Headlines

Strategic Finance has fallen further into debt as it prepares to announce details of a proposed restructure. The company has reported an (unaudited) after-tax trading loss of $99.8 million to December 2009 - $16.1 million higher than it forecast in January. Strategic Finance said in a statement this morning the review event under the terms of its moratorium and subsequent discussions had delayed its half-year audit. The board expected KPMG to finish the audit by March 31.

French courts have reversed a controversial decision to allow an issuer of securitised bonds to file for local insolvency proceedings and formulate a plan to reschedule its debts, the Financial Times reported. The legal proceedings, which centre on the restructuring of one of Europe’s biggest commercial mortgage-backed securitisations, have been closely watched on fears that it could deter lending to the real estate and corporate sectors. Coeur Défense was placed in France’s version of Chapter 11, Procedure de Sauvegarde, in November 2008 after its owner, Lehman Brothers, collapsed.

Fears of a double-dip recession and a sterling crisis in the run-up to the election were raised last night amid news of collapsing investment in British industry and a warning from one of the world's leading financiers that the pound could plummet within weeks, The Guardian reported.

China's central bank favors legalizing some gray-area private lenders and removing ceilings on interest rates, an official said Thursday, changes that would make it easier for the nation's small and private businesses to get loans, The Wall Street Journal reported. The People's Bank of China plans to submit proposals for the regulatory changes to the State Council, or cabinet, as soon as possible, said Zhou Xuedong, director general of the central bank's law and regulation department.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the use of credit default swaps to destabilize a country is “counterproductive,” and added the central bank is reviewing the arrangements of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and investment banks with Greece, Bloomberg reported. “We are looking into a number of questions related to Goldman Sachs and other companies and their derivatives arrangements with Greece,” Bernanke said today in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in Washington.

Lawyers for Nortel Networks Corp. were in a Toronto court Thursday morning trying to fend off a $3.4-billion claim by the British pensions regulator, The Globe and Mail reported. The U.K. Pensions Regulator has moved in on Nortel's CCAA proceedings, attempting to pull the company into a separate legal battle in Britain that might give U.K. pensioners a greater stake in the cash generated by auctioned Nortel assets.

Shipbuilder Davie Yards has filed for creditor protection due to ballooning project costs and will temporarily lay off 1,600 employees, The Toronto Sun reported. The Levis, Que.-based company said it will slash its operations to a workforce of 160 people while it works on securing new financing. The layoffs will mostly be temporary and will take effect on Monday. Davie, which makes ships and rigs for the offshore oil and gas industry, said its operating results have been affected by rising costs related to delayed payments from its clients, as well as currency fluctuations.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services weighed in on increasing concerns about financial distress in the euro zone, with the ratings agency saying it doesn't see a nation defaulting, The Wall Street Journal reported. All euro-zone nations are currently rated investment grade, and S&P said Thursday it believes their creditworthiness is at least adequate to meet their financial commitments. The comments stem from recent tension over Greece, which has prompted warnings downgrades from ratings agencies.

The operators of the Pioneer Valley Hospital, Owen Ferguson Health (OFH), have gone into receivership, just days after a report the hospital would be sold, the Daily Mercury reported. Receivers Ferrier Hodgson are conducting an urgent assessment of the group’s finances but have vowed that Pioneer Valley Hospital employees’ entitlements will remain a high priority. OFH manages two other small private hospitals – Cliveden Hill Private Hospital in East Melbourne and Lismore Private Hospital in NSW.

Bets by some of the same banks that helped Greece shroud its mounting debts may actually now be pushing the nation closer to the brink of financial ruin, The New York Times reported. Echoing the kind of trades that nearly toppled the American International Group, the increasingly popular insurance against the risk of a Greek default is making it harder for Athens to raise the money it needs to pay its bills, according to traders and money managers.