Headlines

Two of the biggest bondholders of insolvent Czech betting company Sazka have asked for an early repayment of its bonds due in 2021 worth a nominal 203 million euros ($292 million), their representatives said on Friday, Reuters reported. Sazka, the biggest lottery operator in the Czech market, was declared insolvent last month and a court appointed a preliminary creditors' committee.

Ireland’s Supreme Court last week ruled that the legislation governing the National Asset Management Agency was constitutional. In the appeal to the Supreme Court, developer Paddy McKillen challenged the legislation underpinning the state body. The court did not agree that the definition of eligible bank loans in the NAMA legislation was too broad and was unconstitutional, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Despite losing his appeal on the issue of the Constitutionality of the 2009 Act, Mr. McKillan did succeed on the issue of fair procedures.

Struggling Auckland developer David Stewart Henderson just won the right to repay creditors in a partial deal which sees him avoid bankruptcy, The New Zealand Herald reported. Attempts by other developers to strike compromise deals have failed but the ex-Victoria Parks Markets owner succeeded by just .6 per cent. The Princes Wharf developer has claims against him of about $105 million and is offering to repay a pitiful $1.5 million in tranches of about $500,000 gradually. An Australian bank, Inland Revenue and Downer Construction are all chasing him for long outstanding payments.

Saab Automobile's attempts to solve its acute liquidity crisis so that it can pay suppliers and restart production now lie in the hands of the Swedish government, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Sweden's National Debt Office Thursday received Saab's proposal to fix its immediate and mid-term financial issues and forwarded it--along with a recommendation--to the government to make a final decision.

Madrid has been forced to make an embarrassing clarification after claims that Spain had secured from China up to €9bn in investment in its troubled savings banks were denied by Beijing, the Financial Times reported. Spanish officials said an “error of communication” had led to reports that China Investment Corporation – one of the country’s sovereign wealth funds – was considering a €9bn investment after José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s prime minister, met Chinese leaders this week. A CIC official told Reuters that reports in the Spanish media of the investment were false.

In an interview with the left-leaning German daily Die Tageszeitung published Thursday, Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, described Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann as "one of the most dangerous bankers in the world," Spiegel Online reported. Johnson singled out Ackermann's famous target of a 25 percent pretax return on equity for particular criticism. He said such returns were only possible because Ackermann knows that Deutsche Bank is too big to fail and that it would be "rescued by taxpayers" if it was faced with bankruptcy.

Europe's struggling periphery is bracing for another blow to its already grim economic growth prospects, this time from the soaring euro, which touched a 15-month high against the dollar on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The euro's rise, which makes products from the single-currency zone more expensive in global markets, will affect exporters throughout the 17-member currency bloc—particularly with global trade set to slow dramatically this year. The euro is almost 10% higher against the U.S. dollar since the start of the year, and 4% higher against the British pound.

In a dramatic illustration of the upheavals in Ireland following the crash of the Celtic Tiger, the nationalised Anglo Irish Bank announced Thursday that it had seized control of the Quinn Group from ex-billionaire Seán Quinn and his family, Finfacts reported. Seán Quinn, Ireland's once richest man, built up a conglomerate originally from quarrying and later he moved into cement and glass production.

A rift has emerged within government over an International Monetary Fund condition to freeze civil servants’ salaries for three years — pitting the Public Service Ministry against the Treasury, Business Daily Africa reported. The tussle, if unresolved, looks set to trigger labour unrest since the condition has also been opposed by the Kenya Civil Servants Union, which has taken the government to court for non-payment of salary increments agreed on in 2008. It may also lead to conflict within the grand coalition.

The mediation process related to the allocation of proceeds from the sale of Nortel Networks Corp.'s various assets has ended "without resolution," potentially delaying distributions to claimholders, Nortel said Wednesday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The Canadian company, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2009 and has been shedding its assets in bankruptcy court, said delays in resolving allocation and intercompany claims matters "could be significant." The former telecommunications giant didn't elaborate on the latest developments in the mediation process.