Headlines

To understand why Greece and its creditors have repeatedly failed to put its giant debt burden on a sustainable path, look beyond the current-day headlines about the intransigence of a left-wing government in Athens or the tested patience of officials in Berlin and Brussels, The Wall Street Journal reported. Blame lies more broadly with the flawed political structure of the monetary union’s institutions, where a highly integrated financial system coexists with fragmented and unpredictable governance.

Since the global financial crisis, mankind has learnt to live with a third certainty along with death and taxes — monetary loosening. Central banks have slashed interest rates to record lows and embarked upon unprecedented programmes of asset purchases in an attempt to raise inflation and restart economic growth. The common path on which monetary policy makers have strolled, however, is expected to diverge this year. The timing of the partition and the way in which its side effects are managed hold big implications for financial stability and the global recovery.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko said in a German newspaper interview that Kiev's foreign lenders should agree to a debt restructuring for the sake of German taxpayers. "The German taxpayers who are financially supporting us via national assistance loans and via the EU have a right for private creditors to share the costs by means of a debt restructuring," she said in an advance extract of an interview due to be published in Handelsblatt on Monday.

Mid-tier stockbroker BBY has been placed in administration after the board could not secure enough capital, the firm said in a statement this morning. KPMG has been appointed voluntary administrator and BBY suspended by the ASX as a market participant. Financier St George Bank has sent in PPB as receivers to protect the bank’s interests. “I regret to inform staff that despite exhaustive efforts by the BBY board to secure investors to inject additional capital into BBY we have been unsuccessful,” said BBY executive chairman Glenn Rosewall, in a note to staff.

Sharp Corporation of Japan said it had secured a $1.7 billion bailout from banks, its second major rescue in three years, after its smartphone display business came under intense pricing pressure from Asian rivals, the International New York Times reported. Mizuho Bank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ will inject a combined 200 billion yen in a debt-for-equity swap, Sharp said in a statement, a move that will buy it time but is unlikely to allay worries about the long-term viability of its display business.

Multinational companies drawn to Southeast Asia by hopes of a long consumption boom are witnessing a reversal of fortunes in its three biggest economies as shoppers lose their mojo, the Financial Times reported. Household debt, sluggish wage rises and political uncertainties are dragging on spending growth in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Members of businessman Sean Quinn’s family have been refused permission by the High Court to make a crucial amendment to their case aimed at avoiding liability for €2.34 billion loans made to Quinn companies by the former Anglo Irish Bank, the Irish Times reported.

Greece on Thursday offered a concession to its international lenders by pushing ahead with the sale of its biggest port, Piraeus. Greece has asked three firms to submit bids for a majority stake in the port, a senior privatisation official said, unblocking a major sale of a public asset as the EU and the IMF demand economic reforms from Athens. Despite the conciliatory move, Germany’s Bundesbank showed no sign of easing off on its hardline stance towards Greece.

Mario Draghi has warned central banks to beware of the risk that aggressive monetary easing, including mass bond buying, could lead to financial instability and worsen income inequality, the Financial Times reported. The European Central Bank president said the apparent success of policies such as the ECB’s landmark €1.1trn quantitative easing package should not “blind” policy makers to the potential consequences of their actions on risk-taking in financial markets and in exacerbating wealth disparities.

An operationally troubled thermal oilsands project in northern Alberta, built for nearly half a billion dollars, is to be shut down this summer while its insolvent owner tries to find a solution to its money woes, The Calgary Herald reported. Calgary-based Southern Pacific Resource Corp. said Thursday it will “hibernate” its STP-McKay facility by the end of July, turning off all of the equipment for up to three years while it looks for funding to get it going again. “We’re going to be shutting the plant completely but preserving it so that it can be started up again at a future date.