Headlines

European leaders will try again in an emergency summit meeting on Monday to break the deadlock between Greece and its international creditors after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers ended on Thursday with no deal on Greece’s bailout, the International New York Times reported. Without additional aid, Greece faces the prospect of effectively going bankrupt by the end of June, when it owes a payment of 1.6 billion euros, or about $1.8 billion, to the International Monetary Fund, and when the European part of its bailout program ends.

In a related story, Reuters reported that the European Central Bank told a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Thursday that it was not sure if Greek banks, which have been suffering large daily deposit outflows, would be able to open on Monday, officials with knowledge of the talks said. The officials said that during the closed-door meeting of the ministers on Greece, the chairman of the meeting Jeroen Dijsselbloem asked European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure if Greek banks would be able to open tomorrow. Coeure answered: "Tomorrow, yes. Monday, I don't know".

Heta Asset Resolution AG, the Austrian “bad bank” that unveiled a 7 billion-euro ($8 billion) capital hole Wednesday, said an insolvency may ultimately be the only way to shut down the company, Bloomberg News reported. Heta, the remnant of the failed, nationalized Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG, warned on Thursday that the insolvency remains on the table even as a debt moratorium imposed by regulators staved it off for now.

Airbus said on Thursday it was studying two proposals to revive Skymark and would favour any plan that both gives the bankrupt Japanese airline a future and takes account of the planemaker's interests, Reuters reported. Alongside aircraft leasing firm Intrepid Aviation Ltd, Airbus is one of the biggest creditors to Skymark, which ran into financial trouble after embarking on an ambitious expansion that included buying A380 superjumbos.

Russian steel and coal producer Mechel has agreed to the terms for restructuring its debt with VTB, the country's second-largest bank said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Separately larger rival Sberbank said it had found two prospective buyers for its share of Mechel's debt. Controlled by businessman Igor Zyuzin, Mechel has been in discussions for months with its main lenders, including VTB, Sberbank and Gazprombank, over a restructuring of debts which at the end of last year were estimated to total $7 billion.

Greece's creditors should admit the flaws of earlier rescue loans, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Without this, neither can the political poison between the parties be drained nor can a programme be designed that works. What this means is that even before negotiating terms, the creditors must make four concessions - not financial ones, but intellectual ones. The first is to admit that it was a mistake not to restructure Greece's sovereign debt in April 2010.

The central bank of Greece warned on Wednesday that failure to reach a deal in the country’s long-running debt crisis would result in a default on its bailout loans and economic turmoil, the International New York Times reported. The rare public statement by the Bank of Greece came on the eve of the latest meeting of European officials, aimed at quelling the escalating crisis.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to unveil a plan to balance Japan’s budget in five years, a move that underscores Tokyo’s resolve to improve its deficit-ridden finances even as it continues to pursue costly economic-stimulus programs, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a draft plan to be released early next week, Mr.

The Finnish government plans to inject a further 112 million euros ($126 million) into restructuring troubled nickel mine Talvivaara after a potential buyer failed to arrange financing, a minister said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Talvivaara's listed parent company is going through debt restructuring while its key subsidiary, which owns the mining assets, last year applied for bankruptcy protection following a drop in nickel prices, repeated production disruptions and environmental damage.

China has given its fifth-largest bank the green light to pursue a market-based reform plan as Beijing seeks to improve efficiency at state-owned companies and counteract a far-reaching economic slowdown, the Financial Times reported. But privatisation will play only a limited role in the shake-up, the latest sign that the Communist party has no intention of relinquishing control of “strategic sectors” such as finance, energy and telecommunications.