Headlines

David Drumm, the former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank, faces two days of questioning Thursday and Friday in connection with debts claimed by Anglo Irish and his declaration of bankruptcy in Massachusetts, the Irish Times reported. Under a protective order that was demanded by Mr Drumm and his lawyers in exchange for their co-operation, the session will be closed to the press. The order compelling Mr Drumm to appear was filed by Anglo’s lawyers last month and subsequently approved by US bankruptcy judge Frank Bailey, who overruled objections by Mr Drumm’s lawyers.

Electrical retailer Dixons Retail PLC Wednesday lowered its fiscal-year earnings target amid a slump in consumer confidence, heightening concerns about the performance of key U.K. high-street chains, The Wall Street Journal reported. Dixons Retail, the U.K.'s largest electrical retailer by market share, now expects underlying profit before tax, excluding operations in Spain, to be around £85 million ($136 million) for the year ending April 30, from a previous range of between £100 million and £110 million. The U.K.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut Cyprus' government debt grade by one notch on Wednesday and warned it could issue the euro country another downgrade because of the financial system's exposure to debt-saddled Greece, the Associated Press reported. The agency said the Cypriot financial system's "significant" exposure to Greece represented a "ratings weakness." S&P credit analyst Benjamin Young said "the increasing likelihood that the Greek government will restructure its debt" heightened the risk that Cyprus would be impacted negatively.

Sustained pressure on food and fuel prices lifted the inflation rate for the fifth straight month in March, bringing closer to reality the possibility of consumer price acceleration touching the double-digit mark before end of June, Business Daily Africa reported. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said inflation climbed to 9.19 per cent in March — the highest since the new method of calculating price changes was introduced in November 2009 -- and 2.65 percentage points higher than February’s rate of 6.64 per cent.

Princes Wharf developer David Henderson averted bankruptcy this morning to allow him and his creditors time to discuss another proposal that could stop Inland Revenue's application, The New Zealand Herald reported. High Court Associate Judge Jeremy Doogue adjourned IRD's application to bankrupt Henderson to April 19, to allow Henderson's creditors to vote on a new proposal. The meeting is expected to be held within the next 10 working days. IRD lawyer Nick Malarao said the commissioner opposed the adjournment, stating it was in public interest that Henderson be bankrupted.

It's going to be a nail-biter. In the latest twist in the euro zone's struggle to repair its battered public finances, there are two desirable outcomes that may not be compatible, The Wall Street Journal reported. Portugal's government looks likely to run out of money within the next three months—according to most bond market analysts, it has enough cash to repay bonds that mature in April, but not those that mature in June. That would suggest that the government needs to go to its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund for help, and now.

Probes by the U.K. and Icelandic authorities into the failure Iceland's Kaupthing Bank hf have widened to include Luxembourg, The Wall Street Journal reported. Luxembourg police on Tuesday morning raided the premises of Kaupthing's former premises in Luxembourg at the request of British and Icelandic officials, according to authorities. In total, the searches covered three business premises and two residential properties and were continuing as of early afternoon Tuesday. They involved more than 70 investigators from Luxembourg, the UK and Iceland. U.K.

Shares in Irish Life and Permanent plunged today amid speculation that the Government may be forced to take a large stake in the lender as a result of the severity of this week’s bank stress tests, the Irish Times reported. A banking source confirmed today that IL&P, until now the only domestic lender to avoid a state bailout, will be hit hard by the stress tests, which are homing in on potential losses in Ireland's residential mortgage market. The banking source declined to say how large a stake Dublin may take in the lender.

A district court placed Czech lottery company Sazka into insolvency and called a meeting of its main creditors for May 26, the court said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The move was expected after the debt-laden company's chief executive Ales Husak filed for insolvency late on Friday, the latest step in a months-long battle for control of the national lottery operator. Sazka, owned by Czech sports unions, had 10.5 billion crowns ($604.1 million) in debt as of September 2010.

Philippine central-bank governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said Tuesday that inflation in the country is under control and that the bank might not have to raise interest rates as much as some economists predict to contain the threat, The Wall Street Journal reported. Last Thursday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas increased its overnight borrowing rate by a quarter percentage point to 4.25%—the first interest-rate move since July 2009—and many analysts expect more rate moves to follow. Some predicted interest rates could increase by a total of one percentage point this year.