Headlines

Fortress Investment Group (FIG) and Nomura Real Estate Holdings Inc. are buying Japanese property as a record 700 billion yen ($9 billion) of commercial buildings are set to be sold over the next three years to repay debt, Bloomberg reported. About 364.6 billion yen worth of properties will be offered by next year with the rest sold through 2014 as special servicers that oversee properties tied to defaulted loans sell buildings to repay lenders, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Morgan Stanley Real Estate funds and K.K.

PBG SA (PBG), Poland’s third-largest builder, decided to file for bankruptcy to help reach an agreement with creditors to cut debt by as much as 31 percent, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. PBG, which helped build three out of four stadiums for European soccer championship that kick off in Poland and Ukraine this week, is proposing to honor 69 percent of its debt to creditors owed more than 1 million zloty ($282,700), 80 percent to those owned from 100,000 zloty to 1 million zloty and 100 percent for those owned lesser sums, the company said in a regulatory filing today.

The timing of Ireland’s return to borrowing in the international markets and the cost of that borrowing remains unclear, despite the Yes vote in the fiscal referendum being positive for the country, according to the credit ratings agency Fitch, the Irish Times reported. The public endorsement of the EU fiscal compact “removes a potential source of considerable uncertainty about Ireland’s future funding” as the vote has removed the immediate concern about where Ireland could find a second bailout, Fitch said.

Things are going from bad to worse for large discount store chains these days as consumers have further tightened their wallets amid renewed concerns over the worldwide recession triggered by the eurozone debt crisis, The Korea Times reported. E-Mart, Home Plus, Lotte Mart and other discount store operators are also facing tightening regulations, chipping away at their bottom line, as the government and political parties target them to garner support from those running small mom-and-pop shops.

Germany is sending strong signals that it would eventually be willing to lift its objections to ideas such as common euro-zone bonds or mutual support for European banks if other European governments were to agree to transfer further powers to Europe, The Wall Street Journal reported. If embraced, the move would deepen in fundamental ways Europe's political and fiscal union and represent one of the boldest steps taken by the bloc since the euro was launched.

The UK could be called upon to underwrite up to €6bn towards a bailout of Greece if it exited the euro, according to the Open Europe think-tank, the Financial Times reported. David Cameron would face vocal calls for large concessions – including a referendum on EU membership – if a Greek exit prompted full treaty change, the group says in a report published on Monday. Ahead of the Greek general elections on June 17 there are growing concerns about the consequences should Athens leave the single currency in a so-called “Grexit”.

Cyprus looks increasingly set to become the fourth euro-zone country to seek financial aid under Europe's temporary bailout fund, as early as this month, as it scrambles to protect its banking system from Greece's widening financial crisis that is threatening to engulf its tiny island neighbor, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Madrid will regret refusing a front-door bailout. The straightforward way of dealing with Spain’s banking problem would be for the government to borrow 50 to 100 billion euros from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) or the soon-to-be-created European Stability Mechanism (ESM), and inject that money into the banks. But Mariano Rajoy, the country’s prime minister, continues to deny publicly that the country needs such a rescue, Reuters reported in a Breakingviews commentary. There are probably two reasons.

Loan default rates at major credit card firms have surpassed the 2-percent mark for the first time in three years, prompting concerns that financial soundness in the card sector is deteriorating, The Korea Times reported. This is the result of the financial regulator’s measures to curb commercial lenders from extending credit to households, which has forced many low-income earners to resort to secondary banking institutions, such as plastic issuers and savings banks.

Debt-burdened French poultry group Doux collapsed into administration on Friday after failing to reach an agreement with bankers, putting at risk more than 3,000 jobs, Reuters reported. "A judicial administrator has been selected who will help the company's management to draw up a plan to keep operating, in France, that will support jobs and the survival of the company," Doux, one of the world's largest poultry exporters, said in a statement. "The Doux Group will immediately put together a plan to help strategic suppliers and breeders so that they do not experience any difficulty," it said.