Headlines

European companies have written off debt of €300bn ($383bn) – equivalent to the total debt of Greece – in the past 12 months because of late payment, imperilling many small companies, according to an authoritative study out today, the Financial Times reported. Research by Intrum Justitia, a Swedish credit management company, has found that the amount of written-off debt has increased by 8 per cent since last May. Small companies play a bigger role in Europe’s economy than in other regions in the world and the number of bankruptcies is increasing even as growth returns.

Computer chip maker Qimonda North America Corp. is suing its German parent in Delaware bankruptcy court over the parent's bid to recoup more than $1.5 billion in intercompany debts from its North American affiliates, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Qimonda North America said that its corporate parent, Qimonda AG, stripped its North American unit of cash and assets in exchange of "near worthless" notes while loading up its struggling Virginia-based subsidiary with hundreds of millions of dollars in loans it knew it wouldn't repay.

Asset management company Goldsmith Capital Partners is interested in Metro's department store chain Kaufhof, which the German retailer is trying to sell. A spokesman for Goldsmith said on Friday that the company had been interested in Kaufhof for quite some time, Reuters reported. He declined to confirm a report by German newspaper Lebensmittelzeitung that Goldsmith had already made an offer for Kaufhof. Metro said it would neither confirm nor deny names of interested investors. Goldsmith Capital Partners, founded in 2007 by investor Clemens Vedder, started the hedge fund Blacksmith.

The financially-troubled surgical clinic at the centre of a bankruptcy battle says Alberta Health Services abruptly pulled back from an agreement promising it nearly triple the number of surgeries usually provided, according to court documents, The Calgary Herald reported.

How will we catch something so virulent from as far away as Greece? In the same way as we caught our last economic illness, through an intensely integrated international financial system, The Independent reported in a commentary. British banks have lent money to Greece, both to her government and to private companies and individuals, but not that much in the big scheme of things – perhaps $15.4bn (£10.4bn), according to the Bank for International Settlements. But the European banks own much more.

European leaders, pressured by sliding markets and doubts over their ability to act in unison, agreed on Sunday to provide a huge rescue package of nearly one trillion dollars in a sweeping effort to regain lost credibility with investors, The New York Times reported. After more than 10 hours of talks, finance ministers from the European Union agreed on a deal that would provide $560 billion in new loans and $76 billion under an existing lending program.

The number of people in England and Wales entering into insolvency rose to a new high in the first three months of the year, figures from the Insolvency Service showed today. A total of 35,682 people became insolvent during the period, equal to 566 people a day. This was the fifth consecutive quarter during which the total has hit a record level, as increasing numbers of consumers struggle to keep up with their debts, The Guardian reported. But there was better news on the corporate front, with total company liquidations falling by 4% compared with the previous quarter to 4,196.

The operator of major eye clinic chain Kanagawa Clinic Ophthalmology Department has filed for bankruptcy proceedings after dozens of infections following laser surgery at a clinic and a warning from the government over misleading pricing, iStockAnalyst reported on a Kyodo News story. The operator, the Hakubikai foundation based in Tokyo, said Friday that the Tokyo District Court had approved bankruptcy proceedings on Thursday. The foundation said Kanagawa Clinic branches in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka will be passed on to another healthcare group.

Barclays Plc, in the midst of a bitter fight with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. over claims it received a secret multibillion dollar windfall when it purchased some of the investment bank's assets, is suing a group of Lehman's former private-equity real-estate funds now controlled by a real-estate investment firm, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Lehman's bankruptcy case, Barclays says PCCP Mezzanine Recovery Partners II owes its wealth management business $16 million in unpaid management fees.

The Bank of Japan moved to offer Y2,000bn ($21.6bn) in overnight liquidity on Friday to “increase markets’ sense of security” because of turmoil resulting from the debt crisis in Greece, the Financial Times reported. It is the bank’s first exceptional offer of overnight funds since the scare over Dubai’s sovereign debt in December 2009 and its biggest since the height of the financial crisis in December 2008. The move shows that fears about sovereign debt default in Europe are rippling across global markets, with the Bank of Japan the first central bank to react by adding liquidity.