Headlines

AIB shareholders are to vote on the bank’s new capital re-organisation, which will see the value of their shareholding in the bank almost wiped out, at an egm on December 16th, the Irish Times reported. The bank announced its plans for an egm on Monday morning, as the first step in its plan to return to the markets next year and allow the Government to divest some of its 99.8 per cent stake in the bank.

A rare public rift emerged at the core of the European Central Bank on Monday as a major policy setter, Sabine Lautenschläger of Germany, said she opposed an extension of its economic stimulus campaign days after the bank’s leader paved the way for more, the International New York Times reported. The 25 members of the bank’s Governing Council have long held differing views, but the blunt public opposition is unusual because Ms. Lautenschläger sits on the six-person executive board, which tends to present a united front.

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust said Monday it had reached a settlement with Target Corp. over 18 leases the Minneapolis-based retail giant abandoned when it exited the Canadian market this year, The Wall Street Journal reported. RioCan, which owns and manages the largest portfolio of shopping centers in Canada, said Target paid 132 million Canadian dollars (US$99 million) as part of the settlement, including C$92 million to RioCan and the balance to various co-owners. Target in turn has been released from indemnity agreements covering those locations.

Policy makers in Seoul are accelerating efforts to restructure debt-laden and unprofitable companies before an anticipated rise in U.S. interest rates and any further slowdown in China reverberates in South Korea, Bloomberg News reported. Falling exports and huge losses among some of Korea’s corporate giants have injected urgency into efforts to sell poorly performing assets and raise competitiveness. Overseas shipments have dropped every month this year, with notable weakness in sales to China.

Euro-area member states agreed to disburse the funds necessary for the recapitalization of Greece’s battered banks, as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sought consensus from opposition parties, following defections that whittled down his slim parliamentary majority, Bloomberg News reported. Finance ministry officials from the currency bloc agreed “that the Greek authorities have now completed the first set of milestones and the financial sector measures that are essential for a successful recapitalization process,” Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in a statement Saturday.

The Marseille commercial court on Friday selected Corsican transport entrepreneur Patrick Rocca as preferred bidder for France-Corsica ferry operator SNCM, Reuters reported. The ruling clears the way for SNCM majority shareholder Transdev, jointly owned by water and waste group Veolia and French state bank CDC, to sell SNCM. The company has been under court protection since late 2014, when it failed to repay a loan to Transdev, which owns 66 percent of SNCM. An SNCM sale would allow Veolia and CDC to unwind their Transdev 50-50 joint venture.

China said it cracked the nation’s biggest “underground bank,” which handled 410 billion yuan ($64 billion) of illegal foreign-exchange transactions, as the authorities try to combat corruption and rein in capital outflows that have hit records this year, Bloomberg News reported. More than 370 people have been arrested or face lawsuits or other punishment in the case centered in eastern Zhejiang province, the official People’s Daily reported on Friday, citing police officials.

It is close to ten years since America’s housing bubble burst. It is six since Greece’s insolvency sparked the euro crisis. Linking these episodes was a rapid build-up of debt, followed by a bust. A third instalment in the chronicles of debt is now unfolding. This time the setting is emerging markets. Investors have already dumped assets in the developing world, but the full agony of the slowdown still lies ahead, The Economist reported. Debt crises in poorer countries are nothing new.

The Bankruptcy Law Reforms Committee (BLRC), while submitting its report to the government earlier this month, had recommended the need for a single code to resolve insolvency for all companies, limited liability partnerships, partnership firms and individuals, The Business Standard reported in a commentary. "In order to ensure legal clarity, the Committee recommends that provisions in all existing law that deals with insolvency of registered entities be removed and replaced by this Code," the committee said in its report.

Sir Anthony O’Reilly has been declared bankupt in a court hearing in the Bahamas and is now to be allowed file for an insolvency arrangement, the Supreme Court in the Bahamas has ruled. This followed a lengthy hearing on Friday when AIB, one of Sir Anthony’s creditors, had held that there were procedural errors in the existing filing and also that the court had no jurisdiction in the matter, the Irish Times reported. The ruling was delivered by Justice Milton Evans on Friday evening, following a day of legal submissions.