Headlines

Loss-making Italian airline Alitalia risks having to file for bankruptcy if it fails to agree a deal for a capital increase in the next couple of weeks, a government source said on Tuesday. Alitalia needs about 500 million euros ($680 million) to stay in business and invest in a new turnaround strategy, analysts have said, after accumulating losses of more than 1 billion euros and debt of a similar size since being rescued from bankruptcy in 2009.

OSX Brasil SA bank creditors are considering taking possession of two vessels used as collateral on loans to Eike Batista’s shipbuilding company, according to six people with direct knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg reported. Banks are talking to advisers and OSX officials to evaluate whether they should execute guarantees if the oil-producing sister company goes into default, which would trigger cross-default clauses on OSX debt, said the people, asking not to be named as discussions are private.

Dublin has won approval from its bailout masters to ease back on €3.1bn in planned austerity measures in its 2014 budget as long as it meets existing deficit targets in its programme, the Financial Times reported. The European Commission said on Tuesday that Ireland’s latest plan to implement €2.5bn in tax rises and spending cuts next year, rather than €3.1bn originally agreed with Ireland’s international lenders, “provided a sound basis for taking forward the necessary consolidation”.

It's being billed as the decisive step that will draw a final line under the euro crisis; the most significant piece of euro-zone integration since the launch of the single currency; and the last chance to restore trust in Europe's battered banking system, unfreeze the single market and allow credit to start flowing freely again, The Wall Street Journal Agenda blog reported.

The International Monetary Fund proceeded with its record 2010 bailout of Greece despite deep internal divisions over whether it would work, according to confidential documents that contradict the fund's public statements, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new details of the rift come as the crisis lender is now pressing European governments to forgive some of the country's debt in a fresh round of difficult talks. The idea is unpopular with Germany and other European nations because their taxpayers would take the hit.

The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a landmark appeal by Argentina of a lower court's order to pay around $1.5 billion to two hedge funds, the Global Post reported on an Agence France-Presse story. But the decision did not end Argentina's avenues to challenge the 2012 ruling, supported in August on appeal, that it had to pay back all holders of its defaulted bonds, whether or not they took part in a restructuring of those bonds.

The Help to Buy mortgage scheme threatens Britain’s financial stability by rekindling a housing boom, an influential committee of MPs will warn on Tuesday, even as George Osborne launches the government’s flagship housing policy, the Financial Times reported. Virgin Money is the latest lender to sign up to the programme, the chancellor will announce, as he pledges to deliver to many young people the “dream of owning their own home”.

A top Serbian official warned of the country's dire economic straits and signaled that the government was preparing to cut the wages of public workers, as the cabinet prepared to pass new austerity measures on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said the government will cut public worker salaries by 10% or more as the government struggles to avoid insolvency and a ratings downgrade of its bonds. Serbia is suffering staggering unemployment, with a quarter of the working-age population out of work.

Brazilian oil producer OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações SA is meeting with U.S. creditors in New York on Monday in a bid to jump-start rescue talks while banks scamper to arrange an emergency loan for the company if no deal is reached, sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters. Creditors were set to meet with a new advisory team for controlling shareholder Eike Batista aimed at averting a bankruptcy filing that could come as soon as this month, the sources said. OGX said last week that management is considering all measures to protect assets and stay in business.

Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena BMPS.MI +6.26% SpA approved on Monday the guidelines of a tougher restructuring plan aimed at obtaining the European Commission's green light on a state loan it received in February, and at restoring profitability by 2017, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new plan, which amends a set of targets and actions launched in June 2012, contains more drastic measures which the bank hopes will also enable it to reimburse €3 billion ($4 billion), or about 70%, of the state loan by 2014.