Headlines

Britain's most powerful shareholder group has said it has concerns about executive pay levels at Barclays Plc, adding to growing criticism over a 17 million pound award for Chief Executive Bob Diamond, Reuters reported. IVIS, the shareholder advisory service of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) - whose roughly 440 members own about 20 percent of the FTSE All-Share index - said it had issued an "amber top" warning on Barclays' remuneration, which indicates it has some concerns. A red top warning signals its most serious criticism about an issue.

For a bankrupt company, Elpida Memory Inc. is getting a lot of attention as the subject of a billion-dollar chess game among the biggest technology companies, Bloomberg reported. They don’t necessarily covet Elpida’s debt, workforce or even most of its business. They just want the part of its business that makes chips for Apple Inc.’s mobile devices -- and, even more, they want to make sure their competitors don’t get that. Elpida was Japan’s largest maker of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips.

The global banks group that recently negotiated Greece's historic debt restructuring Monday outlined principles it believes should inform possible future privately-held government debt write-downs, Dow Jones reported. "The experience with the protracted negotiations and the scope of the Greek debt exchange have given rise to a number of issues that could usefully be discussed in the period ahead," the Institute of International Finance said in a policy letter written ahead of International Monetary Fund ministerial meetings.

A Chinese maker of synthetic fibres that was on the verge of becoming the first company to default in China's bond market said on Monday that it would repay its obligation, bringing short-term relief to worried investors but raising doubts about the longer-term development of the market, Reuters reported. Shandong Helon Co Ltd, an insolvent chemical fibre manufacturer based in eastern China, said on Monday that it will repay its commercial paper on schedule next week.

The minority shareholders of Agrobanka AD, a Serbian bank that reported a loss last year and was placed in receivership three months ago, demand another audit before the lender is overhauled, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. A new shareholders’ meeting to pick the auditor will be held by the end of April, Branislav Bogdanovic, chairman of AC Broker, a Belgrade-based brokerage, said in a phone interview on April 6. The bank, in which the government holds a 20 percent stake, had an unaudited 2011 loss of 29.7 billion dinar ($348 million).

The dependence of the Portuguese banking system on the European Central Bank rose to a record high in March, as banks took advantage of easier borrowing conditions, The Wall Street Journal reported. Bank of Portugal said domestic banks' use of the ECB's various credit facilities rose to €56.32 billion ($73.76 billion) from €47.55 billion in February. Seven individual central banks in the euro zone, including Portugal's, received approval from the ECB in February to expand the type of assets banks can pledge to tap loans.

Sino-Forest, the Chinese forestry company whose stock collapsed after a short-seller's fraud accusations, said on Monday that Canada's top securities regulator found that its conduct ran afoul of sections of securities law pertaining to fraud, Reuters reported. The Ontario Securities Commission made its findings known to Sino-Forest by serving the Toronto-listed company and some of its current and former executives with enforcement notices, the company said in a statement on Monday.

A group of Catalyst Paper Corp.'s first-lien noteholders will serve as stalking-horse bidder with a $275 million bid for the British Columbia specialty paper and newsprint producer if the company's reorganization efforts fail, The Deal reported. According to an April 1 monitor's report, CP Acquisition LLC, an entity controlled by the company's first-lien noteholders, is the debtor's stalking-horse bidder. Invesco Canada Ltd. owns the majority of the secured notes.

While not necessarily predicting a bust to Brazil’s boom, a budding group of turnaround professionals in the South American nation are getting ready for what they see as an inevitable shakeup, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported.

Thomas Cook is close to striking a £1.2bn refinancing deal that will give the troubled travel group two more years' breathing space to turn round its business, The Guardian reported. A consortium of 17 banks including Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays is expected to approve an extension of loans until 2015. Although the conditions are likely to be stringent, with higher interest rates and the lenders taking a significant stake in the company, the deal is regarded as good news by Thomas Cook.