Headlines

Ireland's High Court has rejected an attempt by property developer Treasury Holdings to overturn a state-run agency's appointment of receivers in relation to 35 properties and debts of 900 million euros ($1.1 billion), Reuters reported. The court on Tuesday dismissed Treasury's claims on the grounds that it entered into an agreement with the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) in January, which stated that it would not object to the appointment of receivers. Treasury said that it will mount an appeal against the decision. It has 21 days to lodge its appeal with the Supreme Court.

Embattled timber company Sino-Forest Corp., which is in bankruptcy protection, says it is owed half a billion dollars from companies that have been deregistered in China, thestar.com reported. Sino-Forest, which filed for bankruptcy protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in March, said in a new release Tuesday that it intends “to take all steps necessary” to collect receivables owing to it. It added that it believes the deregistrations, which have the effect of terminating the existence of the entities, were improper under Chinese law.

Creditors of bankrupt refiner Petroplus's UK operations, mainly the Coryton refinery, will be paid a maximum of just 6.4 percent of their claims, said Steven Pearson, a joint administrator at PwC. The creditors will receive $102 million to $135 million, while their claims are estimated to total $2.1 billion to $2.4 billion, Pearson said on Tuesday. He said that losses of $22-$31 million, sustained in runnning the refinery between January and June, had reduced the amount available for distribution and demonstrated why he had to take the decision to close the plant down.

The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday held an hour-long hearing on President Barack Obama’s nomination of William J. Baer to be Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ”).

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's allies are pushing for two more years to implement unpopular austerity cuts before they sign off on them, sources close to the parties said on Monday, potentially delaying a deal on the savings demanded by lenders, Reuters reported. The three parties in Samaras's coalition have agreed on the bulk of the nearly 12 billion euros in cuts that Greece must produce to satisfy inspectors from the European Union and International Monetary Fund bailing out the nation.

Four years ago, Stephen Hester was cast as the savior of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC as it was being bailed out by U.K. taxpayers. Now the 51-year-old chief executive may risk having his tenure cut short by the latest scandal to hit the state-owned lender, The Wall Street Journal reported. RBS is negotiating a settlement with authorities investigating attempted interest-rate rigging at RBS and other banks, and a deal, including fines, could be announced in the next few months, according to people familiar with the matter.

Spain slid deeper into recession in the second quarter as a tough new round of austerity to head off the budget crisis that threatens the euro took effect both on overall demand and the price consumers have to pay for goods, the Irish Times reported. The first official numbers on gross domestic product showed the economy shrank 0.4 per cent from the previous quarter after contracting 0.3 per cent in the first three months of the year. The economy was 1 per cent smaller than a year earlier.

Air France-KLM said Monday its net loss ballooned to nearly €900 million ($1.1 billion) in the second quarter after it took a hefty charge to pay for restructuring that will see it shed about 10 percent of the airline's workforce, Bloomberg Businessweek reported on an Associated Press story. The Franco-Dutch airline operator said its net loss grew to €895 million in the three months to June 30, compared to a loss of €197 million a year earlier.

Dubai Group LLC’s creditors are seeking an option to be repaid early as the investment company controlled by Dubai’s ruler reorganizes $6 billion of bank debt, according to three people familiar with the talks, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Under the early exit proposal for the 10-year debt restructuring, banks can choose to be repaid the market value of their loans after five years, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Shareholders in Renesas Electronics Corp. have reached a final agreement to provide around Y50 billion in loans to help the struggling Japanese chipmaker turn its business around through restructuring measures, sources familiar with the matter said Monday, Kyodo News reported. The agreement was reached by NEC Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. after Renesas announced earlier this month its restructuring measures featuring closing or selling eight of its 18 domestic plants and eliminating more than 5,000 jobs with early retirements.