Headlines

Kingfisher Airlines Ltd., India’s second-biggest domestic carrier, said it got preliminary approval from lenders for a debt restructuring plan to cut interest costs and benefit from rising demand for air travel, Bloomberg reported. “The bank consortium has agreed generally to the package,” Ravi Nedungadi, chief financial officer at the carrier’s parent UB Group, said today by phone.

Uncertainty surrounds the refurbishment of the Busselton Jetty, with the company responsible for the project going into voluntary administration, ABC News reported. The jetty upgrade is due to be finished in February but this week construction company Marine and Civil announced it would enter into administration, casting doubt over that completion date. Busselton chief executive Mike Archer has described the situation as "unsettling" but says he is liaising with administrators to ensure completion of the jetty project is a priority. He says if necessary, another contractor will be appointed.

Two Dublin-based estate agencies are to go into direct competition with insolvency accountants to handle the ever-increasing number of properties going into receivership, The Irish Times reported. The agencies are in the process of setting up individual insolvency divisions to manage non-performing property assets while a strategy is agreed to realise their maximum value. Commercial agent HWBC has formed a 50:50 joint venture company with UK agent Allsop to offer fixed-charge receivership in the Republic.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. is seeking court approval to sell its Brazil investment business, Libro Companhia Securitizadora de Creditos Financeiros, to a firm called Jive Investments Holding Ltd., Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Jive, which is based in the British Virgin Islands, will buy Lehman's equity stake and notes in Libro, which maintains portfolios of fixed income, distressed and loan assets. The sale price is nearly $15.9 million, after Jive outbid an unidentified competitor. Lehman is asking Judge James Peck of the U.S.

Most big Asian banks will be exempted from a global regulatory regime under the latest proposal for the industry from the world’s leading economies, which aims to prevent another financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. People briefed on the agenda for the G20 summit, which begins in Seoul on Thursday, said officials had concluded that global regulators should focus on big banks with global businesses, stripping out domestically focused institutions without the reach of the industry’s cross-border companies.

Interviews with dozens of bank and government officials, and an examination of documents released by the Irish parliament, reveal that Ireland misjudged its crisis early on. Desperate to preserve the homegrown banking system, the government—blind to just how sour Irish loans had gone—yoked the fate of the nation to the fate of its banks, The Wall Street Journal reported in an analysis. Along the way, the government was hobbled by faulty information from outside advisers, from a trust-and-don't-verify regulatory culture and from the troubled banks themselves.

The Construction Industry Federation told the board of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) last month that its €5 billion working capital facility was “inadequate” to “manage [out] or improve” the €74 billion in distressed property assets that have been transferred from Irish-owned banks, The Irish Times reported. In a hard-hitting presentation, made to the board of Nama on October 7th and seen by The Irish Times , the federation added that “most borrowers now believe Nama to be a massive liquidation vehicle”.

Receivers for the Jean Jones clothing stores say they have received an excellent response from potential buyers and expect a sale before the end of the year, The National Business Review reported. Receiver Mike Horne, of Deloitte, said a review of the company's position confirmed earlier indications that the nationwide women's fashion chain was fundamentally a strong business and its problems were primarily caused by factors external to its operations. Jean Jones' loyal customer base and viable business model meant there was strong interest from prospective buyers, Mr Horne said.

Ireland's credit unions may need to be significantly restructured if arrears continue to rise and lending opportunities remain subdued, the official in charge of regulating the industry warned on Monday, Reuters reported. Some of Ireland's credit unions -- community-based savings and lending clubs owned by their members -- lent aggressively during the go-go years of the "Celtic Tiger" economy and are now struggling during a severe downturn.

British building and social housing repairs firm Rok Plc went into administration on Monday, two months after bigger rival Connaught collapsed, Reuters reported. Rok has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as administrator, the auditor said on Monday, and trading in its shares has been suspended. PricewaterhouseCoopers had been working with Rok's banks ahead of loan refinancing talks.