Headlines

Greece survived a key test by raising €5 billion ($6.85 billion) in a bond sale, but investors warned that a looming wave of debt auctions by other European countries could make it difficult for Athens to raise the rest of the money it needs, The Wall Street Journal reported. The offer by Greece to pay 6.3% on its 10-year notes drew investors, filling order books by late morning Thursday. By lunchtime in London,the offering had €14.5 billion in bids, a sign Greece could have sold nearly three times what it advertised.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet pressed Greece to halt its flirtation with International Monetary Fund aid and work with European allies to tame its record budget deficit, Bloomberg reported. As protesters besieged the Greek Finance Ministry to denounce €4.8 billion ($6.5 billion) of tax increases and spending cuts, the Athens government said the absence of European support might force it into the hands of the IMF.

Leonard Asper has resigned as chief executive officer of CanWest Global Communications Corp., but is not yet willing to let go of the company founded by his father, The Globe and Mail reported. Mr. Asper continues to work on a potential bid to stay on as a key investor in CanWest. However, since the company and its board have supported a recent deal to bring in cable giant Shaw Communications Inc. as a 20-per-cent investor, Mr. Asper's rival bid is now in conflict, sources close to the company said. In a memo to CanWest employees Thursday, Mr.

The owner and operator of the railway, Freightlink, went into voluntary administration in late 2008 after spending months on the market, ABC News reported. Today, the receivers, KordaMentha, advertised nationally for interested buyers to contact them. KordaMentha says market conditions last year were not suitable for a sale and they are confident a buyer will now be found because the business is performing well. Read more.

Dudley Leitch is confident the Killarney and Pittsworth abattoirs will reopen, even if it is not under the ownership or management of Leitch Pastoral Group, the Warwick Daily News reported. “I don’t think there is any doubt the abattoirs will get back up and running because they have a very significant importance in south-east Queensland; because they’re the only two multi-species abattoirs of any significant size,” Mr Leitch said.

The owner of a British Columbia newspaper group has joined the bidding for bankrupt Canwest Global Communications Corp's newspaper assets, Reuters reported on a Globe and Mail story. The bid from David Black, founder of Black Press Ltd, will compete with offers from at least six other bidders for publications including Canwest's flagship National Post, the Ottawa Citizen and Montreal Gazette, the Globe report said. Platinum Equity LLC, a California private equity firm, is the most likely backer of Black's bid, the Globe reported, citing unnamed sources.

The Greek government's new austerity measures drew a positive response from European credit and currency markets, further allaying fears that Greece might default on its debt obligations, The Wall Street Journal reported. The measures, which will save the Greek state €4.8 billion ($6.5 billion) a year, include steep cuts in civil-service salaries and entitlements, as well as a rise in Greece's sales tax by two percentage points.

The regulatory fall-out from the Greek financial crisis grew on Wednesday as authorities on both sides of the Atlantic said they were examining trades in the euro and the market in sovereign credit default swaps, the Financial Times reported. European Commission officials said they would use a meeting as early as Thursday with banks and regulators to discuss regulation of the market for sovereign credit default swaps, which have become a political lightning rod in Europe. as a result of the Greek financial crisis.

Nortel Networks Corp said it received U.S. and Canadian court approval for the sale of its carrier Voice over Internet Protocol and application solutions business to Genband Inc for about $182 million, Reuters reported. The company received orders from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approving the asset sale agreement with Genband, Nortel said in a statement.

La Seda de Barcelona SA late Tuesday said more than 75% of its creditors had agreed to a lockup agreement that allows the loss-making chemical firm to use an increasingly popular U.K. insolvency tool to refinance its debt, Dow Jones reported. The Barcelona-based company is trying to get its lenders to agree to the restructuring of €600 million of its debt by converting €150 million into equity, extending the maturity of €250 million by eight years, and the remaining €200 million by five years. The syndicated loan was signed in London in June 2006, allowing the company to employ the U.K.