Headlines

Insolvent Nortel Networks Corp. has reported a net loss of $649 million in the third quarter, compared to a $508 million loss a year earlier, as it booked numerous charges, the Canadian Press reported. The former Canadian high-tech giant said it booked $529 million in reorganization costs in the three months ended Sept. 30. The results also included $490 million in non-cash charges related to liabilities for its Canadian defined benefit pension plans.

Europe's debt crisis entered a critical new phase as Ireland resisted pressure from the European Central Bank and national governments to seek a bailout amid growing concern that the currency bloc could unravel, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ireland fiercely denied that it was in bailout talks, and European officials publicly insisted Dublin was under no pressure to seek help.

The International Monetary Fund said it needs more time to gauge the impact on Iceland’s finances of plans to forgive mortgage obligations as the government responds to last month’s protests demanding debt relief, Bloomberg reported. “Broad agreement has been reached on policies that can deliver program objectives but more time is needed to assess the impact of new measures under consideration to facilitate household debt restructuring,” the IMF said in a statement.

China's biggest auto maker is close to finalizing a plan to buy a stake in General Motors Co., which is preparing for an initial public offering next week, according to people familiar with the discussions, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. SAIC Motor Corp., which has built cars with GM in China since the 1990s, is among foreign entities that will become part owners of GM when the auto maker returns to the public markets, these people said. A final decision could come within the next couple of days.

There may have been good news for home building group McInerney this week, when Ireland’s High Court extended its period of examinership protection, but elsewhere, there was a further sign of the difficulties in the construction industry with the release of Ulster Bank’s Purchasing Managers’ index (PMI) for October, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. The PMI shows an increase in the rate of decline in construction activity, for the second month running, to 42.3 in October, from 44.5 in September. A reading below 50 indicates a reduction in activity.

Allied Farmers, which took on the Hanover and United loan books in a failed bid to become a major lender, faces losing another $7 million after HSBC pulled the credit line on one of the firm's subsidiaries, ShareChat.co.nz reported. The Hong Kong-based lender called its $19 million loan facility to Matarangi Beach Estates after Allied refused to put up the same guarantee as the previous owners, Eric Watson and Mark Hotchin, who had poured the vehicle into Hanover to try to keep it afloat.

Vietnam's legislature has rejected a lawmaker's rare call to investigate senior government leaders in a scandal involving a state-run shipbuilder that resulted in billions of dollars of debt, state media reported Friday. The National Assembly, dominated by lawmakers from the ruling Communist Party, has long been considered a rubber stamp and has never called for an investigation of the government, but has recently become increasingly vocal about the government's performance.

Ireland warned on Thursday that a surge in its borrowing costs to record highs had become "very serious" and the EU said it was ready to act should the humbled former "Celtic Tiger" require a rescue from its euro partners, Reuters reported. European officials said they were monitoring developments in Ireland closely but denied for a second day running that Dublin was seeking financial aid, in an ominous echo of the rhetoric that preceded an EU/IMF bailout of Greece six months ago.

Nearly a fifth of jobs at maintenance and building services group Rok PLC are to go, after the company followed peer Connaught PLC in to administration following a prolonged spell of plunging profits amid tough trading conditions, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Rok's administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers late Wednesday announced 711 job losses at the firm, which employs about 3,800 people, in areas where there was no work to be carried out or where there was "little or no interest" from prospective buyers.

Nama and the banks have taken effective control of Michael McNamara and Company, one of the biggest building and civil engineering groups in the Republic, after the State's assets agency rejected the group’s business plan, The Irish Times reported. It is understood that the group voluntarily asked Dublin accountants and corporate insolvency specialist, Farrell Grant Sparks, to take over as receiver late last night.