Headlines

The sale of the licence holder of the giant Kovykta gas field, majority-owned by Russia's TNK-BP, has been postponed for two weeks and will be held on March 1, the sale administrator said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. RUSIA Petroleum was declared insolvent by a regional court in October after TNK-BP, owned by British major BP and a quartet of Russia-connected billionaires, filed a petition to initiate bankruptcy proceedings. Initially the auction was mooted for Feb. 15 with a starting price of 15.083 billion roubles.

A report from Goodbody Stockbrokers has argued that the State cannot bear the losses from the banking crisis on its own, RTE News reported. In a report on Irish debt levels, Goodbody says there should be some form of risk-sharing with bondholders. But it adds that Ireland cannot do this on its own, and should push for a Europe-wide solution to the problem. Goodbody says some €21 billion of bank debt should be restructured now - otherwise there will have to be a restructuring of Irish sovereign debt some time after 2014.

The economy may have suffered a double dip recession, Finance Minister Bill English said, The National Business Review reported. He was speaking at Parliament's finance and expenditure committee, where he also announced that he would deliver the 2011 government budget on Thursday May 19. Following questions from Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe, Mr English said it was possible the fourth quarter of last year saw an economic contraction.

Fraser Papers got the green light to proceed with its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy protection on Tuesday after creditors approved an amended restructuring agreement, The Canadian Press reported. The insolvent paper producer said the latest restructuring plan won support from 94 per cent of voters who attended a special meeting in Toronto. Votes in support of the plan represented 75 per cent of the dollar value held by the creditors. Under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, the plan needed support from two thirds of the dollar value of Fraser Paper claimants voting at the meeting.

Anglo Irish Bank, the reckless institution at the heart of Ireland's slide towards bankruptcy, has reported a preliminary euro17.6 billion ($24 billion) loss for 2010 - by far the worst in Irish corporate history, the Associated Press reported. State-owned Anglo revealed the staggering figure Tuesday after the Dublin High Court approved a government plan to merge Anglo with another bust bank, Irish Nationwide, within weeks. The court order permits both banks to auction off their surviving deposit bases to solvent Irish banks.

The U.K. government increased its bank levy for this year to raise an additional £800 million ($1.29 billion), an incremental move for banks more likely aimed at taking some of the steam out of Britain's heated annual debate over bankers' bonuses, The Wall Street Journal reported. Treasury Chief George Osborne still faces a raft of dilemmas over taxation as he balances public calls for tax reductions on items such as fuel with the need to whittle down the country's debt mountain. Mr.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the Japanese economy is likely to emerge soon from its recent lull, but he warned of the long-term risks of the nation's deteriorating fiscal health, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Shirakawa said the International Monetary Fund forecast Japan's economy will grow by 4.3% in 2010—the highest rate of growth among the Group of Seven leading industrial countries.

European Central Bank (ECB) chief Jean-Claude Trichet has reiterated his opposition to any debt restructuring by Ireland, saying the terms of the EU-IMF bailout plan for the State have been approved by “the entire world”, the Irish Times reported. Mr Trichet’s remarks before a committee of the European Parliament come against the backdrop of demands for the renegotiation of key elements of the deal by Fine Gael and Labour, which hope to be in government within weeks.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, on a visit Monday to Latin America's biggest economy, urged Brazilian officials to help the U.S. pressure China to allow its currency to appreciate, The Wall Street Journal reported. Though officials in public shied away from specifics of any plan to coordinate calls for a stronger yuan, a person familiar with the discussions said Brazil and the U.S. may speak with a common voice on the issue in a coming meeting of the Group of 20 major economies.

For the first time since the onset of the credit crisis, Moody’s has recorded a month in which not a single company defaulted on its debt, the Financial Times reported. The rating agency said on Monday that January was the first month since June 2007 when no default was recorded among the companies whose debt it rates. In comparison, eight companies defaulted in January 2010 and there were five defaults per month on average last year. The rate at which global speculative-grade companies have been defaulting has been falling with the recovery in the global economy and lending.