Headlines

Allied Farmers has fired a broadside at Hanover Finance owners Mark Hotchin and Eric Watson after receivers were appointed today to Matarangi Beach Estates, a Coromandel property development company it acquired in a swap deal with Hanover last December, BusinessDay.co.nz reported. In an announcement to the stock exchange today Allied said it had been unable to strike a deal with lender HSBC, owed $19 million by Matarangi Beach Estates, and had therefore appointed receiver Korda Mentha.

British menswear retailer Suits You is closing down with the loss of about 370 jobs, administrators to parent company Speciality Retail Group Ltd said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Zolfo Cooper said all 66 Suits You shops would close, with 10 shutting before the end of November, but most continuing to trade over Christmas before closing in the new year. "We looked at trading the business in the longer term, however this has not proved to be financially viable," said Fraser Gray, a partner at Zolfo Cooper. Zolfo Cooper were appointed joint administrators to Speciality Retail Group on Oct.

The long and troubled history of the Vancouver Olympic village took another severe turn Wednesday when Millennium Water, the owners of the village, entered into receivership, The Vancouver Sun reported. Under a deal worked out between the city of Vancouver and Millennium Water, Ernst & Young Inc. was appointed as the receiver for the company. The firm will assume control of Millennium Southeast False Creek Properties and the Millennium Water development, the city said in a news advisory.

Chemtura Corp. has struck a deal to avoid bankruptcy-court litigation over claims tied to the pension plan covering hundreds of its United Kingdom workers, which faces a funding deficit of more than $150 million, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The maker of specialty chemicals, agrochemicals and consumer products, which emerged from Chapter 11 protection last week, said the deal preserves its right to dispute the pension claims outside of bankruptcy court, which it has sought to do for months.

Pressure mounted on Ireland on Wednesday to agree to a joint European Union-International Monetary Fund rescue package, as fresh evidence emerged of fading confidence in the country’s banking system, the Financial Times reported. With the rescue mission poised to begin negotiations with the Irish government on Thursday, analysts said there was growing evidence that bank deposits were dwindling, after Irish Life & Permanent said corporate customers had withdrawn €600m – more than 11 per cent of the total – over a matter of weeks in August and September.

India’s rapidly growing private microcredit industry faces imminent collapse as almost all borrowers in one of India’s largest states have stopped repaying their loans, egged on by politicians who accuse the industry of earning outsize profits on the backs of the poor, the International Herald Tribune reported. The crisis has been building for weeks, but has now reached a critical stage.

Anglo Irish Bank is seeking summary judgment for more than €17 million against a Dublin businessman over unpaid loans, the Irish Times reported. The case arises from two loan facilities – the first, for a maximum £5.75 million, was made available by Anglo in October 2008 to Mr Healy, while the second, for €10.8 million, was made available in May 2009. The 2008 facility was to enable Mr Healy to fund an equity investment in Calyx Holdings Ltd (CHL), a company set up to acquire Clayfox Gilttop Ltd.

The threat of receivership continues to hang over the Beaconsfield goldmine in Tasmania and its owner, BCD Resources. But fresh hope that BCD can secure new finance has emerged, prompting its major secured creditor, Minemakers, to give the company more time to secure enough funds to keep operating, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. BCD has told Minemakers it has received letters of commitment from several parties prepared to advance it funds. Minemakers has agreed to a 48-hour standstill arrangement.

The last-minute transfer of millions in cash from Australia to New Zealand has contributed to huge losses for investors in an Australian arm of Bridgecorp, BusinessDay.co.nz reported. But another questionable loan transaction between the two may have left New Zealand investors with the worst part of the deal. Receivers of Bridgecorp Finance told debenture investors this month they will get just A5.6 cents in the dollar after the company's high risk property lending, particularly to developments by former Australian test cricketer Craig McDermott, proved unrecoverable.

Iceland's business lobby said on Tuesday it had seen the outline of a draft deal on repaying Britain and the Netherlands and that it was much improved from one rejected by voters in March, Reuters reported. The head of the business lobby spoke after an Icelandic television station reported that a draft deal had been reached which would involve Iceland repaying 40-60 billion Icelandic crowns ($356-533 million) to the British and Dutch.