Headlines

Restoring investor confidence in New Zealand’s financial markets is the major goal of the new Financial Markets Authority, which was formally established Monday, The National Business Review reported. The FMA takes over the functions of the Securities Commission and Government Actuary which are being disestablished, and consolidates other regulatory functions from the Ministry of Economic Development.

Spyker Cars NV, which owns the troubled Swedish car maker Saab Automobile, is in talks with three Chinese companies about possible investments, according to two people familiar with the situation, as the Dutch car maker Friday cut its 2011 sales outlook and reported an operating loss for the first quarter. The Chinese companies are Great Wall Motor Co., China Youngman Automobile Group Co. and Jiangsu Yueda Group Co., two people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires.

Nortel Networks Corp.'s European units are pressing more than $10 billion worth of claims against their Canadian parent, including a claim for $4.6 billion worth of damages for alleged mismanagement under French law, court documents say, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The intercompany claims were listed in a report filed publicly Thursday by Ernst & Young, monitor of Nortel's Canadian insolvency proceeding. The demands for payment from Nortel's European units are enough to double the size of the claims filed in the Canadian case, the report, filed with the U.S.

Saab Automobile Thursday said that talks with Chinese auto makers and the European Investment Bank over financing continued, but the head of a parts-supplier organization said the Swedish car maker's predicament was critical, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. "The situation is extremely serious," said Lars Holmqvist, chief executive of European Association of Automotive Suppliers, known by the French-language acronym Clepa.

The Czech Constitutional Court's ruling to strike down legislation that would reduce state support for consumer savings in home-building bank accounts amounts to judicial activism and the court's venture into politics, Czech President Vaclav Klaus said, The Wall Street Journal reported. "Today's decision by the Constitutional Court clearly demonstrates that the court is operating outside the constitution and has entered the sphere of politics," Mr. Klaus told local media late Wednesday.

Quinn Insurance administrators reported today that the company lost a total of €706m 2009, mainly related to operating losses in its UK market and writedowns in the value of some assets, Finfacts reported. The joint administrators, Michael McAteer and Paul McCann, said losses in 2010 were contained and the company will post a loss of €160m which again is related to UK business written prior to their appointment. About €600m will be required from the bailout insurance fund.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (1398) Ltd. led the nation’s biggest banks in curbing defaults in the first quarter, helping alleviate concern that their asset quality may deteriorate following a two-year credit boom, Bloomberg reported. Bad loans at Beijing-based ICBC, the world’s most profitable bank, dropped almost 4 percent from the end of 2010 as earnings for the three-month period climbed 29 percent from a year earlier, according to an exchange filing yesterday.

Japanese industrial production and consumer spending dropped at their sharpest rates on record in March, the government said Thursday, underscoring the impact of the recent earthquake and tsunami and the continuing nuclear plant crisis on the nation's fragile economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The latest data show how sharply the Japanese economy veered from its recovery track after the March 11 disaster disrupted the nation's supply chains, impaired nuclear power generation and darkened the mood among consumers.

Relations between The National Asset Management Agency and developers Ray and Danny Grehan broke down last week after the agency asked them to sign up to about 35 legal documents improving security on debts of about €650 million as a condition of the agency funding the completion of a hotel extension in London, the Irish Times reported. The agency asked Ray Grehan to agree to renewed personal guarantees and additional legal charges over personal assets, including his family home, and the properties owned by his company, Glenkerrin, last week.

After making a fuss about defending Italian champions of industry, it turns out that the Italian government is willing to compromise, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. When France's Groupe Lactalis SA first appeared on the scene in March, building up a 29% stake in dairy group Parmalat SpA, the government sounded the alarm amid fears that yet another Italian company would fall prey to a French predator. With Lactalis' move on Parmalat, the government went into action. It called on the country's bankers and industrialists to save Parmalat and passed measures to help them do so.