Headlines

The second half of 2012 was supposed to be Cyprus’s time to shine. For the first time, the European Union’s third-smallest member state by population, just behind Malta and Luxembourg, is assuming the bloc’s rotating presidency – a perfect opportunity to show off its sandy beaches and get some issues that are close to its heart, such as an integrated maritime policy, on the EU’s agenda.

As India's growth rate fades, its banking system is developing bad habits. Debt restructurings are on the rise. And Indian banks have the lowest bad debt reserves in the Asia-Pacific region, Reuters reported. Without an improvement, the pressure to fudge the numbers will only increase. The Reserve Bank of India's Financial Stability report, released on June 29, said that banks remain comfortably capitalised, but the central bank is concerned about the deteriorating quality of the banks' loan books.

Micron Technology Inc. agreed to acquire troubled Japanese rival Elpida Memory Inc. for about $2.5 billion, as the U.S. memory maker bulks up to compete against rivals in South Korea and Taiwan, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal would make Micron No. 2 in the market for memory chips, second only to Samsung Electronics Co. Micron, based in Boise, Idaho, currently ranks third, behind SK Hynix Inc., another Korean company that until earlier this year was called Hynix Semiconductor Inc.

One of Japan's oldest shipping firms, Sanko Steamship, filed for bankruptcy on Monday after months of battling with ship owners over the restructuring of $2 billion in debt, becoming the latest casualty of the four-year-old shipping industry downturn, Reuters reported. The dry bulk and tanker shipping firm, started in 1934, joins U.S.-based General Maritime Corp, the Containership Company, and South Korea's Korea Line in seeking bankruptcy protection amid rock bottom freight rates, an oversupply of vessels and high bunker fuel prices.

Facing a bank crisis in Spain and the prospect of outbreaks in other major countries, European leaders have pledged to establish a new agency aimed at curbing problems afflicting lenders in the euro zone, the International Herald Tribune reported. Yet for now the proposal amounts to little more than a vague statement of intent, one that has prompted more questions than answers. Will the new regulator have the power to rein in risky practices and hold offending banks accountable, for example, and will it be willing to exercise that power?

The Irish government is mobilizing a campaign to seize advantage of a fresh euro-zone agreement to allow rescue funds to finance the currency bloc's broken banks, offering possible relief at the source of Ireland's financial straits, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deals struck by European leaders on Friday elicited perhaps the loudest cheers from Ireland, which more than any other euro-zone nation has suffered the ill effects of a tight embrace between a country and its banks.

Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas on Sunday dismissed as "speculation" a report in the Sunday Times that said the company was considering putting itself up for sale and had entered debt restructuring talks with its lenders, Reuters reported. The Sunday Times, which cited no sources for its information, said that Vestas' banks had given it an "ultimatum," and demanded that the company prepare a comprehensive financial restructuring plan.

A deepening mortgage crisis in Ireland is threatening to derail the country’s fragile economic recovery and raising fresh questions about the health of its banks, the Financial Times reported. Stubbornly high unemployment and lower wages, caused by a four-year economic crisis, have pushed many mortgage holders to the brink. At the same time plummeting property prices, which have halved in four years, mean hundreds of thousands of borrowers are stuck in negative equity and cannot simply sell their homes to escape debts.

Germany's parliament ratified the euro zone's permanent bailout fund late Friday, as well as rules that enshrine German-style budget discipline in euro-zone countries and most other European Union members, despite widespread criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel upon her return from a European summit where she made major concessions on support for Spain and Italy, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The administrators of debt-burdened French group Doux, one of the world's biggest poultry exporters, have extended a deadline for takeover bids by three days to July 5, a Doux spokesman said, as interest increased in buying the company, Reuters reported. The family-owned firm went into administration at the start of June with debt of 340 million euros ($423 million), putting at risk 3,400 staff and about 800 poultry farmers in France.