Headlines

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar yesterday called on all parties to accept what he called the “best and last” opportunity to resolve a €750 million pensions row that has several times threatened to halt air travel in or out of the Republic, the Irish Times reported. Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) have been locked in a dispute with unions for several years over the insolvent Irish Airlines’ Superannuation Scheme, which has an estimated deficit of €750 million. The dispute almost closed the Republic’s main airports on St Patrick’s weekend.

Anthony O’Reilly, Ireland’s first billionaire and the former chief executive and chairman of the H.J. Heinz Company, has been declared insolvent, and on Friday he was ordered to sell his assets immediately to repay loans to one bank exceeding $30 million, the International New York Times reported. A Dublin judge rejected pleas from Mr. O’Reilly’s lawyers for a six-month postponement. Legal experts believe that the ruling is likely to prompt claims by other creditors, who are owed an estimated $266 million in total. Mr.

The Bank of England has imposed limits on household borrowing for the first time since 1980 in a bid to stop a credit boom emerging amid surging house prices, the Irish Times reported. The restrictions on large loans imposed by the bank’s financial policy committee will not affect current lending, but it will seek to prevent lending from taking off as the UK economy recovers. The central bank expects house prices to rise a further 20 per cent.

Distressed debt funds are raising cash to seek greater opportunities in China, where Standard & Poor’s says corporate borrowing topped the U.S. last year, Bloomberg News reported. Planned commitments to funds investing in Chinese and other Asian troubled assets are set to surpass $2 billion this year, up from $303 million in 2013, data from researcher Preqin Ltd. show. Morningside Group Holdings Ltd. in Hong Kong plans a $103 million vehicle, Preqin said. Guangzhou-based Shoreline Capital Management Ltd.

Governments have a long history of borrowing abroad and not repaying their debts. The first recorded sovereign default was in the 4th century BC when ten Greek cities failed to honour loans from the temple of Delos. Yet there are still no clear rules governing what happens when sovereigns do not pay up, The Economist reported. The murkiness was highlighted this week when Argentina seemed to offer, under duress, to negotiate with the 8% of its bondholders who refused to accept any losses after a huge default in 2001.

A damning report by the monitor overseeing the League group of companies’ restructuring efforts cites inexperienced, inept management and the poorly executed Capital City Centre in Colwood as the reasons for the death of Victoria-based League, the Times Colonist reported. In his 120-page report, Mike Vermette, a vice-president at monitor PricewaterhouseCoopers, noted League will be winding down all operations, liquidating all assets and cease to exist after the first quarter of 2015. The blame for that appears to rest on the shoulders of League founders Adam Gant and Emanuel Arruda.

China’s chief auditor discovered 94.4 billion yuan ($15.2 billion) of loans backed by falsified gold transactions, adding to signs of possible fraud in commodities financing deals, Bloomberg News reported. Twenty-five bullion processors in China, the biggest producer and consumer of gold, made a combined profit of more than 900 million yuan from the loans, according to a report on the National Audit Office’s website. Public security authorities are also probing alleged fraud at Qingdao Port, where copper and aluminum stockpiles may have been pledged multiple times as collateral for loans.

A number of likely suitors have signalled their interest in building materials manufacturer Dan Morrissey, which is under High Court protection from its creditors, the Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday confirmed the appointment of Brian McEnery of BDO as examiner to Carlow-based quarry operator and manufacturer Dan Morrissey Irl Ltd, giving him up to three months to save the business, which owes AIB €26 million.

Britain will allow more heavily regulated retail banks to offer business customers products such as options and trade finance, according to final legislative proposals. In the wake of the global financial crisis, the UK adopted proposals to separate the retail and investment arms of British banks and erect a “ringfence” around the retail bank so its essential operations continue even if the whole bank fails. If a bank does not respect the ring fence, regulators will have the power to break it up, the Financial Times reported.

Like its rivals in Britain, the Royal Bank of Scotland has been unable to escape criticism from shareholders over the amount of compensation that bankers are paid, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. Earlier this year, United Kingdom Financial Investments, which oversees the British government’s 81 percent stake in the bank, forced R.B.S. to drop a proposal to pay bankers bonuses of up to two times their annual salaries.