Headlines

G8 leaders tried to plug the holes in their public finances with a sweeping commitment to shake-up international corporate tax rules, including a new crackdown on tax evasion and the shadowy owners of shell companies, the Financial Times reported. The leaders of eight of the world’s biggest economies signed a 10-point Lough Erne Declaration that calls for tax authorities around the world to automatically share information.

Alpine Holding GmbH, the Austrian builder owned by Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA, may incur the country’s biggest insolvency in three years after attempts to reach a restructuring failed and were terminated, Bloomberg reported. Alpine Bau, the company’s operating unit with businesses in Austria, Germany and eastern Europe that employ 15,000 staff, plans to file for restructuring to rescue parts of the group, Alpine said in a statement yesterday. Alpine Holding will probably go insolvent in the process, it said.

The International Monetary Fund has said Ireland is on track with the conditions of its bailout programme, the Irish Times reported. The IMF, one of a trio of lenders overseeing Dublin’s €85 billion bailout, said Ireland’s economy grew modestly in 2012 for the second year in a row and employment during the first quarter of this year was up 1 per cent from the same period a year ago. The IMF’s board approved the tenth disbursal of about $1.27 billion, bringing to $27.79 billion the total funds that Ireland has received from the IMF so far.

Co-operative Bank PLC asked bondholders to take heavy losses to stave off a potential collapse, the latest case in Europe of debtholders, rather than taxpayers, taking a hit, The Wall Street Journal reported. Co-op Bank, part of the Co-operative Group Ltd., a mutual conglomerate with businesses from funerals to supermarkets, said it aims to raise £1 billion ($1.57 billion) in fresh capital this year by offering holders of its £1.3 billion in subordinated bonds a mix of new senior debt and shares.

Spanish property developer Bami has filed to begin insolvency proceedings, a company spokesman said on Tuesday, the latest in a series of real estate groups and other firms in the recession-hit country to struggle to refinance their debts, Reuters reported. Dozens of property firms have collapsed in Spain, where house prices have fallen 40 percent from their 2007 peak, and banks that have set aside money to cover losses in the sector are becoming tougher with firms still in business.

A senior European Central Bank policy maker on Monday urged the eurozone to agree on a plan for banking union that would centralise the process of winding down and paying for insolvent banks, a position sharply at odds with Germany’s view on the subject, the Financial Times reported. Jörg Asmussen, a member of the ECB’s six-person executive board, said in a speech in the eastern German city of Magdeburg that declining profitability at eurozone banks was one of the main risks to financial stability.

A Paris court ordered the liquidation of books-to-music retailer Virgin Megastore France on Monday, sending hundreds more people to join France's record jobless queues, Reuters reported. Virgin Megastore France, which employs 960 people in France, filed for insolvency in January, blaming high property rental costs and an industry-wide slump in CD and DVD sales as consumers download more film and music online. The court last week rejected two takeover offers by clothing group Vivarte and specialist retailer Cultura, deeming neither sufficient to safeguard Virgin's future.

Receivership of MediaWorks may be the move that saves the company, a former TVNZ presenter and New Zealand on Air board member Judy Callingham says, Stuff.co.nz reported. Callingham said this morning's appointment of Kordamentha, which is expected to be followed by a sale to the broadcasting company's bankers, would be frightening for staff but was necessary to manage excess debt. Brendan Gibson and Michael Stiassny of KordaMentha have been appointed by MediaWorks' senior lenders to manage a transition in ownership from private equity firm Ironbridge.

A Greek court ruled that shuttered state broadcaster ERT must reopen immediately, a court official said on Monday, offering the squabbling ruling coalition a way out of a political crisis over the station's abrupt closure. The ruling - which ordered ERT switched back on until a restructured public broadcaster is launched - came six day after Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took it off air in the name of austerity and public sector layoffs to please foreign lenders.

The discord between Ryanair and Aer Lingus is the latest in a series of problems facing large companies to focus shareholders on the growing pension deficit problem in Ireland, the Irish Times reported. Aer Lingus, and others, made generous pension promises to employees without putting enough money aside to meet these obligations. Ryanair, as a significant shareholder of Aer Lingus, has warned that it will resist attempts to pass the shortfall onto shareholders. UK independent pension consultant John Ralfe believes pension deficits are a concern.