Headlines

UK regional carrier Flybe is tapping shareholders for £150m (€182m) to shore up its balance sheet as the embattled airline tries to reinvent itself, Independent.ie reported. The airline, which serves some routes between the UK and Ireland, will also use the funds with a view to "improving operational flexibility and providing additional cash reserves to enable the group to protect itself from unforeseen disruptions or occurrences". Chief executive Saad Hammad said that the fresh finance would enable Flybe to pursue its "profitable growth strategy".

A Brazilian court has barred shipbuilder and ship-leaser OSX Brasil SA from joining its bankruptcy protection petition to that of Oleo e Gas Participações SA, the oil company controlled by former billionaire Eike Batista, Reuters reported. Judges of the 14th civil division of the Rio de Janeiro State Justice Tribunal made the ruling in response to a request by Spanish construction company Acciona to keep the bankruptcy filings separate, the court's press office said on Thursday. The decision was handed down on Wednesday but has yet to be officially published, the press office said.

Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, has suspended the head of its central bank, removing an increasingly outspoken critic of the government's record on tackling rampant corruption, The Guardian reported. Lamido Sanusi, who was due to end his term as governor in June, had been presenting evidence to parliament he said showed the state oil company Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to pay $20bn (£12bn) it owed to the government. The company has repeatedly denied his allegations.

National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB) fell in Sydney trading after flagging a possible increase in provisions at its British operations, overshadowing a 7 percent increase in first-quarter profit, Bloomberg News reported. Shares of Australia’s biggest bank by assets slid as much as 2.8 percent, the biggest intraday decline in three months, and traded 1.9 percent lower at A$34.50 at 11:53 a.m. in Sydney. Provisions for some tailored business loans and compensation to U.K. customers for wrongly sold payment-protection insurance may rise, the Melbourne-based lender said in a statement today.

The Joint Select Committee (JSC) to review the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Bill is scheduled to have an all day meeting today at Gordon House, starting at 10:00 am, the Jamaica Observer reported. The committee was named last month after the Bill was tabled in the Senate by Minister of Justice, Senator Mark Golding. It is comprised of 14 members from both the House and the Senate, but is chaired by Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Anthony Hylton.

Stemcor Holdings Ltd. said its creditors voted to approve the U.K. steel trader’s plan to restructure its debt, Bloomberg News reported. Lenders voted “overwhelmingly” in favor of the plan, according to Charles Armitstead, a spokesman for Stemcor employed by Pendomer Communications LLP. The debt deal, which includes converting $1.1 billion of credit facilities into term loans and borrowing an additional $1.15 billion, will be taken to a U.K. court for approval this month, he said.

France and Germany have pledged to reach a deal on a European financial transaction tax by the end of May in a bid to give some impetus to efforts to find accord on the issue, the Financial Times reported. But the two governments have yet to bridge divisions on how the so-called “Robin Hood” levy would be applied in the 11 EU states that have signed up to implement the tax. François Hollande, the French president, said after a joint Franco-German government meeting in Paris that trying to find the perfect formula for an FTT would only help those who wanted to neutralise it.

Brazil's Oleo e Gas Participações SA has won a final court ruling to add international financing unit OGX Austria GmbH to its bankruptcy filing, a lawyer for the company said on Wednesday. The approval by the 14th Civil Part of the Rio de Janeiro-State Justice Tribunal addresses concerns that failure to include foreign subsidiaries in the bankruptcy petition could mean any restructuring plan approved by a Brazilian judge might be open to legal challenges in Brazil or abroad, Reuters reported. OGX Austria has sold $3.63 billion in bonds, the bulk of the parent's debt.

Pressure is building on Mobilicity to lock down a deal with a buyer as one of its suppliers is now pushing for payment of $1.7-million in fees owing. Mobilicity, known formally as Data and Audio-Visual Enterprises (DAVE) Wireless, is under court protection from its creditors, but an order staying legal action against the carrier is set to expire on Feb. 26, the Financial Post reported. Amdocs Canadian Managed Services Inc. – the company that provides Mobilicity’s customer service and support systems – has filed a motion with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for that date.

Insolvency practitioners are facing a crackdown after the Government proposed to cap the “excessive fees”  they charge creditors of failed companies, The Times reported. The Insolvency Service has started a consultation on whether to stop insolvency practitioners charging by the hour . They could instead be forced to fix their fees as a percentage of the property dealt with or the amounts realised from a liquidation. The regulator said that the changes could be the difference between creditors getting a fair deal or losing out through “excessive charges”.