Headlines

Exports of liquefied natural gas could start as soon as late 2016 if a consortium led by AltaGas Ltd. succeeds in buying the insolvent Douglas Channel LNG project through a court supervised process, investors heard Thursday, the Calgary Herald reported. David Cornhill, chairman and chief executive of the Calgary-based gas and power company, said at its annual general meeting that term sheets to be presented to creditors could be finalized by next Monday.

A company developing one of New Zealand's biggest, most intensive affordable housing estates has been put in receivership. More than 420 apartments and townhouses are planned for the Springpark estate on a 10.5ha site in Auckland's Mt Wellington and the first stage of the development is expected to be completed next year, The New Zealand Herald reported. Springpark is seen as an affordable homes project, with townhouses in stage one priced from $399,000 to $554,000. Most of stage one has already sold.

A panel of Israeli regulators has proposed new, more transparent rules for managing companies after they get into financial difficulties that would provide more protection and predictability for creditors, Reuters reported. The panel, led by Finance Ministry Director-General Yael Andorn, made the recommendations to encourage the growth of Israel's debt capital market following a number of high-profile debt settlements that angered the public and harmed investor confidence.

Codere SA gained more time to negotiate a 1.1 billion-euro ($1.5 billion) debt restructuring deal and avoid seeking full creditor protection, Bloomberg News reported. The Spanish gaming company’s lenders and a majority of bondholders agreed to continue talks for 10 days, Madrid-based Codere said in a statement. It had until today to reach an agreement or start insolvency proceedings after seeking preliminary creditor protection on Jan. 2.

Former employees of Nortel Networks in Canada are looking to reclaim their share in the allocation of the company’s global estate, but only on a fair and equitable basis, Benefits Canada reported. Nortel Retirees and Former Employees Protection Canada says the heart of the dispute over the company’s estate is with its current bondholders. The group claims that bondholders are trying to make the U.S. estate solvent, which would force the company to pay interest on the bonds since filing for creditor protection as well as leave less money to go to Canadian creditors.

Saudi Arabia began to compensate shareholders in Saudi Integrated Telecom Co (SITC) for their stakes in the ailing firm on Wednesday, a statement on the Ministry of Finance website said. Last week, a royal decree declared that investors in SITC - excluding founding shareholders - would receive 30 riyals ($8) per share for their stakes in the company, a 23 percent premium on the stock's last traded price of 24.35 riyals. A lawyer for SITC's minority shareholders had told Reuters he expected it would take a few months for his clients to receive their money.

Sotiris Katselos, a soft-spoken 24-year-old who can code in four computer languages, got a job with a tech-support company here last year thanks to a new government program that covered his entire salary for five months. But the subsidy ended in February and so did his job, The Wall Street Journal reported. "They didn't really need anyone," he says. Since then, he has been sending out his résumé, which includes four years of vocational school, but with no luck. Struggling euro-zone countries are counting on programs like the one used by Mr.

Bank of Ireland was singled out for criticism by the head of the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) Lorcan O’Connor at an Oireachtas hearing yesterday for adopting a “very blunt” approach in its dealings with distressed borrowers, the Irish Times reported. While he did not name the bank, it was clear Mr O’Connor’s criticism referred to comments made to the committee by Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher earlier this month when he said his bank would veto any proposal from Personal Insolvency Practitioners (PIP) featuring mortgage write-down.

Barclays Plc will next week announce the creation of a bad bank portfolio of assets it deems non-core that it intends to sell or run down as part of a streamlining of its investment bank, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.Last year, Barclays Chief Executive Antony Jenkins announced a portfolio of assets termed Exit Quadrant, that it aimed to get rid of; and these assets are likely to go in the non-core portfolio along with commodities assets following last week's decision by the bank to exit that business, the Financial Times said.

Inspectors from the EU/IMF troika have arrived back in Dublin to scrutinise the Government’s execution of the budget and its delivery of bailout reforms, the Irish Times reported. The inspectors were in Merrion Street last night for scheduled talks with Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, their first since Ireland left the rescue programme last December. The visit continues until the end of the week.