Headlines

The receiver for an Abaco-based resort/marina development, recently appraised at $50 million, yesterday said he was “at the beginning of a long road” in trying to recover debts owed to a $27 billion US bank and other creditors, Tribune 242 reported. Paul ‘Andy’ Gomez, managing partner of Grant Thornton (Bahamas), told Tribune Business he was ultimately looking at selling the 203-acre Orchid Bay Marina and Resort, located on Great Guana Cay, to a new owner.

A German insolvency court in Coburg Tuesday granted Loewe AG permission to carry out insolvency proceedings under the company's own administration, and the television and entertainment console maker has already received several offers from interested investors in recent days, Loewe said Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company has been under creditor protection since July.

Tesco's US chain Fresh & Easy has filed for bankruptcy as the next step of the British supermarket's retreat from across the Atlantic, The Guardian reported. The retailer, which is due to reveal its half-year trading figures on Wednesday, has agreed to sell the majority of its US stores to billionaire Ron Burkle, lending his Yucaipa investment vehicle £80m to take on about 150 stores. A further 33 will close while another 20 remain under negotiation.

Banks in Britain may have to hold more capital than their international rivals under proposals for an annual stress test of lenders put forward by the Bank of England on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The BoE spelled out how it will begin checking for the first time that banks do not pose risks to the UK economy by being short of reserves, both individually and as a sector. It will start an annual test for the top eight UK lenders like Barclays, RBS and HSBC in 2014. The test will be broadened out over five years to include big UK subsidiaries of major international banks, the BoE said.

Some of Britain’s leading mortgage lenders have expressed misgivings about the government’s latest “Help to Buy” initiative, leaving the state-backed banks Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds as the only pair to have endorsed the scheme, the Financial Times reported. Help to Buy, launched in April, was originally designed as a government loan scheme to support buyers of new-build houses. But the second phase of the scheme, fast-forwarded to this week from its original launch date of next year, offers a government guarantee for higher-risk mortgages on any kind of home.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday took no action on an appeal by the government of Argentina in a closely watched sovereign-debt case, The Wall Street Journal reported. The high court added eight new cases to its docket Tuesday but made no mention of Argentina's appeal. The court could indicate as soon as next Monday what it plans to do with the case. At issue is Argentina's legal fight with holdout creditors that refused to accept the country's debt-restructuring offers after its historic default in 2001.

A small business accounting specialist is warning new bank lending restrictions which come into force today will make it tougher for people to buy, grow and fund small businesses, The New Zealand Herald reported. Matthew Bellingham, chairman of the public practice advisory board for the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants and a partner at Auckland firm Bellingham and Wallace, said new loan to value ratio restrictions would have "unintended consequences" on the sector.

The New Zealand government said it will pump up to NZ$155 million ($128 million) into Solid Energy and private lenders will swap some debt for equity under a plan to save the troubled coal miner, which is slated for partial privatization, Reuters reported. The proposed restructuring plan will see the state-owned company issue NZ$100 million of redeemable preference shares, with key lenders exchanging NZ$75 million of debt for equity and the government injecting NZ$25 million.

Small wireless carrier Mobilicity says it has been granted creditor protection by the courts while awaiting a ruling from Industry Canada on an unspecified transaction, CBC News reported. Mobilicity, which has been looking for a buyer, said Monday that creditor protection would give it the necessary time and financing to complete the transaction now before the federal body for review and approval. The Toronto company, which launched in 2010, provided no details about the transaction, but said it was in the best interests of its stakeholders.

Brazilian oil producer OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações SA is on track to forego a $44.5 million interest payment due on Tuesday, two sources with knowledge of the plans said, moving the company closer to the largest Latin American corporate debt default ever, Reuters reported. Should the company decide to miss the coupon payment, an announcement will be made within a few days, said one of the sources. The other said OGX wants to use a 30-day grace period that starts when the company misses the payment to conclude debt restructuring talks with bondholders.