Headlines

The pain among energy and mining producers is growing more acute as prices of global commodities continued their collapse on Tuesday, the International New York Times reported. The newest victim is the London-based mining firm Anglo American. On Tuesday, the company announced a drastic restructuring, which includes expanding job cuts, suspending its dividend, reducing its business unit and cutting its assets. Anglo American is far from alone, as scores of oil, natural gas, and mining companies are feeling the pain from low prices.

Germany’s finance minister has warned he is prepared to go to court to overturn Brussels’ plans for a eurozone-wide deposit guarantee scheme, the Financial Times reported. The move is the starkest warning yet that the region’s most powerful member is implacably opposed to the proposal in its current form. In a sign of heightened tension over the deposit insurance plan, Wolfgang Schäuble also fired a shot across the bow of the European Central Bank for advocating it, saying Frankfurt was improperly intervening in a policy beyond its monetary remit.

Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd.’s debt restructuring will probably succeed after gaining local support as both onshore and offshore creditors met over the weekend to align their interests, advisers said, Bloomberg reported. The Shenzhen-based developer is believed to be getting backing from a committee of onshore creditors, the local government and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, according to an e-mailed statement from Kirkland & Ellis and Moelis & Co., who are advising some offshore bondholders. There’s “high likelihood” that the onshore restructuring can succeed, they said.

Retired solicitor Brian O’Donnell and his wife, Dr Mary Patricia O’Donnell, have lost their Supreme Court appeal aimed at overturning a €71.5m summary judgment order granted against them four years ago. The couple had claimed the High Court judge who entered the judgment against them in favour of Bank of Ireland should not have dealt with their case. This was because the judge, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, now a member of the Court of Appeal, previously held shares in Bank of Ireland and had a business relationship with it, they claimed.

Japan avoided falling into the second recession of the Abenomics era over the summer, as stronger-than-expected capital spending helped the economy grow in the third quarter, revised figures show, The Wall Street Journal reported. Japan’s gross domestic product, the broadest measure of a nation’s economic activity, grew 1.0% in the third quarter from the prior three-month period on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, the Cabinet Office said Tuesday. Previously it had estimated that the economy shrank 0.8% on that basis in the third quarter.

The government has argued that the recommendations made by the Productivy Commission to change insolvency laws will foster more entrepreneurship and aid innovation, SkyNews.com.au reported. The default bankruptcy period will be reduced from three years to one while a safe harbour will protect directors from personal liability for insolvent trading if they appoint a professional restructuring adviser to develop a plan to turnaround a company in financial difficulty.

Russia's VTB bank has not yet decided whether to buy a stake in indebted steelmaker Mechel's Elga coal mine project together with Gazprombank, VTB's head Andrei Kostin said on Monday, Reuters reported. Kostin told journalists that VTB is waiting to hear whether state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) decides to finance the Elga project in Russia's far east. Should VEB decide not to issue a credit line to Elga, VTB will most likely decide against buying the miner's shares, Kostin added.

Korea Asset Management Corp (KAMCO) anticipates it will continue to buy up plenty of ships from locally distressed lines next year, Splash24/7 reported. As of the end of October, the state-run debt restructuring company had purchased 35 vessels from shipping firms, including Hanjin Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine, for KRW505.5bn ($434m) since the 2008 financial crisis. KAMCO anticipates at least KRW100bn in ships outlay next year – all of which will be chartered back. Korean shipping lines have been among the hardest hit in the downturn.

Lotus have won another two-week breathing space in insolvency proceedings brought against the Formula One team by the taxman, RTÉ reported. Mr Justice Birss granted the adjournment until December 21 after hearing that a share purchase agreement was due to be completed on December 16, with the £1.4million due to HM Revenue & Customs paid off shortly afterwards. Other creditors, owed in excess of £2million, would be paid by December 31, counsel Jeremy Bamford told London's High Court on Monday.

AIB is seeking summary judgment for €2.8 million and €3.4 million in separate but related cases against two businessmen arising from loans made for property investments, the Irish Times reported. The bank’s cases against Ivor O’Brien, Sheestown, Co Kilkenny, and Bryan Hanrahan, Raggetsland, Warrington, Co Kilkenny, were admitted to the Commercial Court by Mr Justice Brian McGovern on the application of AIB. There was no appearance for the two men.