Headlines

A dispute over the sacking of civil servants has stalled talks between Greece and the “troika” of international lenders, delaying disbursement of €2.8bn in bailout aid due this month amid fears the country’s bailout programme is already veering off track, the Financial Times reported. A joint statement by the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund said: “Significant progress has been made but a few issues remain outstanding.” It added that the mission would return in April after more technical work had been done.

Germany has boasted of its near-balanced budget ahead of Thursday's European Union summit in Brussels, calling itself a model for all of Europe, The Wall Street Journal reported. But German businesses and economists say there is a hidden price tag: Europe's biggest economy has been neglecting investment in its infrastructure for years, hurting the country's potential to grow and create jobs. Germany spends significantly less on public infrastructure than the U.S.

Nathan Tinkler became Australia's youngest billionaire in record time thanks to a series of aggressive bets on the country's coal mining sector, Reuters reported. But the man who started his career as a pit electrician acknowledged on Thursday he may have attempted one risky deal too many, leaving him with an undiversified portfolio that was heavily exposed to plummeting coal prices. "I got left holding the can," Tinkler told an Australian court during a grilling about his failure to pay junior coal explorer Blackwood Corp Ltd A$28.4 million ($29.1 million) for an agreed share placement deal.

The government has launched a review of pre-pack insolvencies, the controversial practices that can enable companies to dump pension liabilities, Professional Pensions reported. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the review, announced during a parliamentary debate, would begin in "late spring" although a timescale had yet to be set. Pre-packs involve arranging the sale of a business before an insolvency is triggered, with the transaction going through as soon as an administrator is formally appointed.

Dana Gas, the Abu Dhabi-listed energy firm, said a shareholder meeting to vote on the restructuring of the $920 million sukuk did not met the required quorum, Reuters reported. A new meeting has been scheduled for March 21, the company said in a filing to the Abu Dhabi stock exchange on Thursday. Dana became the first company in UAE to miss repayment of a maturing bond on October 31 but agreed new terms with a creditor committee representing bondholders, which included investment firms Ashmore Group and BlackRock, a week later.

The UK government’s Insolvency Service is all but insolvent, the Financial Times reported. Experts suggest the group, which polices bankrupt companies, liquidates failed businesses and disqualifies unfit directors, would be broke had it not received an emergency injection of cash from the government. After reporting an underlying deficit of £12m last year, the agency is heading for a deficit of £5m to £7m for 2012-13, according to Whitehall officials.

The lawmakers of the European Union gave austerity a poke in the eye Wednesday by overwhelmingly rejecting the bloc’s proposed budget of €960 billion in its current form, the International Herald Tribune reported. E.U. leaders deadlocked over the seven-year plan in November but finally reached a deal last month after a 24-hour marathon of talks that resulted in spending cuts for the first time in the Union’s history.

There is growing expectation that losses may be imposed on senior bank bondholders as part of the imminent Cypriot bailout, despite a similar option being withheld from Ireland as part of the €64 billion Irish rescue package. Forcing bank bondholders to take a write-down on their debt is under active consideration by euro zone officials, according to a well-placed euro zone source. Depositors in Cypriot banks may also suffer writedowns, the Irish Times reported.

The Bank of England warned on Thursday that the next phase of the UK's six-year financial and economic crisis may be triggered by the collapse of debt-laden companies bought by private equity firms in the boom years before the crash, The Guardian reported. In its latest quarterly bulletin, Threadneedle Street said the need over the next year to refinance firms subject to heavily leveraged buyouts posed a systemic threat.

Most sites being worked on by Mainzeal prior to its collapse last month have now been handed back to their clients, according to receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers, The New Zealand Herald reported. Hope remains that the collapsed company's subcontractors and staff will now be re-hired to work on the various projects. Mainzeal Property and Construction, which was New Zealand's third largest construction firm, went into receivership on Waitangi Day leaving workers and subcontractors locked out of about 40 worksites.