Headlines

Lifeline island flights which were grounded after a troubled airline went into voluntary administration will restart next week with new operators, The Scotsman reported. Inverness-based Highland Airways called in administrators and cancelled all its services with immediate effect on Wednesday night after a rescue deal fell through. It raised fears about the future of vital air links to the islands as well as major job losses among the company's 100 staff. The move followed the collapse of another Scottish airline, Flyglobespan, in December.

The Australian company behind denim fashion label ksubi has restructured the business after a period of voluntary administration, CBC News’ Trading Room reported. ksubi Pty Ltd said on Friday the company was now controlled by a consortium of industry-experienced management, including investor Harry Hodge, co-founders Dan Single and George Gorrow, and shareholders of Bleach Pty Ltd. "In January 2010 ksubi entered into voluntary administration through Grant Thornton in an effort to restructure and consolidate the denim fashion label's business," ksubi said in a statement on Friday.

Canwest Global Communications Corp., the insolvent Canadian media company, won approval to pay as much as C$2.7 million ($2.6 million) more in bonuses to employees deemed critical to its restructuring, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. Ontario Superior Court Judge Sarah Pepall today approved payments of as much as C$1.4 million for non-management workers and an increase of C$1.3 million for managers following a hearing in Toronto. Canwest already had approval to pay managers as much as C$3 million in bonuses. The non-management employees work at Canwest Ltd.

Barclays Bank last week appointed a receiver over assets of Marumba Properties, a Dublin company that was behind plans to revamp the Finglas Shopping Centre in north Dublin, The Post reported. Acting on foot of a 2007 charge registered against the company’s assets, the bank installed David Carson, an accountant with Deloitte, as receiver to the company. Marumba Properties was planning to develop Finglas Village, a proposed development that was to include 160 apartments and a retail development. However, construction work has yet to begin on the site.

Greek debt managers, bankers and economists voiced relief on Friday at moves by European Union leaders and the European Central Bank to rescue the country from the threat of a sovereign default, the Financial Times reported. The EU decision on a “last resort” financial package including assistance from the International Monetary Fund would help reduce Greece’s high borrowing costs – provided its fiscal consolidation effort stayed on track, they said.

A senior Chinese central bank official criticized the handling of the Greek debt crisis, highlighting global concern about the situation in Europe, The Wall Street Journal reported. Speaking at a conference in Hong Kong, Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, also said China "should and could" import more goods to keep its trade surplus small. And he noted that the central bank's efforts to tighten monetary policy were having their intended effect, even without China having to raise interest rates.

What a difference four months makes. Having sent global markets into a tailspin in November with a high-handed shock announcement of a $26 billion debt restructuring, Dubai now has offered a very creditor-friendly deal on Dubai World and Nakheel debt, WSJ’s Heard on the Street blog reported. The markets welcomed the plan. But one longer-term fear might be that this odd restructuring is actually too generous.

One of Ireland's best-known architectural firms Murray Ó Laoire has gone into liquidation, with the loss of more than 120 jobs, The Irish Times reported. The company cited cumulative bad debts, the difficult market and problems in getting paid on time for the collapse of the business. Murray Ó Laoire has offices in Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Slovakia, Russia, Germany, Libya, Barbados and Abu Dhabi. The company employs 127 people, with the majority of its staff based in Ireland.

Debt-ridden Japan Airlines Corp said it will suspend its scheduled freighter flight services by the end of October and would instead use the cargo belly space of passenger flights, Reuters reported. The airline's passenger flights provide cargo capacity of about three times the volume available on its scheduled freighter flights, the company said in a press release posted on its website.

A Vancouver Island resort development with a high-profile owner was placed under court protection from creditors Thursday, CBC News reported. Bear Mountain Resort is run by a partnership headed by Len Barrie, the former NHL player and former owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Barrie said in a statement the partnership agreed not to oppose an application to place the resort under creditor protection by HSBC, one of the world's largest banks, whose support is required to allow operations to continue.