Headlines

A blitz of caveats put on Crafar North Island dairy farm titles by the company acting as the buying agent for a Chinese group is being removed by the Crafar receiver, The Dominion Post reported. A search of property titles for many of the farms involved in the Crafar receivership shows caveats registered by UBNZ Funds Management, the New Zealand company partly owned by Chinese company Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings, which is in negotiations to buy more than 20 farms in the receivership.

Strategic Finance’s preference shareholders have been told they won’t see any money from the collapsed financier as receivers apply for its delisting from the NZX, The National Business Review reported. Two weeks into its investigations, receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers have said there is no money available to repay Strategic Finance’s preference shareholders and warn there will be a shortfall in the amount available for creditors. Strategic Finance was placed in receivership on March 12, ending a moratorium arrangement. The company owes 13,000 investors $417 million.

European Union leaders hold what is likely to be a tense and difficult summit on Thursday, divided over how to help heavily indebted Greece and struggling to maintain confidence in the euro, Reuters reported. Diplomatic efforts on the eve of the two-day summit failed to bridge differences over whether to offer a safety net to Greece, helping push the euro down to a 10-month low after Portugal suffered a debt down downgrade.

Britain operates one of the largest welfare states in Europe. And that, it seems, is just fine with many of the British, The New York Times reported. Despite the worst recession since World War II, many people here show little appetite for shrinking a system that eats up half the nation’s economic output, more than in Portugal, Greece or Spain — all of which are trying to push through painful cuts. Indeed, as Britain’s Labour government confronts a yawning budget deficit, public sector workers are mobilizing to head off any reductions in wages or jobs.

The number of people in employment fell by 8.1 per cent in 2009, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), bringing the unemployment rate to 13.1 per cent for the last quarter of last year, The Irish Times reported. The latest quarterly national household survey shows there were 1,887,700 persons in employment during the fourth quarter, an annual decrease of 166,900. This compares with an annual decrease in employment of 8.8 per cent in the third quarter and 3.9 per cent in the year to the fourth quarter of 2008.

Despite a slight recovery in the freight market, many shipowners and ship funds face critical questions about their financial survival, Spiegel Online reported. The crisis is also eating its way into the foundations of German banks. Institutions like HSH Nordbank, Commerzbank, Nord/LB, state-owned bank KfW's subsidiary Ipex and DVD Bank are the world's biggest ship financiers, with close to €100 billion in ship loans on their books. For many of the borrowers, it has become a question of survival, and the subject of profits hardly comes up at all anymore.

Commercial banks are charging high premiums for difficulties they face establishing the value and authenticity of securities that their customers offer for loans, pushing the cost of credit beyond the reach of many Kenyans, a new lending market report indicates, Business Daily Africa reported.

An Irish bank that loaned $165 million to five Wisconsin school districts for investments that went bust said Wednesday it is moving to reclaim what is left in the accounts and speed up repayment, The Associated Press reported. Bill Broydrick, a lobbyist for Dublin-based DEPFA Bank, said the bank declared the districts' trusts in default and was seizing the $5.6 million left in them.

A five-hour meeting between Dubai World and some of its creditors to hammer out a restructuring plan for $26 billion of debt ended Wednesday evening, with bankers remaining tight-lipped about any deal, The Wall Street Journal reported. Bankers left the meeting, held at the Murooj Rotana in downtown Dubai, in groups, while mostly side-stepping questions from reporters on whether any agreement was reached. A representative for Dubai World, present at the hotel, declined to comment. He confirmed that Dubai World officials had left and said the meeting was over.

The Ljubljana District Court initiated receivership proceedings at casino operator Casino Ljubljana, appointing Bojan Klenovsek as the receiver, the Slovenian Press Agency STA reported. Creditors have until 24 June to register their claims against the company. Read more. (Subscription required.)