Headlines

Concern about the rising number of pensioners becoming bankrupt has been raised by campaigners following an analysis of debt figures, the BBC reported. Bankruptcy among all age groups has risen in the past 10 years, with the highest prevalence among 35 to 44-year-olds, the UK Insolvency Service said. But the service and charities have pointed to pensioners as being the fastest growing group of bankrupts. The elderly face debts at a time when their income drops, charities warn.

German lingerie group Schiesser has emerged from insolvency proceedings as it prepares to float on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the second quarter of 2011, according to a company statement issued on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The family-founded company filed for insolvency almost two years ago and first voiced plans to float in 2010. Schiesser said insolvency administrator Volker Grub would join the supervisory board and hand over the running of the company to the new executive board, which includes Rudolf Buendgen, Karl-Achim Klein and Johannes Molzberger.

China's Vice Premier Li Keqiang said China will sign $7.3 billion worth of deals with Spain on Wednesday, according to a Spanish official, after reiterating Beijing's pledge to back the crisis-ridden European nation's austerity measures and offer of potential support for Spain's future fundraising, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr.

When Maritime Steel and Foundries Ltd. closed its doors on New Year's Eve, it may have been the final time, The News reported. The century-old New Glasgow foundry was forced into receivership last week when its parent company called in a $17.75 million loan and the subsidiary couldn’t repay it. Cameron Corp. Ltd. went before the Supreme Court in Halifax Thursday and filed bankruptcy papers against Maritime Steel. BDO Canada Ltd. was appointed as receiver for the facility.

A silent partner in collapsed medical services firm Advanced Medical Institute Pty Ltd (AMI) has been linked to the disappearance of $118 million in superannuation finds to a Caribbean bank account, according to a Fairfax Media report, the Business Spectator reported. According to the report, American born Hong Kong trader Jack Flader controls a group with a 50 per cent interest in AMI. Mr Flader is allegedly the mastermind behind collapsed firm Astarra Strategic Fund, part of the Trio Capital group based in country New South Wales.

Rising food prices helped push China's consumer price index to a two-year high of 5.1% in November, and nowhere are the pressures felt more deeply than with cooking oil, more vital in Chinese cooking than even rice, The Wall Street Journal reported. Rising oil prices mean daily hardship for Chinese on meager incomes. And though food represents only about one-third of the CPI, it accounts for about 75% of the index's recent rise. Such price challenges are a primary reason China's central bank abruptly raised interest rates twice in 10 weeks, most recently on Christmas Day.

Austrian technology and engineering group A-TEC struck a deal with creditors on Wednesday to repay 47 percent of its debts and agreed to find an outside investor by June 30 as a way to avoid bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The insolvent industrial conglomerate with more than 11,000 employees was under pressure to find a solution with creditors by a Jan. 20 deadline. Georg Kantner of the Austrian creditor's association KSV said the deal had bought time to find an investor and provided a realistic chance for a turnaround.

Mutual Finance is the latest finance company to be investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. The SFO said it began the investigation (under part II of the SFO Act) on December 23, after considering information obtained from Mutual Finance's receiver and from the National Enforcement Unit, The National Business Review reported.

An average of 30 companies went to the wall and an estimated 1,075 jobs were lost every week during 2010, according to figures released yesterday, the Irish Times reported. Information compiled by corporate restructuring specialists Kavanagh Fennell, publishers of the Insolvency Journal, show that more than 1,500 firms went into liquidation, receivership or examinership in the Republic because they were unable to pay debts.

China supports Spain's economic reforms and will continue buying Spanish government debt, Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang wrote in a newspaper editorial, the latest sign of China's growing role in protecting the stability of the European Union, its largest export market, The Wall Street Journal reported. Spain has faced increasing difficulties in financing a yawning budget deficit after Greece's financial meltdown in early 2010 sparked concerns about the problems of other fiscally frail euro-zone countries.