Headlines

Confidence in the economy has fallen to a two-year low after the Christchurch earthquake, according to the monthly BNZ Confidence Survey, The National Business Review reported. A net 20% of the 456 respondents to the survey expect the economy to get worse over the coming year. This was down from a net 22% expecting improvement in the early February survey and 35% expressing net positive sentiment 12 months ago. It was the worst result since March 2009, when a net 23.2% of respondents expected the economy to get worse.

Klaus Regling, the chief executive of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), has said he does not expect Portugal or Spain to ask for bailouts, the Irish Times reported on an Austrian state radio ORF story. “At the moment it looks like Ireland will be the only country to have tapped the EFSF,” Mr Regling said. “I don’t see any need at all any more for Spain” to take money, he said, adding that “Portugal still has to do some work”. While the EFSF would have sufficient funds for additional bailouts, giving funds “currently doesn’t look necessary”, he said.

Ireland's new government will stick to the budget targets laid down in an 85 billion euro EU/IMF rescue package as it seeks to win European partners round to giving it easier terms on the loans, Reuters reported. Ireland's prime minister in-waiting Enda Kenny is under huge pressure to persuade Europe's paymaster Germany to cut the interest rate Brussels is charging and give Dublin more time to restructure its banks before a Europe-wide deal on the debt crisis is hammered out at summit on March 24-25.

U.S. private-equity fund TPG Capital and Japanese consumer lender J-Trust are the likely contenders to take over failed consumer lender Takefuji, in a decision to be announced as early as the end of this month, according to sources familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal reported. TPG Capital, Cerberus Capital Management, J Trust, Tokyo Star Bank and Korea's A&P Financial are the five finalists for the final round of bidding, the people said.

Europe's conservative leaders, meeting here Friday to plot a response to the Continent's persistent sovereign debt crisis, said they were committed to pushing tough economic reforms as the price of aid to weak states, The Wall Street Journal reported. They also made clear that private investors who lend to euro-zone countries would, in the future, face losses if those countries got in trouble. So far in Europe's bailouts, taxpayers have paid the entire cost.

No New Zealand bookstores will be closed as part of the initial phase of Redgroup Retail’s restructuring, administrators Ferrier Hodgson said today, The National Business Review reported. As a result, there are no redundancies planned in New Zealand as part of this restructure. Redgroup, owned by private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners, has 76 Whitcoulls, five Borders and nine Benetts bookstores in New Zealand. While this is good news for New Zealand Redgroup staff, their Australian counterparts aren’t so lucky.

Struggling British sportswear retailer JJB Sports is offering its landlords a share of up to 7.5 million pounds ($12.25 million) if they back its rescue plan, Reuters reported. JJB Sports, in which America's richest man Bill Gates holds a 5.5 percent stake, on Thursday set out the details of its second company voluntary arrangement (CVA) in as many years. It needs creditors, including landlords, and shareholders to back the plan or it will likely go into administration, threatening 6,300 jobs.

A C$750 million (US$771 million) lawsuit by a group of former General Motors of Canada Ltd. dealers against the car maker has been granted class-action status by an Ontario court, according to the law firm representing the plaintiffs, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. As reported, the group includes more than 200 former car dealers who alleged that GM Canada, a unit of General Motors Co., breached provincial franchise laws when it eliminated their dealerships in the wake of the 2009 auto bailout.

Last month, a tough negotiation between banks and the British government seemed to yield a victory for bonus-bashing politicians: Employees of two partly nationalized banks would be limited to upfront cash bonuses of £2,000 ($3,265) this year, The Wall Street Journal reported. What the government didn't announce was that many employees of the two banks—Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Lloyds Banking Group PLC—will have just a short wait for bigger bonus checks.

Bank of Ireland repeatedly misled outgoing Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan by insisting that no performance-related bonuses had been paid to its senior management, a report by the Department of Finance reveals, the Irish Times reported. The bank is to pay €2 million to the State in recompense for misleading Mr Lenihan and the Oireachtas on bonuses. Following a parliamentary question in November 2010, the bank insisted to Mr Lenihan that no performance-related bonuses had been paid in respect of the financial years ending in March 2009 and December 2009.