Headlines

The Supreme Court of Canada will weigh into the high-stakes debate about whether pension plan members have a claim on an insolvent company’s assets to cover shortfalls in their plan, The Globe and Mail reported. The court announced Thursday it has agreed to hear an appeal of a landmark Ontario court ruling that reversed the traditional pecking order for distributing corporate assets when a company goes bankrupt. The April decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal concluded former employees of aluminum processor Indalex Ltd.

The collapse of the latest in a string of failed redevelopment plans for London's Battersea Power Station could delay the creation of an estimated 25,000 jobs against a worsening British economic backdrop, Reuters reported. Lloyds Banking Group and Ireland's National Asset Management Agency are seeking to have the site's owner, a vehicle controlled by AIM-listed Real Estate Opportunities , placed into administration after it was unable to meet repayments on 325 million pounds of debt against the famous London landmark.

Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, laid the groundwork Thursday for a more aggressive response to the euro zone debt crisis, suggesting that the bank could increase its support for the European economy if political leaders took more radical steps to enforce spending discipline among members, the International Herald Tribune reported. Mr. Draghi stopped well short of offering a European version of the huge securities purchases that the Federal Reserve has used to try to stimulate the U.S. economy. But he seemed to be saying that the E.C.B.

Latvia's banking regulator said on Thursday it had filed bankruptcy papers on midsize lender Latvijas Krajbanka, the Baltic nation's oldest bank, adding that it is keeping a close eye on several other banks, Reuters reported. "The Financial and Capital Market Commission today submitted to the Riga district court an application about Latvijas Krajbanka's insolvency," the commission said in a statement on its Web site. Latvia's late 2008 intervention over Parex bank, its second-biggest lender, forced the country to take a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and European Union.

The receivers appointed to the landmark five-star Ashford Castle – which was bought at the peak of the property boom for more than €50 million – have said the hotel will continue trading as normal “for the foreseeable future”, The Connacht Tribune reported. The iconic 13th century hotel was among the assets of Galway developer Gerry Barrett which were taken over by receivers on Tuesday on the instructions of Bank of Scotland (Ireland).

Government officials are working on a proposed bankruptcy law designed to lower costs for businesses seeking to raise capital for start-ups or for expanding in the UAE, legal experts say, The National reported. Observers following developments generally agree the country's economy would benefit from more entrepreneurial risk-taking and a boost to the number of new businesses. But some also say it would help to lower the cost of funds needed to launch or grow a company.

The world's major central banks acted jointly on Wednesday to provide cheaper dollar funding to European banks facing a credit crunch as the euro zone's debt crisis drove EU ministers to urge more IMF help to avert financial disaster, Reuters reported. The emergency move by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the central banks of Japan, Britain, Canada and Switzerland recalled coordinated action to stabilise global markets in the 2008 financial crisis after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Seat Pagine Gialle, the indebted Italian directories group that publishes the country’s Yellow Pages, saw its shares fall by more than 16 per cent after it secured a further 14 day extension to agree the terms of its financial restructuring with its debt and equity holders to avoid administration, the Financial Times reported. The publisher’s bondholders and shareholders last month agreed to convert €1.2bn ($1.6bn) of the company’s debt into equity but talks have stumbled over the conversion price.

Battersea Power Station is going into receivership, with its £5.5bn development scheme in tatters, two days after George Osborne and Boris Johnson posed in hardhats to announce an enterprise zone and tube extension to the listed building, The Guardian reported. In one of the highest-profile property collapses since the credit crunch, Battersea's creditors have secured a high court hearing on 12 December to confirm Ernst & Young as administrators.

China’s central bank, in a surprise move on Wednesday, shifted its economic focus from fighting inflation to stimulating growth by freeing the nation’s commercial banks to lend more money, the International Herald Tribune reported. The bank’s move was separate from the subsequent announcement by central bankers in the United States, Europe and Japan that they would pump more dollars into the European banking system. And Western officials said Beijing’s move was not done in coordination with theirs.