Headlines

German wind park group Prokon's assets and profit-participation rights are attracting possible buyers after it declared insolvency earlier this week. Capital Stage, a Hamburg-based operator of wind and solar parks, is interested in buying some of Prokon's wind parks, a company spokesman said on Friday. "The acquisition of existing parks is part of our business," he said, adding that the group would wait until insolvency proceedings were opened to get in touch with the administrator.

Bankrupt oil producer Óleo e Gás Participações SA has delayed detailing its restructuring plan to creditors until Jan. 31 as it tries to secure new funding, the company said in a statement on Friday. Óleo e Gás, controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista whose business empire collapsed last year, and its creditors were discussing terms of a potential $200 million debtor-in-possession, or DIP, loan, two sources told Reuters earlier on Friday. The company had enough funds to stay afloat and the delay was unlikely to disrupt operations, according to the sources, who declined to be identified.

Argentina's government allowed its beleaguered peso to slide farther against the U.S. currency on Friday, saying it would ease limits on the purchase of dollars to stem a possible currency crisis like the one that hammered the country in 2001-2002, The Wall Street Journal reported. Economists welcomed the moves, but doubted they would work without an attack on the real source of the country's mounting economic problems: rampant government spending and a loose money policy that has caused one of the world's highest rates of inflation, estimated at more than 25% a year.

Germany's justice minister has promised tougher regulation of niche investment products after the insolvency of Prokon, a wind park group that lured investors with aggressive ad campaigns on prime-time television, in buses and commuter trains, Reuters reported. The company of 1,300, which operates 50 wind parks in Germany and Poland, had raised 1.4 billion euros ($1.9 billion) by touting profit-participation rights and promises of returns of at least 6 percent a year. Consumer groups had long warned that the company, founded in 1995, was not spelling out the risks to investors.

A coal company facing repayment of a three billion yuan ($500 million) loan has received government permission to restart one of its mines as creditors and officials scramble to avoid a default that could batter confidence in China's loosely regulated shadow-banking sector. China Credit Trust Co., a so-called shadow lender, notified investors in products linked to the loan on Wednesday about the permit to resume production, according to a notice reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Zim, the Haifa-based container shipping line, said it had agreed a debt restructuring deal in which its owner, Israel Corp, will hand control of two-thirds of the box carrier to creditors and pave the way for its own planned demerger, the Financial Times reported. Under the deal, announced on Thursday, bondholders, shareholders, overseas banks and shipowners will swap some of Zim’s $3bn in debt for shares.

Kazakhstan's Alliance Bank has set out terms for a second debt restructuring in the wake of the global financial crisis, potentially paving the way for its acquisition by Kazakh billionaire Bolat Utemuratov. Alliance is 67 percent owned by local sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna but needs to find new investors after Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev last year ordered the fund to sell holdings in several local banks which it bailed out in the global crisis.

Dubai Group LLC, an investment company owned by the emirate’s ruler, said it reached a final agreement with lenders on $6 billion in debt restructuring after three years of talks, Bloomberg News reported. Lenders agreed to extend the maturity for secured debt to December 2016, and for partially secured and unsecured loans to December 2024, Dubai Group said in an e-mailed statement today. A further $4 billion of “related party debt has been subordinated to the claims of the bank creditors,” it said.

A crucial deadline for the restructuring agreement of Brazilian oil company Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA, controlled by businessman Eike Batista, might not be met this week, according to two people familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal reported. In one of Latin America's largest bankruptcy cases, OGP filed for protection from creditors in late October.

German wind park group Prokon, which had raised 1.4 billion euros ($1.9 billion) mainly from retail investors, has filed for insolvency, a court in the north German town of Itzehoe saidon Wednesday, Reuters reported. An administrator has been appointed for Prokon Regenerative Energien GmbH, the court said in a statement. The company, which operates 50 wind parks in Germany and Poland and employs roughly 1,300 staff, had raised money by selling so-called profit-participation certificates which were marketed to investors through advertising campaigns on German prime-time television.