Headlines

A French prosecutor has launched an investigation into the insolvency filing by the local unit of Swiss-based refiner Petroplus Holdings AG, Dow Jones reported. The prosecutor started an investigation into whether there was irregular money flow, of about EUR100 million, out of the company's bank accounts prior to the filing for insolvency, a spokeswoman said Thursday in a telephone interview. She said the French police's financial brigade is investigating and officers have already carried out searches at some Petroplus sites.

After years of decrying as incompetent the former Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s business leaders and fund managers are having their first twinges of doubt about the Popular party administration they elected in November to replace it, the Financial Times reported. Mariano Rajoy, PP prime minister, had raised expectations he would enact radical economic reforms to save Spain from the eurozone sovereign debt crisis and the ignominy of a bail-out such as those of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Sweden’s tough regulations on its own lenders, regarded as even more stringent than the Basel III bank capital rules, could fire up the Nordic country’s corporate debt market in 2012, as small and mid-cap borrowers in particular rush from hard-to-get loans to readily available bonds, International Financing Review reported. While heads of the world’s leading economies have agreed to introduce stricter bank capital and global liquidity rules by 2013, Sweden has urged its four biggest lenders to ensure that they have bigger buffers sooner.

Kazakh lender BTA Bank said it will push ahead with talks to restructure its debt for the second time in as many years even after a shareholder meeting today failed to gain enough votes to begin the process. The results of the meeting in Almaty are “certainly not an impediment to achieving restructuring and the bank will continue to take all the necessary steps,” BTA said in a statement. Majority owner Samruk-Kazyna, the Kazakh sovereign-wealth fund, couldn’t back any resolutions on the agenda as an insufficient number of depositary-receipt holders voted, it said.

Britain should be relaxed about being "out of the room" when Europe discusses euro zone issues, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday, dismissing any prospect of signing up to a new treaty with other EU states to enforce stricter budget controls, Reuters reported. Cameron infuriated other European Union members last month and sparked speculation about Britain's place in the bloc it joined in 1973 by blocking an EU treaty change and forcing euro zone countries to negotiate a fiscal accord outside the Union.

Dublin has announced an overhaul of its bankruptcy and personal insolvency laws designed to tackle a growing mortgage debt crisis and curb “bankruptcy tourism” to the UK, the Financial Times reported. Legislation published on Wednesday would enable people struggling with unsustainable debts to emerge from bankruptcy after three years, rather than the current 12 years. It would also enable consumers on a case-by-case basis to write down mortgage debt while continuing to live in their homes.

Negotiations between Greece and its creditors to reduce its debts have developed into an impasse because the nature of the creditors has changed since the scheme to involve private sector investors on a voluntary basis was first mooted nearly a year ago, International Financing Review reported in an analysis. Back then private sector bondholders made up the majority of Greece’s €350bn debts. However, as loans from the original €110bn bailout package have been deployed, principally to pay back maturing bonds, the IMF and European Union countries have built sizeable stakes.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, sharply criticized for her government's prescriptions of austerity as a cure for the euro zone's sovereign-debt crisis, said labor-market reforms and greater European integration also were needed to correct flaws in the makeup of the common currency, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The National Asset Management Agency is believed to have lined up a receiver to take control of assets at Treasury Holdings if an agreement is not reached on the repayment of the developer’s loans by this afternoon, the Irish Times reported. Nama set a 4pm deadline Wednesday for Treasury to repay its near €900 million loans to the state agency. It is understood that accounting firm Ernst Young has been lined up by Nama to take charge of the assets involved if no arrangement has been reached with Treasury by the deadline.

U.K. steel producer Thamesteel, which is owned by Saudi-based Al-Tuwairqi Group, has entered into administration after failing to secure an investor to rescue it from financial difficulties, members of the Community Union said Wednesday, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported. Thamesteel "had planned an investor for the site but that fell through today and consequently the company has been put into administration," said a Community Union spokesman.