Headlines

There are two schools of thought about the government of Mariano Rajoy, The Wall Street Journal Agenda blog reported. One view, which one tends to hear from euro-zone policy makers including senior German politicians, is that the Spanish prime minister already has impressive achievements to his name after six months in office.

The latest Italian bond downgrade had only modest impact on the market Friday but highlighted the risk of losing access to capital markets for the euro zone's third-largest economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Government officials here insisted that Moody's Investors Service's two-notch downgrade early Friday was unjustified—a common refrain in Rome—and insisted they would convince investors that recent tough fiscal and economic measures would go on and bear fruit. The move was "completely unjustified and misleading," said Industry Minister Corrado Passera.

Restructuring and turnround specialists are staffing up and poaching from rivals in expectation of rising corporate distress across the world, particularly in Europe, the Financial Times reported. “We’ve been hiring and growing consistently, as have our rivals,” said Peter Briggs, managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, a turrnround firm.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has confirmed that 20 Irish developers managed by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) have declared themselves bankrupt in Britain, the Irish Times reported. Mr Noonan said Nama was “generally neutral” on bankruptcy location and did not believe debtors declaring bankruptcy outside the Republic would affect its debt recovery position. “Nama does not see the success of developers declaring bankruptcy in the UK rather than Ireland as significantly prejudicing its potential recoveries from the bankruptees,” he said.

The former Anglo Irish Bank has failed in its bid to get court orders requiring the family of bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn to provide security for the cost of discovering documents as part of the family’s legal challenge aimed at avoiding liability for loans of some €2.34 billion, the Irish Times reported. The bank, now Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), had argued the costs of making the “vast” discovery sought by the family could be as high as €1 million, while the costs of discovery to which the bank had agreed would be about €600,000.

The surge in anti-European sentiment before the election in Finland last year may have quietened down, but promises to limit the country's exposure to weaker economies are continuing to have a big impact on how the eurozone tackles its sovereign debt crisis, the Financial Times reported. Finland rattled the bond markets last week after it threatened to block an agreement to use Europe's €500bn permanent rescue fund to start buying Italian and Spanish bonds in the secondary markets.

The European Union plan to impose losses on the holders of Spanish subordinated debt that need recapitalising has unsettled some fixed income investors, who fear, following the experience of Ireland, that this could become a blueprint for all eurozone banks, International Financing Review reported. Any burden-sharing exercise will mostly affect Spanish retail investors, who bought almost two-thirds of subordinated debt – chiefly preferred shares - sold by the likes of Bankia, CatalunyaCaixa, NovaCaixaGalicia and Banco de Valencia.

A Dutch sludge-processing firm said it was in talks with Deutsche Bank and others about a 270 million euro ($331 million) derivatives deal, in which it effectively guaranteed loans the German bank made to other firms. Slibverwerking Noord-Brabant (SNB), owned by Dutch public water management bodies, is now sitting on a loss on the deal which it agreed in 2007, before the global credit crisis. SNB is talking to Deutsche Bank, its shareholders and other stakeholders about changing the terms of the loan guarantees, Chief Financial Officer Silvester Bombeeck told Reuters.

Ireland passed the latest review of its bailout program, and is now looking to secure a deal to refinance its huge banking debts to help it regain access to markets, Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Under the terms of the 2010 bailout, the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, regularly scrutinize Ireland for its adherence to a program of fiscal and banking targets. "All measures have been implemented and the program remains on track," Mr. Noonan told a news briefing.

The owners of equipment rental company HireQuip have been placed in receivership and the operating business is being prepared for sale, according to KordaMentha, The New Zealand Herald reported. The receivership comes less than a month after HireQuip director Rob Nichols was quoted saying the company could seek a listing on the NZX as earnings recovered. HireQuip's parent shareholding companies Pacific Equipment Solutions, PES Finance and Hire Equipment Group are the entities placed in receivership, KordaMentha's Brendon Gibson said.