Headlines

Euro-zone finance ministers on Friday agreed to boost the bloc's bailout lending limit to €700 billion ($930 billion), choosing the least ambitious option on the table for reinforcing its anticrisis "firewall," one some in Europe fear won't be enough to prevent a reawakening of the region's financial turmoil, The Wall Street Journal reported. After several months of relative calm, tensions are returning to the European government bond markets.

Drydocks World, a Dubai-based shipbuilding and repair company, is threatening to seek a legal ruling from a special tribunal here to overcome lenders' opposition to its $2.2 billion debt-restructuring plan, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. Drydocks may apply as soon as Monday to the Dubai World Tribunal seeking legal backing for its debt-restructuring plan, which has been approved by the majority of Drydocks' lenders but is still being opposed by a few creditors including a number of hedge funds, according to two of the people.

Sino-Forest Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection as part of a plan that may see the Chinese timber grower company sold to bondholders, nine months after it was accused of fraud by short seller Carson Block, Bloomberg reported. The company obtained an initial order for creditor protection in the Ontario Superior Court under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, Sino-Forest said yesterday in a statement.

Europe’s long-running euro crisis may be cooling. But the economic distress it has left in its wake is pushing a rising tide of workers into precarious straits in France and across the European Union. Today, hundreds of thousands of people are living in campgrounds, vehicles and cheap hotel rooms. Millions more are sharing space with relatives, unable to afford the basic costs of living, the International Herald Tribune reported.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. requested 1 trillion yen ($12 billion) of public funds to avert collapse, paving the way for the government to take control of what once was the world’s biggest private utility, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The company known as Tepco also asked for 845.9 billion yen in extra aid from a government-backed fund to compensate people affected by the Fukushima disaster, President Toshio Nishizawa said at a news briefing today. The utility may face insolvency if its capital keeps falling, he said.

Thousands of protesters rallied in several Spanish cities as a nationwide strike disrupted public transportation and forced factory closures across the country, highlighting popular opposition to government austerity measures, The Wall Street Journal reported. The strike, called by Spain's two largest unions to protest a sweeping overhaul of labor laws, was mostly peaceful, marred by isolated clashes between police and demonstrators in some cities.

Eircom has applied for court protection to allow it to restructure its debt load, the Irish Times reported. A representative of the company told the High Court the firm was applying for examinership, a process that protects company assets from creditors for up to 100 days while a survival plan is worked on to keep the business afloat. The examinership is the largest in Irish corporate history. Under the proposals, Eircom’s gross debts would be reduced from about €4 billion currently to about €2.35 billion.

The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), which is winding down Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, has said it is in talks that could lead to it taking on residential mortgages from other banks, the Irish Times reported. Confirming for the first time that IBRC may take on non-core assets from other lenders, the bank said the talks were centred on repairing the financial system to allow banks to lend again.

British private investment firm OpCapita has submitted a renewed bid to acquire parts of video games retailer Game out of administration, a source familiar with the situation said, Reuters reported. The source said on Thursday OpCapita, which earlier this year acquired British electricals chain Comet from Kesa , was interested on taking on the 333 Game stores in Britain that remain trading. Game collapsed into administration on Monday after failing to pay its second-quarter rent bill.

Toshiba Corp has decided to join the bidding race to sponsor Elpida Memory Inc's turnaround from bankruptcy, setting stage for a battle with U.S.-based Micron Technology, the Nikkei business daily said, Reuters reported. Toshiba, which believes adding Elpida's cell-phone-use DRAMs to its offerings is crucial for its survival in the chip industry, might seek financial assistance from the government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan, the newspaper said. Elpida Memory will soon stop accepting applications for the first round of bidding, Nikkei said.