Headlines

Allied Irish Banks has made a gain of €1.4 billion from a voluntary offer to buy back debt for 30 cent in the euro from subordinated bondholders. This will go towards the €6.1 billion in capital that it must raise before the end of next month, the Irish Times reported. The bank is purchasing about €2 billion of the bonds, paying a 70 per cent discount in an offer that was taken up by about 45 per cent of subordinated bondholders – a lower rate than expected.

A building firm that was rescued from examinership three years ago has been put into receivership by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and Ulster Bank, The Post.ie reported. McEnaney Construction, which is controlled by developer John McCann, has debts of almost €75 million. Nama has taken over the company’s debts to Irish Nationwide and made a joint move with Ulster Bank to appoint Tom Kavanagh of Kavanagh Fennell as receiver in recent days. The Co Louth building firm announced plans in 2006 to build the M1 Euro Park, a €200 million development on a 90-acre site outside Dundalk.

Political trouble that shook the Irish and Portuguese governments over the weekend could be a warning sign for other European governments facing voters angry about cutbacks, analysts said Monday. The turmoil may make it harder for countries to move forward with recovery from the crisis, the Associated Press reported. "Markets want to see a clear commitment to fiscal tightening, and any political instability or social opposition can delay measures being implemented," said Emilie Gay, an analyst at Capital Economics in London.

Japanese private-equity fund Advantage Partners LLP is in talks with creditors about giving up board seats at Tokyo Star Bank Ltd. and control over the eventual sale of the lender, a person familiar with the matter said, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Dallas-based investor Lone Star Funds and other lenders are discussing with Advantage Partners restructuring the roughly Y160 billion in loans, worth $1.9 billion at current exchange rates, that the Japanese fund took out to buy Tokyo Star, according to people familiar with the matter.

Spain will overhaul its bank regulations to allow the partial nationalization of its ailing savings banks and enable the injection of fresh capital into them, in an attempt to calm investor concerns over the health of the country's financial system, The Wall Street Journal reported. The change in regulation would allow Spain's state-backed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring, or FROB, to acquire direct equity stakes in the cajas for up to five years, Finance Minister Elena Salgado said at a news conference Monday.

Hong Kong bankruptcy petitions totalled 704 in December, up 3.4 percent from November but down 22.4 percent compared with the same month last year, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The number of bankruptcy petitions totalled 9,102 for the whole of 2010, down 42.3 percent from a year earlier. Bankruptcy orders stood at 9,163 for the year 2010, down 43.3 percent from a year ago. Hong Kong's economy has bounced back strongly from the global financial crisis.

Property investors have been granted a reprieve in the Finance Bill, with the restriction of section 23-type tax reliefs being postponed until at least 2012, the Irish Times reported. Landlords have been lobbying hard since the phased abolition of property-based legacy reliefs was unveiled in last December’s Budget. The proposal that section 23 tax relief would be ring-fenced for use against rental income from the property giving rise to that relief, as opposed to all Irish rental income as was previously the case, proved particularly controversial.

Christchurch finance company Finance & Leasing says its inability to meet the new Reserve Bank capital ratio requirements has forced it into receivership – and that it's not the only company in that position, Stuff.co.nz reported. Director Kipp Alexander said the company had remained solvent throughout the financial crisis and recession, but because it could not meet the requirements in time, it could not obtain approval from the Companies Office for its prospectus extension, which was lodged in December.

Perth property developer Luke Saraceni transferred $1.33 million into one of his private companies as receivers prepared to swoop on the troubled Raine Square project last week, creditors were told yesterday, The Australian reported. Administrator Bryan Hughes, of Pitcher Partners, said he was investigating the transaction, which was likely to fall under the insolvency transaction provisions of the Corporations Act.

Czech lottery firm Sazka AS became the first global issuer to default this year as the result of a missed principal payment, according ratings agency Standard & Poor's, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. By this time last year, 11 global issuers had defaulted, including nine in the U.S., one in Australia and one in Canada. Sazka missed a principal payment, which, when counted with missed interest payments, ranked among the top reasons for default last year. In all, 28 issuers cited those missed payments as the reason for their default.