Headlines

Australia’s small listed companies are still struggling to raise finance in the wake of the global financial crisis, according to fund manager Roger Sharp, The Australian reported. "Anybody who says the banking crisis is over doesn't understand how tight the market is and how hard it in for small companies, even listed companies, to raise debt,” he said. Companies that succeed in securing a loan can pay 6 per cent and more above cash rates, according to Reserve Bank statistics.

French and German banks have lent nearly $1 trillion to the most troubled European countries and are more exposed to the debt crisis than the banks of any other countries, according to a new report that is likely to add pressure on institutions to detail their holdings, The New York Times reported.

Four German states where General Motors' Opel unit has factories are ready to provide financial assistance to the US auto giant, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday after meeting state chiefs. On Wednesday Merkel's government rejected a request from GM for 1.1 billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) in loan guarantees from a federal fund, saying GM has sufficient cash of its own, Agence France-Presse reported.

A German court has delayed a decision on the insolvency plan for department store chain Karstadt until July 16, a press spokesman for the court in Essen said Thursday, Dow Jones reported. Although the contract for the sale of Karstadt to Berggruen Holdings has been signed, the sale still depends on certain conditions being met, the court said. These relate in part to the negotiation of rental agreements between Berggruen and the owners of the real estate Karstadt rents. The agreement is also subject to approval by cartel authorities.

The Securities Commission is warning Strategic Finance investors to be "wary" of a 5c in the dollar offer for their debentures in the collapsed finance company, The National Business Review reported. Australian company Stock and Share Trading Company Pty Ltd initially offered investors 20c in the dollar but has since come back with the much lower 5c. The same company has also attempted to entice St Laurence debenture holders with an 8c in the dollar deal, having initially offered 20c.

BP dismissed talk that it might seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the face of falling stock prices and threats from government officials to force the oil giant to pay more in costs related to the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The looming insolvency of PrimaCom AG is edging closer since there are few signs that creditors and shareholders will reach an agreement ahead of a June 22 deadline, according to two persons familiar with the matter. PrimaCom's insolvency would boost the consolidation process in the German cable network sector with Kabel Deutschland Holding AG benefiting most. A plan to sell PrimaCom failed around six months ago, with the highest bidder offering €240 million. That apparently wasn't sufficient.

Japan's Nomura Holdings Inc. is objecting to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s attempt to consolidate legal action against Nomura's affiliates in three countries as the two investment banks battle over more than $1 billion of claims related to derivatives contracts, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In papers filed Wednesday with the U.S.

More than 40 U.S. lawmakers called today for BP Plc to suspend its dividend, stop its advertising and spend the money instead cleaning up its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. “Not a single cent” should be spent on television ads, said Representative Lois Capps, a California Democrat, at a news conference in Washington.

FreightLink, which was forced into voluntary administration in 2008 after several attempts to sell the railway has been sold to Genesee and Wyoming for $334 million. The sale will take about three months to finalise, LogisticsWeek reported. FreightLink operates six freight services per week between the South Australian and Northern Territory capitals, carrying 3.8 million tonnes of goods annually. Genesse and Wyoming bought the Australian National Railway’s South Australian freight operations several years ago.