Headlines

Top Russian oil producer OAO Rosneft said a U.K. court lifted an order freezing GBP425 million ($648 million) of its assets, the latest twist in a legal battle with an affiliate of bankrupt Russian oil giant Yukos, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The freeze had been obtained last month by Netherlands-based Yukos Capital S.a.r.l., which is seeking to recover a $389 million debt Rosneft assumed when it acquired Yukos assets in 2004. Rosneft had refused to comply with an arbitration award by a Dutch court ordering it to repay the sum, plus interest and penalties.

The UK subsidiary of the Reader's Digest magazine has been bought out of administration by Better Capital, Jon Moulton's new turnround private equity group, the Financial Times reported. The £13m deal is Mr Moulton's second investment since he floated Better Capital in London last year. Reader's Digest UK filed for administration in February after failing to secure backing from the pensions regulator for a deal to fund its £125m pension deficit.

Japan Airlines Corp., restructuring under a 900 billion yen ($9.7 billion) state-backed plan, shouldn’t allow government aid to distort competition, the International Air Transport Association said. “Restructuring has to be fast and painful,” IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani said, BusinessWeek reported. JAL, which was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange in February, is planning to cut almost a third of its workforce, slash flights and retire older planes over three years to return to profit. All Nippon Airways Co.

As interest rates on Greek debt spiral upward again, the question facing Europe is no longer whether Athens has the political will to cut spending and raise taxes to curb its gaping budget deficit, but whether Greece will run out of money before it gets the chance to do so, The New York Times DealBook blog reported. With the rate on 10-year Greek bonds reaching as high as 7.5 percent on Thursday, up from 6.5 just three days ago, the cost of insuring against a Greek default hit a record high.

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority and the Winnipeg Airports Authority seized on Wednesday jets of Skyservice Airlines to recover unpaid bills of the air carrier, which was placed under receivership, AHN reported. The Greater Toronto Airports Authority confiscated six planes to cover $221,038 unpaid bills of Skyservice. The seized planes were parked at the Pearson International Airport. The authority actually sought on Monday court authority to confiscate eight Skyservice planes parked at Pearson consisting of four Boeing 757s and four A-320 aircraft.

High profile dairy farmer Allan Crafar says he will stay on his family land at Reporoa, despite an offer from receivers that was due to expire at the end of today, The New Zealand Herald reported. It was not clear whether that meant the end of the business day, however it appeared that the property was still being used by the family at around 6pm this evening. A spokesman for receivers KordaMentha said they were following a process but would not provide any further details.

Entellect Solutions’ plans to become a major player in the education software sector has suffered a set back, with wholly owned subsidiary MXL Consolidated being placed into voluntary administration, Computerworld Australia reported. The deal is a major blow as MXL, a provider of web-based student administration and curriculum management software, is responsible for conducting the significant majority of trading operations of the Entellect group.

The sale of insolvent German department store chain Karstadt could be at a dead end as investors are showing little interest and merging the chain with local rival Kaufhof could prove to be too complex, Reuters reported. Insolvency administrator Klaus-Hubert Goerg wants to sell the 120 Karstadt stores by the end of April. However, his plan to sell the company as a whole -- a prerequisite for concessions from real estate owners and employees -- is getting little interest from investors who think his restructuring plan is not tough enough, industry experts said.

Debt-laden Russian baby food producer Nutritek is urgently seeking ways to escape bankruptcy and has postponed its secondary share placement while it works on an emergency plan, the company said. The company's bank accounts are frozen following a 10.8 million rouble ($368,300) lawsuit filed by one its creditors who had not accepted its restructuring of the bulk of $210 million in overdue loans. The restructuring allowed its creditors to get the majority of votes on the company's board.

An international financial organization urged advanced economies on Wednesday to begin laying the groundwork now so that next year they could start removing economic stimulus measures, The New York Times reported. “In most countries, decisions about movement, about action, should start to be discussed and taken now,” said Pier Carlo Padoan, chief economist of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.