Headlines

The future of DVD rental chain Chartbusters hangs in the balance just 18 months after the High Court approved a rescue plan for the troubled company, The Irish Times reported. The company is understood to be preparing to appoint a liquidator to wind up the business, which operates about 20 stores and employs an estimated 170 full- and part-time staff in the Republic. Chartbusters began as a DVD rental outfit in the early 1990s, but branched into internet kiosks and tanning booths as competition put this business under pressure over the last decade.

For many Spaniards, no longer able to pay their mortgages, the fine print in the deals they agreed to years ago is catching up with them, the International Herald Tribune reported. Not only are Spanish mortgage holders personally liable for the full amount of the loan, but throw in penalty interest charges and tens of thousands of dollars in court fees, and people can end up facing a mountain of debt. Bankruptcy is not the answer, either. Mortgage debt is specifically excluded here.

Germany's stronger-then-expected recovery will not be enough to prevent some 35,000 bankruptcies this year, an insolvency administrators' group said on Thursday. The VID trade association said automotive suppliers, engineering, shipping, and retailers would be especially hard hit. Siegfried Beck, head of the association, told Reuters many firms have left the economic crisis with drastically reduced core capital levels, leaving them weakened and needy for cash.

Ireland's embattled Prime Minister Brian Cowen admitted Wednesday that accelerating €15 billion ($20.78 billion) in planned budget cuts will damp economic growth, but warned the country runs the risk of "not being able to borrow at all" if the steps aren't taken, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ireland's reputation has taken a battering on international markets amid doubts about its ability to bring its deficit, the highest in Europe, back under control. Record-high borrowing costs have forced the government to cancel the two remaining bond auctions planned this year.

South Korea is expected to start selling a $6 billion majority stake in the country's largest financial company, Woori Finance Holdings, in a move that could create a Korean bank with the heft to compete on the global stage, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. A successful sale of Woori, which was cobbled together in 2001 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis as a holding company for several troubled financial firms, would be a significant step for the government of President Lee Myung-bak, which wants to privatize more of an economy that retains significant state ownership.

European Union governments put up hundreds of billions of euros earlier this year to keep financially troubled members like Greece or Ireland from defaulting on their debts. Now Germany is pushing to let hopelessly indebted governments do exactly that - admit they can't pay and hit bond investors with the costs instead of taxpayers, the Associated Press reported. But Berlin may have a hard time winning approval for a crisis resolution mechanism when EU officials meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.

In the spacious quarters once occupied by CanWest scion Leonard Asper sits affable executive Paul Robertson, finally ready to begin his duties at the helm of Shaw Media, The Globe and Mail reported. It’s the final culmination of a process that started just over a year ago, when CanWest’s TV assets entered restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, unable to overcome a crushing debt load. On Wednesday, the broadcasting business emerged from creditor protection under new owners Shaw Communications.

The cost of insuring Greek government debt against the risk of default jumped Wednesday, underscoring investor concerns about the heavily indebted country less than two weeks ahead of a key national election, The Wall Street Journal reported. The annual cost of insuring $10 million of Greek debt for five years jumped $73,000 to $754,000 as investors continued to react to comments made earlier in the week. The cost of insurance, as measured by credit default swaps, had risen $14,000 on Tuesday.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge said he'll give creditors of Awal Bank BSC more time to challenge the course of the Bahrain bank's unusual Chapter 11 case before deciding whether it can proceed, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Judge Allan L. Gropper of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan indicated at a Tuesday hearing that he would consider Awal's motion to proceed with its Chapter 11 case after giving creditors the opportunity to come forward, according to the administrator overseeing the bank's insolvency proceedings in Bahrain and elsewhere.

The "turnaround" man brought in to help the restructuring of South Canterbury Finance (SCF) is no longer working for the company, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Kerryn Downey of receiver McGrathNicol confirmed Sandy Maier -- signed up as chief executive of SCF for one year last December -- went on "gardening leave" four or five weeks ago and would officially finish with the company at the end of the month, The New Zealand Herald reported.