Headlines

Workers at a French timber subsidiary in Gabon held managers hostage in a French-style "bossnapping" to secure their pay demands, both sides said Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported. The managers, including the new Chinese buyers of the firm, were released on Monday several hours after being held at their plant in the port of the capital Libreville. The dispute took place at the premises of Leroy Gabon and Pogab, which are both subsidiaries of the French plywood company Plysorol, which was placed in receivership last week by a French court.

The cost of borrowing from commercial banks could come down significantly with the launch of an information portal that will allow lenders to assess their customers based on their credit history, Business Daily Africa reported. Beginning July, it will be mandatory for commercial banks to share information on all non performing loans in their books, including defaulters with the Deposit Protection Fund, with licensed credit reference bureaus. Though the system will punish borrowers with dubious credit records, it is also expected to help good customers negotiate better credit terms.

Canadian bankruptcies fell 12.4 percent in January from a year earlier as both consumers and businesses regained strength in the wake of the recession, data from the federal bankruptcy agency showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Consumer bankruptcies fell 11.9 percent to 6,998 in January 2010 from a year earlier, and were 9.6 percent lower than in December, the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy said in a report. Business bankruptcies fell 21.0 percent from a year earlier to 354 in January. That was down 3.8 percent from December.

Derek Hughes, the founder of bookshop chain Hughes & Hughes, has put together a group of investors in a move to reopen some of the chain’s Dublin stores, The Irish Times reported. The group went into receivership in February. However, a number of other interested parties are believed to be in negotiations with landlords over the leases of former Hughes & Hughes high-street stores. In late February, Ulster Bank moved on the Hughes & Hughes chain with the appointment of Deloitte’s David Carson as receiver.

The Securities Commission says there may be more legal action against four Lombard Finance and Investments directors, including former National Party cabinet minister Sir Douglas Graham, Radio New Zealand reported. Sir Douglas and the other directors, former Labour Party cabinet minister, Bill Jeffries, Michael Reeves, and Lawrence Bryant face penalties of up to $500,000 each for allegedly misleading investors. The civil action by the Securities Commission comes two years after Lombard Finance was placed into receivership, owing $127 million to about 4400 investors.

Visteon Corp. has moved to block a demand for $555 million from U.K. pension regulators who fear the auto-parts maker will leave British retirees behind in its bid to survive in bankruptcy, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Payments for U.K. retirees "would have a dramatic impact" on what creditors are getting out of Visteon's Chapter 11 case, the company said in a filing Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Unless the U.K.

An official report on Monday accused the Icelandic government and regulators of “extreme negligence” in the run-up to the country’s 2008 banking crisis, the Financial Times reported. Geir Haarde, former prime minister, and David Oddsson, former prime minister and central bank governor, were among those blamed for the crash. The independent “truth commission” appointed by parliament to investigate the crisis also pointed to possible illegality within the banks, including share price manipulation and exaggeration of asset values.

France and Germany traditionally have been the “motor” of the European Union, but relations between the two countries are badly strained over the Greek debt crisis, which is just the latest example of a new German willingness to resist the demands of Europe and assert its self-interest under Chancellor Angela Merkel, The New York Times reported. The European Union is facing a serious crisis over financing and its currency, the euro.

European leaders’ pledge to help Greece with an unprecedented aid package may be a stepping stone on the way to a more unified fiscal policy, said economists at Barclays Capital and Commerzbank AG, Bloomberg reported. Euro region officials have spent the past two months debating whether to maneuver around the rules of the Maastricht Treaty, which left the bloc without a common finance ministry to match its shared central bank. The treaty also contains a “no bailout clause,” making it harder for governments to agree on fiscal transfers for euro members facing fiscal crises.

Yuan forwards fell by the most in three weeks after President Hu Jintao said China would follow its own path in reforming the nation’s currency policy. China won’t yield to outside pressure on the exchange rate and any changes will be “based on its own economic and social- development needs,” Hu told Barack Obama yesterday during a visit to Washington, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Non-deliverable forwards rose on April 9 to an 11-week high on mounting bets for an imminent shift in yuan policy. Bonds rose after the central bank kept bill yields stable at an auction.