Headlines

China’s tax officials plan to step up efforts to collect taxes from multinational corporation in the latest of a series of moves in the last year, mostly against Western companies. The activities have included police raids on the headquarters of companies’ China operations and heavy fines under antimonopoly law, the International New York Times reported. The State Administration of Taxation said that it would be looking in detail at how companies move money and allocate costs among their Chinese operations and their overseas businesses.

The eurozone’s monetary policy makers have tightened Greek lenders’ access to cheap liquidity, banning the use of the country’s debt as collateral for the European Central Bank’s cash weeks before a limit was expected to come into force, the Financial Times reported. The ECB’s governing council — composed of the heads of the eurozone’s national central banks and the top six officials on the central bank’s executive board, including Mario Draghi, the bank president — made the decision on Wednesday.

The professor of economic theory is being given a crash course in economic reality, The Wall Street Journal reported. In the past week, Yanis Varoufakis has had to perform a number of U-turns in his capacity as Greece’s new finance minister. His party, Syriza, told voters it would demand a debt reduction; now Mr. Varoufakis says it will settle for a debt restructuring. Syriza said it would end austerity; Mr. Varoufakis now says he will run a primary budget surplus even if that means dropping other commitments in the party’s campaign manifesto. Last week, Mr.

A judge in Rio de Janeiro has ordered the freezing of all of embattled businessman Eike Batista ’s financial assets and ordered the seizure of up to 1.5 billion reais ($547 million) of his physical assets, including real estate, The Wall Street Journal reported. The orders cover the assets of Mr. Batista’s sons, Thor and Olin Batista, and those of his former wife, Luma de Oliveira, and his current girlfriend, Flávia Sampaio, Judge Flávio Roberto de Souza said in an interview.

Privately-owned shipping company Copenship has filed for bankruptcy in Copenhagen after losses in the dry bulk market, its Chief Executive Michael Fenger told Reuters. Copenship had been operating over 50 chartered small-sized dry-bulk vessels carrying goods such as grain, iron ore and timber. "We have done what we could to raise the funds to save the company, but we have reached a point where there is not more to do," Michael Fenger wrote in a text message to Reuters on Wednesday.

High-profile fashion designer Josh Goot has placed his eponymous label in voluntary administration in a bid to withstand the “well-documented difficult trading conditions in the fashion industry”. Michael Smith and Peter Hillig of Smith Hancock were appointed administrators of Josh Goot on February 2. Goot founded the label in 2005. The business currently operates two retail stores, in Paddington in Sydney and Armadale in Melbourne, along with a wholesale business, and all parts of the business are expected to continue to trade throughout the administration process.

The European Central Bank is resisting a key element of the Greek government’s new rescue plan, potentially leaving Athens with no source of outside funding when its international bailout expires at the end of the month, the Financial Times reported. Yanis Varoufakis, Greek finance minister, had proposed to European officials that Athens raise €10bn by issuing short-term Treasury bills as “bridge financing” to tide the country over for the next three months while a new bailout is agreed with its eurozone partners. But the ECB is unwilling to approve the debt sale.

Japan's Skymark Airlines Inc is looking for a "business sponsor" to help it emerge from bankruptcy, a move that could eventually give control of the fiercely independent budget carrier to its rivals. Japan's biggest budget airline, which sought protection from creditors last week, said a sponsor could help it cut costs and increase revenue, according to a Jan. 28 court filing seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

An onerous transportation contract entered by Cliffs Natural Resources' Bloom Lake iron ore operation in Canada will be renegotiated under Bloom's creditor protection filing, Cliffs' chief executive said on Tuesday. Lourenco Goncalves said the contract with the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway that has Bloom Lake on the hook for $450 million has been stayed by a Quebec judge as part of Bloom Lake's filing last week in Canada. "It will be negotiated. When a contract is stayed it means it is no longer valid," Goncalves said in an interview.

The Pensions Authority has obtained a High Court order allowing it to replace a company managing some 180 pension schemes, involving €80 million, following concerns about the finances of the firm, the Irish Times reported. Trustee Principles Ltd will take over the schemes from Source Pensions Administration and Trustee Company for a year, the court heard. Source Pensions is also not to act as a trustee for another five years unless it makes an application to the court. The court heard an investigation started by the authority is ongoing.