Headlines

The London-based administrator of Awal Bank BSC said the Bahraini institution filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. in an attempt to wrest back payments made to its creditors in the U.S. before regulators seized the bank, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Awal, which filed for Chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Friday, was placed into administration in its home country in July 2009. The bank gained recognition of its foreign proceeding in U.S. courts, known as Chapter 15 bankruptcy, last year.

English club Portsmouth has exited bankruptcy protection and was bought Sunday by three businessmen, including former owner Balram Chainrai, the Canadian Press reported. The League Championship club had said it was on the verge of liquidation. However, a day after resolving a claim for 2.2 million pounds (C$3.54 million) by former owner Sacha Gaydamak, Portsmouth announced that its immediate future is secure.

Cable company Shaw Communications can proceed with its C$2 billion ($1.94 billion) purchase of the television assets of distressed media company Canwest Global, Canada's telecom and broadcaster regulator said on Friday, Reuters reported. "We are satisfied that this transaction will generate substantial benefits for the Canadian broadcasting system," Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said in a statement.

The receivers for South Canterbury Finance have appointed a leading investment bank as sale advisor for specific investment assets, The National Business Review reported. Kerryn Downey and William Black of McGrathNicol, said Goldman Sachs & Partners New Zealand Limited will assist in selling 100% of Helicopters (NZ) and a majority shareholding in apple exporter Scales Corporation. Both companies are separate from the core finance business of the SCF Group. Goldman Sachs & Partners is the New Zealand-owned local branch of the global investment bank.

Credit card firms have seen their loan services gaining popularity among users thanks to less stringent processes, The Korea Times reported. However, the easier-to-use system may produce bad loans both to the detriment of users and the card firms. According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the amount of lending by credit card companies reached 14.1 trillion won as of the end of August, up 23.7 percent from the end of last year, surpassing cash advance services by banks at 12.5 trillion won, which saw a rise of 3.3 percent during the cited period.

The development of a 52-story tower at One Blackfriars Road, London, was placed in administration by Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, which is reorganizing its real-estate portfolio, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. RBS and a group of other banks lent a total of GBP63 million for the development, according to a person familiar with the situation. The developer defaulted on the loan after negotiations for a restructuring in June. A sale of the site is the most likely outcome, the person added. If the project comes to the market, it could fetch as much as GBP150 million.

India’s microfinance companies are offering their 6.7m borrowers in Andhra Pradesh the option of restructuring outstanding loans that amount to up to $2.7bn, in an effort to defuse a political backlash against a business once touted as alleviating poverty, the Financial Times reported. The offer, which will be made to borrowers over the coming week, is a tacit concession by the microfinance institutions that many of their small, poor clients are facing serious difficulties in keeping up with weekly debt repayments.

Anglo Irish Bank announced Thursday it will make its junior bondholders absorb heavy losses on their euro3.5 billion ($4.9 billion) investments - the first loan defaults in Ireland since the nation's banking crisis began two years ago, the Associated Press reported. The nationalized Dublin lender, the most debt-crippled bank from Ireland's burst property bubble, said the two lowest tiers of bondholders would be offered payouts equivalent to 20 percent and 5 percent of their original investments, respectively.

Allan Crafar likened his bank to a "dog being dragged along on the end of a chain" during his testimony in a High Court case in Auckland yesterday over ownership of cows on farms now in receivership, Stuff.co.nz reported on a Dominion Post article. The case concerns ownership of 4000 heifers sold by a Crafar Farms company and leased back via agri-finance company Stock Co to another company owned by Mr Crafar's son, Robert Crafar.

Bernard Callebaut's bid to keep his company has failed. The high-end chocolate business that bears his name went into receivership in August, with ATB Financial claiming Callebaut owed close to $4 million, CBC News reported. Receiver Deloitte and Touche recommended last week that the company's assets be sold to a numbered company backed by former Callebaut vice-president of operations Brian Beck and a dealer with three stores in Edmonton. Callebaut and his lawyers contested that bid Wednesday, but on Thursday a judge rejected Callebaut's attempt to buy the business back.