Headlines

Former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick has a net income of just €188 per month, according to documents furnished to the High Court, The Irish Times reported. A statement of affairs, provided to the court as part of Mr FitzPatrick’s bankruptcy proceedings, disclosed that the former bank chief has debts of more than €145 million, compared to assets of just over €47 million. During a brief hearing yesterday, the court was told State-owned Anglo Irish Bank was withdrawing its application to have its own trustee appointed to replace official assignee Chris Lehane.

Goanna Print has gone into administration, with managing director Phil Abbott saying the award-winning company had struggled to remain competitive because "we didn't want to drop quality". The Canberra-based printer entered voluntary administration with Frank Lo Pilato from RSM Bird Cameron Partners on Monday. Lo Pilato told ProPrint he had identified "cashflow problems" at the company. It is continuing to trade, and Abbott told ProPrint he was "quietly confident" the administrators would be able to sell the business as a going concern.

A local authority in western Sweden is enlisting the help of the government's debt collector to recover $15.9 million it spent supporting carmaker Saab, now owned by Dutch group Spyker, Reuters reported. The government of Vastra Gotaland in western Sweden, home to Saab's main production plant, covered wages when Saab Automobile was under administration before its sale to Spyker.

Extensive new EU supervisory powers over banks and financial institutions have been accepted by an overwhelming majority of members of the European Parliament, The Irish Times reported. The agreement in the wake of the global financial crisis establishes three new financial watchdogs or European supervisory authorities to improve supervision and regulation of banking, markets and securities, and pensions and insurance. A new systemic risk board has also been agreed, which will warn against the build-up of economic risk.

Ireland's closely watched government bond auction led a series of strong debt sales by Europe's fiscally challenged countries Tuesday, bringing some relief to the sovereign landscape, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Irish National Treasury Management Agency sold the maximum intended €1.5 billion ($1.96 billion) in two series of government bonds but paid sharply higher yields than in previous auctions, reflecting political and economic uncertainty.

The founders of Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV, once a global leader in speech-recognition technology, were found guilty by a Belgian court of fraud violations in the accounting scandal that led to the company's downfall a decade ago, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie were each given sentences of five years, of which they were expected to serve three, a court spokesman said. Six other defendants in the case, including L&H's former chief executive, were also convicted.

More than $1 million in gold and silver bullion has been confiscated from a Hamilton house after English bankruptcy trustees successfully sought a search and seizure order through the New Zealand courts -- a first for a foreign insolvency case on these shores, Voxy reported. The bullion was allegedly hidden from creditors of retired English psychiatrist Alan Geraint Simpson, 68, who was adjudged bankrupt by the High Court of England and Wales in September last year. Steven John Williams was appointed as trustee of Mr Simpson's bankrupt estate in January.

AbitibiBowater took another step towards ending 18 months of court protection from creditors when its restructuring plan won the required support from a majority of its U.S. creditors, the Canadian Press reported. As was the case last week with votes in Canada, creditors of Bowater Canada Finance Corp. failed to approve the plan. Aurelius Capital Management and Contrarian Capital Management opposed the plan as noteholders of the special purpose subsidiary which has no operating assets. BCFC will be excluded from the Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S.

The threat of big losses for Royal Bank of Scotland and other banks may help British subprime lender Cattles steer clear of administration as restructuring talks drag on, people close to the discussions said, Reuters reported. Restructuring negotiations at the Hull-based firm, crippled by bad loans and accountancy problems, were derailed last week when a group of bondholders walked away, raising doubts over the chances of reaching a deal on its 2.7 billion pound ($4.2 billion) debt pile.

Several U.S. airports, including New York's John F. Kennedy International, said Compania Mexicana de Aviacion has failed to make a promised Sept. 15 payment to them, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In papers filed Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, the airports demanded additional protections for the amounts owed to them, including the right to tap certain letters of credit and to take back space assigned to Mexicana in their facilities, after the Mexican airline reneged on a promise to pay fees.