Headlines

Canadian Industry Minister James Moore said on Thursday he plans to announce a decision soon on whether or not to approve Telus Corp's C$350 million ($317.42 million) bid for Mobilicity, Reuters reported. The federal government has twice rejected previous Telus bids for the struggling wireless upstart on the grounds that a purchase would further concentrate ownership of wireless spectrum, the airwaves telecom companies rely on for booming mobile data use. Moore noted those prior rejections and said Ottawa's spectrum transfer policy had not changed.

Yawning deficits and labor turmoil have made South Africa's economy vulnerable to capital flight as investors pull back from risky markets, the country's central bank said Thursday. "The current-account deficit could pose a marked risk to the stability of the domestic financial system," the South African Reserve Bank said in its semiannual review of the country's financial stability, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The special liquidators of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation have told the Government they expect the proceeds from the sale of loan portfolios at the defunct institution to exceed the €12.9 billion in IBRC-related debt issued by the State at the time of its winding up last year. As a result there will be no additional taxpayer liability relating to the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide above the €34.7 billion that was given to the banks in 2009/10 via share capital and the Anglo promissory note.

Officials in charge of liquidating a pair of failed Irish banks are asking a U.S. bankruptcy judge to sign off on sales involving about EUR15 billion ($20.72 billion) in soured loans, as Ireland continues to dig out from the wreckage of its collapsed property market, The Wall Street Journal reported. Irish Bank Resolution Corp., a state-backed bank liquidation vehicle, is selling the bad loans at a discount to a group of distressed debt buyers, including affiliates of Lone Star Funds, Deutsche Bank Group, and Goldman Sachs. Approval from Judge Christopher Sontchi of the U.S.

The International Monetary Fund's executive board is tentatively scheduled to consider a $17 billion bailout for Ukraine on April 30, two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. IMF staff are currently verifying Kiev's interim government has met the fund's preconditions for the emergency loan. The expected IMF approval next week would unlock another $10 billion in aid promised by the U.S. and Europe for the beleaguered country.

The Riksbank, the world’s oldest central bank, has become a sadist in its use of monetary policy, according to Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, Bloomberg News reported. He says the Stockholm-based central bank’s bias toward tight policy during the financial crisis was a “terrible mistake” that now risks creating a Japan-style deflationary spiral. The criticism has the potential to weaken the exchange rate as international investors “question the Swedish economic development,” according to SEB AB, the Nordic region’s biggest currency trader.

An independent Scotland would need the support of the UK Treasury and the Bank of England to prevent savers in its banks being as vulnerable as those who had money in Iceland during the 2008 financial crisis, according to one of the three leading credit rating agencies, The Guardian reported.

The small German airport of Luebeck, near Hamburg, has filed for insolvency and a local court has appointed a preliminary administrator, German media reported on Wednesday. A statement on the website for the airport, which is served by low-cost carriers such as Ryanair, said the around 100 people employed had not received their pay for April. Neither the airport nor the court was immediately available for comment. Some regional airports in Europe are struggling to find customers and make money as smaller carriers increasingly turn to bigger airports to attract passengers.

The number of companies going bust has increased by more than 70% over the year, according to official figures, BBC News reported. The Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) figures showed 244 Scottish companies failed during the first quarter of this year, compared with 143 during the same period in 2014. The numbers increased by 6.6% on the fourth quarter of 2013. The number of personal insolvencies fell by 14%, compared with the same time a year ago.

The special liquidators of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation have told the Government they expect the proceeds from the sale of loan portfolios at the defunct institution to exceed the €12.9 billion in IBRC-related debt issued by the State at the time of its winding up last year. As a result there will be no additional taxpayer liability relating to the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide above the €34.7 billion that was given to the banks in 2009/10 via share capital and the Anglo promissory note.