Headlines

Treasury’s new measures to plug loopholes that property dealers use to avoid paying taxes are expected to add impetus to real estate price inflation, as agents pass on the additional levies to home buyers, Business Daily Africa reported. The new measures contained in Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s Budget proposals require real estate developers and land dealers to pay taxes on gains made from the appreciation in the value of properties sold.

Chancellor George Osborne will use a major speech on Wednesday to throw his weight behind recommendations that banks' retail arms should be ring-fenced from their investment banking operations, Reuters reported. Treasury sources said Osborne will endorse recommendations from the Independent Commission on Banking that banks structure in a way that their retail business would be unharmed if their investment banking operations hit trouble. The banking commission made preliminary suggestions in April and will publish a final report in September.

Try to talk about Mexican restructuring law for 15 seconds without saying the word Vitro. You can’t! And neither could the four participants in a New York panel discussion Monday on Mexico’s 11-year-old equivalent of a bankruptcy code, called Ley de Co Concurso Mercantiles, the Bankruptcy Beat blog reported. The panelists seem to agree that the prepackaged plan being pushed by Mexico’s largest glassmaker is the biggest challenge yet to the viability of Concurso. Vitro SAB and its bondholders have been fighting for months in both the U.S.

A year after it pledged to curb the power of the credit rating agencies, Europe remains at their mercy as it struggles to introduce regulatory steps and the agencies show little sign of softening their stance on the region's debt crises, Reuters reported. The threat of stricter regulation has not deterred the agencies from downgrading the sovereign debt of Ireland and Portugal over the past several months, as well as demoting Greece further into junk territory. On Monday, Standard & Poor's slashed Greece's rating by three notches to CCC, just four steps from default.

Euro-zone officials failed on Tuesday to narrow sharp divisions over how to encourage Greece's private creditors to help finance the nation's mounting public debt, a move that threatens to delay a decision on a new multiyear aid package for the country, The Wall Street Journal reported. The currency bloc's finance ministers, who met for hours in Brussels, said they would ensure Greece wouldn't face a cash crunch next month.

The North’s Minister for Finance Sammy Wilson has warned that lowering corporation tax must not be “debilitating” to the Northern Ireland economy, the Irish Times reported. He told business people at Stormont yesterday that harmonising such tax rates with the South could cost the North up to £385 million annually in reduced subvention from Westminster. Mr Wilson said while the Northern Executive favoured reducing corporation tax there was a “huge amount of uncertainty” over what would be the impact of such a move on jobs, investment and public expenditure.

A trio of magic circle firms are advising on the high-profile restructuring of Southern Cross as the troubled care homes group attempts to reach a deal with landlords over unpaid rent, LegalWeek.com reported. The negotiations have attracted intense media attention in recent weeks amid fears that the group may have to close some of its homes due to difficulties in paying a multimillion-pound rent bill. Clifford Chance (CC) is advising Southern Cross on its restructuring.

Brazilian policy-makers have fueled their country's economic boom through a state-owned bank that keeps business flush with credit, The Wall Street Journal reported. Now the engine that has helped the nation become a global player in beef, oil and mining is colliding with another policy imperative: battling inflation. The Brazilian National Development Bank, in its latest spur to the economy, last week announced it would lend $1.6 billion at below-market interest rates to help a large company to build a pulp and paper mill.

Swedish car maker Saab has agreed a rescue package from two Chinese car companies, handing over a majority stake in return for a cash injection to avert a potential collapse, Reuters reported. Saab owner Spyker Cars said on Monday it had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding for Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co to take a 29.9 percent stake in the company and Chinese car distributor Pangda (601258.SS) to take a 24 percent stake for a combined 245 million euros ($352 million).

Standard & Poor’s, the credit ratings agency, lowered its grade on Greek debt to CCC in the latest sign that the market believes that Greece will be forced to default on its debt, the International Herald Tribune reported. The three-notch downgrade makes Greece’s debt the lowest-rated in the world by S.& P., a spokesman for the agency said. The downgrade comes at a particularly awkward time for Greece. The government is trying to persuade legislators to accept a fresh set of austerity measures.