Headlines

Suntech Power Holdings Co., the Chinese maker of solar panels whose main unit is reorganizing in the Cayman Islands, told a Manhattan court that an involuntary bankruptcy petition against it in the U.S. could derail restructuring efforts, Bloomberg reported. The creditors seeking the U.S. bankruptcy are a “tiny minority,” holding only 0.27 percent of the company’s outstanding debt, Suntech said in papers filed yesterday seeking to have the case dismissed.

It was a reality check that many in Spain always knew was coming. For more than two weeks, the country woke up almost daily to brightening economic news: first came the widely-hailed return to economic growth, then a flurry of data showing that the labour market is stabilising, the Financial Times reported. Even Microsoft founder Bill Gates seemed keen to buy into the Spanish comeback, snapping up a 6 per cent stake in one of the country’s biggest construction groups.

Public services ground to a halt across Greece on Wednesday as the country's two largest labor unions called a nationwide general strike to protest the government's ongoing austerity program and as international inspectors arrived in Athens to review Greece's reform program, The Wall Street Journal reported. Central and local government offices were shut by the strike, schools and courts closed, while public hospitals were operating on skeleton staff.

Spanish appliance maker Fagor Electrodomésticos on Wednesday edged toward a possible bankruptcy filing after its French unit said it was seeking protection from creditors, The Wall Street Journal reported. Fagor, Europe's fifth-largest maker of household appliances such as washing machines and stoves, was hit hard by the region's economic crisis and has been scrambling to secure financing to continue operations. The white-goods maker is the flagship industrial member of the Mondragón network of self-managed cooperatives—the largest of its type in the world.

China's Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd , once the world's largest maker of solar panels, filed for provisional liquidation, signaling that it may go out of business after years of steep declines in panel prices. Suntech's shares fell as much as 23 percent to $1.15 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. "We do think this is the end for Suntech," Raymond James analyst Ryan Berney told Reuters. Suntech filed for provisional liquidation in the Cayman Islands, where it is incorporated.

OSX Brasil SA , the Brazilian shipbuilder controlled by former billionaire Eike Batista, is considering seeking court protection from creditors as early as Wednesday, three sources with direct knowledge of the plans told Reuters. OSX will likely petition the same Rio de Janeiro court where Batista's oil producer OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações SA sought protection on Oct. 30, said one of the sources, who declined to be identified by name because the plans are private. With the move, OSX will put 5.3 billion reais ($2.3 billion) of debt under court protection.

Lawyers for State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, pleaded for protection from a US bankruptcy court saying that the liquidated bank was a “very unique” case, the Irish Times reported. The Delaware bankruptcy court heard the bank’s case for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, guarding about €1 billion of US assets and blocking legal actions against it, at a hearing yesterday.

European Union antitrust regulators are poised to levy large fines against a group of global banks tied to their alleged attempts to manipulate benchmark interest rates, according to industry officials briefed on the discussions, The Wall Street Journal reported.

International budget inspectors began meetings with Greek officials Tuesday in a second round of talks aimed at bridging a contentious divide over what more Athens needs to do to secure its next tranche of aid, The Wall Street Journal reported. The review comes amid heightened political tensions in Greece. Labor unions have called a nationwide general strike for Wednesday to protest further austerity measures, while the two parties in the coalition government are divided over a new property tax.

Italy’s appointment of a former senior IMF official as the government’s new spending tsar has already added to the budget deficit – his annual salary of €300,000 is the maximum allowed for a civil servant.