Headlines

The National Asset Management Agency has taken a fresh legal challenge against property developer Sean Dunne in a bid to stop him walking away from debts of more than €700 million in the United States, the Irish Times reported. The State loans agency, which has a judgment debt of €185 million against Mr Dunne, filed a legal complaint within Mr Dunne’s US bankruptcy proceedings in a Connecticut court seeking to block his discharge from bankruptcy, which would prevent him embarking debt-free on a fresh financial start.

Malaysian AE Models Holdings Bhd's major subsidiary Matromatic Handlings Systems (M) Sdn Bhd (MHS) – a casualty of the ongoing delays faced by KLIA2 in Sepang – is now under receivership, The Sun Daily reported. MHS secured a RM81.8 million sub-contract from the UEMC-Bina Puri joint venture in September 2010. The contract was for the supply, installation and maintenance of a baggage handling system for the main terminal building, satellite building, skybridge and piers for the new low-cost carrier terminal.

Brussels’ plan for a central authority to wind up shaky banks is to cover all 6,400 eurozone lenders, a broad and ambitious mandate by which German savers would indirectly be put on the hook for bank failure in other eurozone states, the Financial Times reported. According to several people who have seen the final draft, the European Commission will propose giving itself power to shut any failing lender in Europe’s banking union, if necessary against the advice of its home state.

Cyprus's central bank must complete the process of radically restructuring the country's biggest lender, Bank of Cyprus PCL by early August at the latest, Cypriot finance minister Harris Georgiades said. Capital controls in place on the island since March are hindering economic activity and should be lifted as soon as confidence in the financial sector recovers and more cash is in the system, he said in an interview, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Creditors will release 6.8 billion euros to Greece in its latest emergency loan tranche. Meanwhile, in Athens, thousands rallied against harsh cuts required by the international lenders, Deutsche Welle reported. Monday's deal spared Greece from default but will require the country to drive through harsh new economic policies. In approving the package worth $8.7 billion on Monday, the European Central Bank, EU and the International Monetary Fund said that Greece's reform program, implemented in exchange for rescue loans, was largely on track.

Brussels is preparing a second bailout package for Portugal, according to reports. The European Commission wants to have the so-called “soft rescue” ready for when Portugal’s current bailout expires in the middle of next year, according to an article in Spain’s El País newspaper. The paper cites two unnamed “senior EU sources” as confirming that Lisbon is already negotiating the details of a second credit line, which would come from the European Stability Mechanism.

A Montenegrin court has launched bankruptcy proceedings for the country's single biggest industrial employer, indebted aluminium plant Kombinat Aluminijuma Podgorica (KAP), a court official said on Monday, Reuters reported. The Adriatic state had last month asked the court to consider bankruptcy for the smelter, which is co-owned by the state and Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska's Central European Aluminium Co.

It was announced that Gehrlicher Solar filed for insolvency in Munich, Germany, making it the latest loss of a German solar company following Conergy's announcement last week, Solar Novus Today reported. The company employs approximately 250 people and has subsidiaries and joint ventures throughout the world. Details of how the employees and businesses will be affected have not yet been disclosed.

The Greek government appeared on Sunday night to be on the verge of dodging the most serious threat to its bailout programme in half a year after agreeing to fresh reforms with international lenders, the Financial Times reported. Although some issues remain to be ironed out before Monday’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers, Greek ministers and members of the so-called troika of lenders said they had overcome differences on the most vexing problem – cutting the size of the public payroll.

The French economy is facing a growing handicap as it struggles to create jobs and crawl out of recession: Despite low interest rates, companies and entrepreneurs are cutting back on their investments. They're delaying plans to expand existing factories, and canceling plans to build new ones, The Wall Street Journal reported. Behind the reluctance is a difficult combination. Higher taxes and cheaper foreign competition have pushed margins for French companies down to their lowest level since 1985—reducing companies' ability to stomach risk.