Headlines

The Byrne Hotel Group, which owns three hotels in Galway, is in talks with its banks over debts of more than €43.5 million, The Irish Times reported. The company does not expect to be able to make any capital repayments over the coming years and is in discussions to put all loans on an interest-only basis for five years, according to recently filed accounts for its group holding company R Byrne Concrete Ltd. The group owns the Victoria Hotel, the Eyre Square Hotel and the Salthill Hotel, all in Galway, as well as the Metro Hotel in Leicestershire, England, and other property.

The euro zone's debt crisis is entering a new phase after a brief Christmas lull as Portugal struggles to persuade investors to buy its bonds and other European governments step up pressure on the country to seek an international bailout, The Wall Street Journal reported. Portugal hopes to raise new funds in a bond auction on Wednesday, despite a market sell-off in recent days that pushed the interest yield on Portuguese 10-year bonds above 7% Friday, the highest level since the euro's creation.

The Indian Railways’ great “turnaround story”, which was making waves in business schools till a few months back, now appears headed towards an ignominious end, IndianExpress.com reported. A sharp decline in earnings and a serious escalation in expenditures are threatening to push India’s transport behemoth to near-bankruptcy.

One of China's biggest cities is finalizing plans for a new tax on high-end residential real estate, state media reported, a long-discussed measure to escalate the fight against rising property prices that have fueled frustration among the country's urban middle class, The Wall Street Journal reported. The mayor of Chongqing, Huang Qifan, has recommended approval of the tax by the municipal legislature, and the Chinese Ministry of Finance has approved the tax in principle, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Sunday.

Canada's Superintendent of Bankruptcy issued a warning to Canadians about the dangers of high household debt Friday, adding his voice to the chorus from officials concerned about the amount of leverage the average resident now has, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.

The Advanced Medical Institute, the failed erectile dysfunction firm infamous for its billboards, owed staff and creditors more than $50 million when it collapsed last month, the company's administrator says, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. And in a move to appease the competition regulator, unhappy customers will now also be able to obtain refunds more easily after the administrator extended the company's refund policy to 30 days.

Resona Holdings Inc., Japan’s fourth largest bank, will sell about 600 billion yen ($7.2 billion) of shares in a public offering this month to help repay government bailout funds, a person familiar with the situation said, Bloomberg reported.Resona will approve the plan at a board member meeting and announce the details of the sale today, the person said. Nomura Holdings Inc. and Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co. unit will underwrite the offering, the bank said in November when it registered to sell the shares.

The EU authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have relaxed a tight deadline set in the bailout deal for the Government to establish “ambitious” new loan-to-deposit ratio targets for Ireland’s struggling banks, the Irish Times reported. The high loan-to-deposit ratios of Ireland’s banks, a legacy of imprudent property lending and declining deposits, are a key measure of their weakness.

Greece's prime minister sought to allay investor concerns over the country's staggering debt burden Thursday, saying the country isn't in talks to restructure government debt held by private bondholders and will return to the bond markets this year if conditions allow. Speaking in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Prime Minister George Papandreou said Greece's program of tough structural reforms and harsh fiscal austerity -- as demanded by its international lenders -- would ensure that Athens could repay its private creditors. "We have no such [restructuring] talks going on.

The four main creditors in German cable provider Primacom have agreed to cancel 250 million euros ($328.6 million) worth of loans in return for equity, two sources familiar with the restructuring told Reuters on Thursday, sending Primacom's share price soaring. The shares leapt more than ninefold to 1.99 euros at 1545 GMT after the sources revealed that creditors Alcentra, Tennenbaum Capital, Avenue Capital and the Dutch bank ING finalised the deal that would give them full control of Primacom.