statement.

The Monetary Board last week ordered the closure of two rural banks—one in Camarines Sur and the other in La Union, Inquirer.net reported. In a Dec. 10 circular, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said the Monetary Board had decided to prohibit Peñafrancia Rural Bank of Calabanga (Camarines Sur) Inc. from doing business in the country. Also, the rural bank’s assets and affairs were placed under receivership pursuant to Section 30 of Republic Act No. (RA) 7653 or The New Central Bank Act, Espenilla said.

COSCO Corporation (Singapore) took a beating after its shares resumed trading on Monday, December 14. Investors punished the shipping company after a much-awaited privatisation deal with its parent company fell through last week, Singapore Business Review reported. COSCO shares have been suspended from trading since August 11, after it was reported that its majority shareholder Cosco Group is eyeing a privatisation exercise for the struggling shipping company.