Headlines

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is set to write off up to £15m in the wake of the break-up and sale of Halliwells, it has emerged, LegalWeek.com reported. RBS, which was owed substantial sums in corporate debt and partner loans from Halliwells, recovered just over £7m from the sales, with Barlow Lyde & Gilbert and HBJ Gateley Wareing - which took the largest teams - paying £2.5m and £2.55m respectively. Hill Dickinson paid £1.88m, while Kennedys paid £125,000 for the Sheffield office.

Canadian authorities canceled two Mexico City-bound flights from airline Mexicana de Aviacion on Thursday amid mounting concerns over the financial health of the company, Reuters reported. The flights, set to depart from Montreal and Calgary, were canceled due to a request to Canadian authorities from an unnamed creditor seeking clarification on Mexicana's debt situation, the airline said in a release.

This is the new reality of the Greek economy, post-crash: The tax-inspector squads and mandatory receipts for corner stores, taxicabs and other traditionally cash-only businesses are among the new austerity measures introduced by Prime Minister George Papandreou in an effort to rescue his country from Europe’s fiscal crisis – in part by reducing the size of the untaxed “shadow” economy, estimated to account for 25 per cent of Greece’s GDP, The Globe and Mail reported.

A Kazakhstan bank's bid to use the U.S. bankruptcy court to halt an overseas legal proceeding could drag the court into disputes in which the U.S. itself has little at stake, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Kazakhstan's JSC BTA Bank says the U.S. bankruptcy court's decision to grant it Chapter 15 protection in the U.S. after it underwent restructuring in its home country last year extended a key benefit of U.S. bankruptcy law: the automatic stay that halts legal action against a debtor company.

The two founders of Italy's debt-laden Mariella Burani Fashion Group have been arrested as part of an inquiry into the bankruptcy of the luxury goods maker, a judicial source said on Wednesday. Former Chairman Walter Burani was put under house arrest by Milan judges investigating the bankruptcy of Mariella Burani Family Holding and Mariella Burani Fashion Group, the source said. His son Giovanni Burani was being held in jail awaiting questioning, the source said. Mariella Burani Fashion Group (was not immediately available for comment.

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in orders and enough public support and goodwill to sink a ship, Canada's oldest and most prestigious shipyard, Davie Yard, is once again floundering. And it risks going under for good if a major financial or strategic investor isn't found by Sept. 15, The Montreal Gazette reported. "We're looking for a third party to invest or to buy assets," said Pierre Laporte, a chartered accountant and bankruptcy trustee with Samson Belair Deloitte Touche, who has been in charge of the file since Feb.

Debt-ridden Japan Airlines Corp and the state-backed turnaround body overseeing its rehabilitation said the firm's capital plans, including negotiations for new financing, will be not be finalized until September or later, the Nikkei business daily reported. JAL and the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan (ETIC) said they will be able to submit a rehabilitation plan to the Tokyo District Court by the end of August, as scheduled, the paper reported.

Almost six months to the day after the Residence club on Stephen's Green was seized by the banks, a new owner has taken over the reins at the private members' club, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Businesswoman Olivia Gaynor Long bought the club from receiver Jim Stafford last week and the business will now be run by a recently-formed company called Molana Ltd. The new firm is wholly owned by Long, and lists public relations consultant Eugene Long as one of its directors.

Soccer clubs in Europe may be facing bankruptcy unless changes including stricter financial controls are put in place, according to an A.T. Kearney study that looked at teams in England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy, Bloomberg reported. “Running as normal companies, the leagues in Spain, England, and Italy would be bankrupt within two years,” Kearney’s Munich-based vice president Juergen Rothenbuecher and colleagues wrote in a report called Football Sustainability Study. Some clubs, even bigger ones, may disappear through bankruptcy in the next few years, the consultants wrote.

Peru's Ministry for Mining and Energy said Tuesday it will begin the process of winding down Doe Run Peru's management of the country's only polymetallic smelter. Doe Run, a unit of U.S.-based Renco Group Inc., could also face insolvency and environmental proceedings against it by Peru's regulatory bodies, Osinergmin and OEFA, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Osinergmin supervises energy and mining investments, while OEFA is charged with the evaluation of environmental affairs.