Headlines

Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks is launching another bid to keep hold of the Premier League club by securing financing from a private equity company which would share control with him, the Associated Press reported. Hicks along with co-owner George Gillett Jr. had put the club up for sale in April, saying they lacked the funding to take Liverpool forward, on and off the pitch, due to its debt of 237 million pounds ($370 million). But the lack of formal offers for the 18-time English champions has led to the Texan putting together his own financing deal.

Total costs incurred by the administration of Halliwells have reached £1.13m, according to figures contained within the first joint administrators' report, LegalWeek.com reported. The report, drawn up by BDO partners and joint administrators Dermot Power and Shay Bannon, shows that fees of £524,354 have been charged by the administrators, of which just £30,000 has so far been received. A further total of £606,082 relates to expenses incurred by the administrators, including £585,682 spent on legal fees for CMS Cameron McKenna and counsel fees of £19,043.

Two more entities established by Allan Hubbard have been placed into statutory management, The New Zealand Herald reported. The Government yesterday put Hubbard Churcher Trust Management and Forresters Nominee Company into management after receiving a recommendation from the Securities Commission. Commerce Minister Simon Power said the decision to add the two companies was a result of the ongoing investigations by the statutory managers who reported their findings to the Securities Commission.

European officials are jostling over plans to tighten the region’s fiscal rules to ward off another sovereign debt crisis, but agreement on anything that could be enforced by meaningful sanctions is far from certain, The New York Times reported. At the same time, some observers are arguing that any changes might be a sideshow and that the real means of avoiding problems in the future lies in the discipline imposed by investors who are asked to finance government debts — a fundamental rethinking of the way the euro works.

The future of Alinta Energy Group remains in the balance, despite a recapitalisation plan passing significant milestones yesterday, The Australian reported. The plan, known as Project Amber, was approved by key stakeholders. A proposal led by US private equity firm TPG Capital was approved at a meeting last night by the two holders of swap instruments over $2.55 billion in Alinta senior loans -- a crucial precursor to the deal proceeding.

A bankruptcy judge on Monday confirmed Almatis Group's plan to exit Chapter 11 protection in the hands of its corporate parent, Dubai International Capital, bringing the closely watched five-and-a-half month battle for the Netherlands-based aluminum company closer to resolution, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Under the restructuring plan, Almatis will emerge from bankruptcy 60% owned by DIC, with junior mezzanine lenders getting 40%. The plan sets aside 10% of the new company's shares for Almatis management.

A coffee shop magnate who helped launch the careers of KT Tunstall and Amy Macdonald has been banned from running a company for six years, the Daily Record reported. Beanscene founder Gordon Richardson, 48, was struck offlast week after an investigation by the government's Insolvency Service. The two-year probe was launched after Beanscene went bust in July 2008 with debts of £3.7million. Last week Richardson was censured by the Insolvency Service for his role in the collapse of the coffee chain giant.

The receivers of South Canterbury Finance say they have received more than 150 inquiries from New Zealand and overseas investors expressing interest in acquiring assets, The National Business Review reported. Kerryn Downey and William Black, of advisory firm McGrathNicol, have invited leading investment banks to submit proposals for advising and assisting them in selling the group's assets. South Canterbury collapsed into receivership last month triggering a $1.6 billion payout to depositors under the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme.

Sahara India Pariwar, an Indian conglomerate with real estate and media holdings, says it has made a $2 billion bid to buy the debt of struggling Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., the Associated Press reported. It was unclear how MGM's committee of creditors views the offer. The new offer, announced late Thursday, comes a day after MGM said it had gotten another extension on an agreement to put off interest payments on about $4 billion in debt until Oct. 29. The studio has rights to the James Bond franchise and owns half of the upcoming movies based on J.R.R.

More Chinese expect property prices to keep rising, a People's Bank of China survey found, illustrating the challenge that policy makers face in reining in the country's real-estate market, The Wall Street Journal reported. The survey of banking depositors, conducted in the third quarter and reported on the central bank's website Sunday, found that 36.6% expect property prices to rise, up from 29.4% in the previous quarter, though down from 41.5% a year earlier.