Headlines

The Indian government plans to introduce a separate legislation to speed up insolvency proceedings and help distressed firms wind up operations quickly. The new law will shorten the legal processes involving insolvency operations of small and medium entities, The Economic Times reported. The government is keen to make bankruptcy proceedings a time-bound procedure. “Speedy winding up of sick enterprises, particularly small and medium ones, is an area we need to improve,” said a senior official in the ministry of corporate affairs.

Chemicals giant Ineos, which owns the Grangemouth oil refinery, will hold crunch talks with its bankers this week as the UK's largest private company restructures its £6 billion debt, The Scotsman reported. The group's refinancing plan – which involves a 1bn (£890 million) bond issue – has angered a number of its lenders, including ING Investment Management and Harbourmaster Capital Management. An informal alliance of concerned lenders is understood to have threatened to block the restructuring, which comes less than a year after a previous agreement with the firm's creditors.

Supreme Court action has been launched against a former Bulla Tip and Quarry director and two Melbourne businessmen over events and dealings during and leading to its 2006-2007 voluntary administration. In a statement of claim lodged in the Victorian Supreme Court by Bulla Tip and Quarry Operations liquidator Ferrier Hodgson it is claimed a fraudulent backdated loan of $800,100 led to the company being put into the hands of now de-registered insolvency administrator Stuart Ariff, the Sunbury Leader reported. It is is claimed Mr Ariff defrauded the company of more than $800,000.

I am willing to risk two predictions. The first is that Greece will not default this year. The second is that Greece will default. The Greek government has demonstrated that it can still borrow at a rate of about 6 per cent but if you do the maths on the public debt dynamics, as I did recently, it would be hard to arrive at any other scenario than an eventual default, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. The adjustment effort needed to prevent a debt explosion is extremely large.

The euro declined for a third day against the dollar amid speculation that a plan for Greece to obtain European Union and International Monetary Fund help in cutting its budget deficit may falter, Bloomberg reported. Europe’s common currency also slid versus the yen as Market News International reported that Greece wants to bypass IMF involvement should it require assistance because the conditions would be too stringent.

Air India is entering a crucial phase of its long-awaited turnaround that could determine whether the venerable airline escapes from massive losses or slides into decrepitude, The Wall Street Journal reported. For the past 11 months, Arvind Jadhav, chairman of state-owned parent company National Aviation Company of India Ltd., has been pushing restructuring measures he says are needed to stem a steep decline in the carrier's fortunes caused by the global recession, payments for new aircraft, an entrenched staff, a botched merger and increasing competition. Among Mr.

Gordon Brown on Sunday said the large economies were close to agreeing a global tax on banks that would cost the financial sector billions of pounds a year but played down expectations that a deal could be struck at the next Group of 20 meeting in June, the Financial Times reported. The UK prime minister, who held talks with Angela Merkel, German chancellor, last week, said the scene was set for a “global responsibility levy”. Read more. (Subscription required.)

Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and Bank of Ireland (BoI) were asked during crisis talks on the night the Government bank guarantee was introduced in late September 2008 how much they could provide in liquidity to Anglo Irish Bank, according to well-placed sources, The Irish Times reported. During emergency discussions with the Government and senior regulatory officials, both banks consulted their treasury departments shortly after talks began late on Monday, September 29th.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, sliding in opinion polls as he prepares to call a general election, said a victory by the opposition Conservatives would risk tipping the economy back into recession, Bloomberg reported. Brown said the U.K. economic recovery is too fragile for spending cuts proposed by the opposition. David Cameron’s Conservatives widened their lead in polls published yesterday after offering a mix of tax and budget reductions, countering Labour plans to raise payroll levies to maintain spending.

Metro, which is planning to sell its department store chain Kaufhof, is talking to potential investors who are also interested in local rival Karstadt, but is not in concrete negotiations, a newspaper said. German department store chain Karstadt was part of the Arcandor retail group, which went insolvent last year amid refinancing difficulties. Karstadt's insolvency administrator plans to sell the chain by the end of April.