Headlines

A Swedish labor union Thursday threatened to force car maker Saab into bankruptcy proceedings over workers' unpaid wages, The Wall Street Journal reported. Union IF Metall said it now is gathering its members pay slips that haven't been honored in order to prepare requests for payment that will be sent to Saab Automobile. When Saab Automobile receives the requests, likely sometime next week, it will have a week to pay the claims. "If it does not have the money at that point, there is only one thing left to do," said Berko Davidovic, lawyer at IF Metall.

Bank of Ireland reduced the maximum stake the Government might take in the lender to 69 per cent after a majority of subordinated bondholders took up shares in a debt-for-equity-or-cash offer, the Irish Times reported. AIB, meanwhile, said it expected the State’s stake in the bank to “increase substantially” from 93 per cent, further diluting the investments of shareholders. New shares were likely to be issued to the State at “a very significant discount” to the current share price and talks with the Government are expected to be finalised next week, the bank said.

Korea will come up with tighter lending regulations on banks to try and rein in household debt, the head of the nation’s financial watchdog said Thursday, The Korea Times reported. “The financial watchdog will seek to stem excessive growth of household debt and make efforts to amend its structure to soften the impacts of rate hikes,” Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor Kwon Hyouk-se said in a forum held at the National Assembly.

European Union leaders fended off an effort by Greece to water down an austerity and privatization package that is the price for new aid, and EU President Herman Van Rompuy said they were nearing approval on a new rescue program to take Athens until the end of 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported. "Very important decisions have been taken," Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said in a statement at the end of the first day of a two-day summit.

The Crafar family have reached a truce with receivers, nearly two years after the collapse of their farming empire, The New Zealand Herald reported. And they say they remain hopeful the Government will reject the latest Chinese bid for 13 dairy farms and three drystock farms they formerly owned in the central North Island. Receivers KordaMentha took control of the farms in October 2009 after the Crafar family companies running them accumulated debts of more than $200 million. KordaMentha receiver Brendon Gibson yesterday confirmed a settlement had been reached.

Think Global, the Norwegian electric car producer that styled itself as a pioneer of battery-powered driving, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday after failing to find long-term financing for its business, the Financial Times reported. Ener1, the US lithium-ion battery producer which led a capital increase of Think last year, said that it planned to take a charge on its earnings worth about $35m relating to loans receivable from the company.

European leaders will try to convince Greeks and financial markets when they meet on Thursday and Friday that they have a workable plan to help Athens avoid a debt default and return to financial stability, Reuters reported. Using a mixture of arm-twisting and moral support, the leaders will tell Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou that they will release the latest 12 billion euros of an emergency aid package, helping Athens to avoid a potential mid-July default, as long as it commits itself to economic reform.

Seeking to head off a potentially destabilizing Greek default, European governments began the delicate task of convincing their major banks to voluntarily accept losses on their holdings of Greek debt, The Wall Street Journal reported. In both Germany and France, finance-ministry officials met with representatives of their respective countries' leading banks and insurers on Wednesday to discuss how banks would shoulder some of the cost of a second bailout of Greece, people familiar with the matter said.

The family of Seán Quinn have moved to protect their international property empire from Anglo Irish Bank by issuing new shares in seven subsidiaries in Sweden to a company controlled by them, the Irish Times reported. Seven subsidiaries of Quinn Investments Sweden, the holding company behind the family’s properties in Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and India, have issued new shares to a company called Indian Trust AB, which they also control.

Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov said on Wednesday he still wants to take a 30 percent stake in troubled Swedish carmaker Saab, owned by Netherlands-based Swedish Automobile, Reuters reported. Antonov wants to invest 30 million euros in the cash-strapped carmaker. His plans is awaiting approval by the European Investment Bank. Saab is scrambling for funds to restart production after it was halted for most of April, May and June because it couldn't pay suppliers.