Headlines

JSC Alliance Bank, the sixth-largest bank in Kazakhstan by net loans, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy to protect itself from U.S. lawsuits and creditor claims while it reorganizes at home, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. The Almaty-based company listed both debt and assets of more than $1 billion in documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. JSC “experienced severe liquidity difficulties” following the worldwide financial crisis, according to the papers.

U.K.-based luxury clothing retailer Burberry Group PLC said Wednesday it would stop producing its local Spanish clothing collection, shutting its Barcelona facility with the loss of 300 jobs and taking a restructuring hit of between €50 million ($68.8 million) and €70 million as the economic downturn in the country continued to drag sales down, The Wall Street Journal reported.

British oil major BP Plc is in talks to pay about $1.2 billion for a majority stake in a privately held Canadian company with large reserves of oil-rich sand deposits, the Sunday Times reported. A deal to take a stake in Value Creation Inc could anger environmentalists and some BP shareholders who fiercely oppose the oil sands business, which they say is expensive and environmentally damaging, the paper said. Value Creation is in financial trouble and faces being put into receivership on Monday, it reported.

Greece should lose voting privileges in the European Union if it gets a bailout from the 27-nation bloc, said the head of the business caucus of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. As one of the EU’s 27 members, Greece would be able to block demands accompanying a rescue if the conditions are “too tough,” Kurt Lauk, the head of the CDU’s Economic Council, said.

Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts, The New York Times reported. As worries over Greece rattle world markets, records and interviews show that with Wall Street’s help, the nation engaged in a decade-long effort to skirt European debt limits. One deal created by Goldman Sachs helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels.

As Greece resists European demands for wider austerity measures, the contrast with the Baltic states couldn't be starker, The Wall Street Journal reported. Faced with similar market worries about their fiscal positions a year ago, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia bit the bullet. Now there is light on the horizon: Standard & Poor's has lifted its rating outlook on all three to stable from negative, citing the successes achieved in fiscal consolidation. Greece should take note. All three have retained effective currency pegs rather than take the option of devaluation.

Irish software firm First Derivatives has bought Cognotec Holdings Ltd in a deal worth up to $4.7 million (€3.5 million). Cognotec was placed into receivership on January 22nd, The Irish Times reported. The terms of the purchase comprise a cash payment of $4.7 million, $500,000 of which will be held in escrow pending delivery of certain agreements by the receiver following completion. The purchase will be paid for in cash from the company’s existing banking facilities. Cognotec has operations in Dublin, London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo.

A P.E.I. Supreme Court judge has extended bankruptcy protection for Mariner Seafoods of Montague until April 8, Nova News Now reported. Justice Wayne Cheverie granted the extension in Supreme Court in Charlottetown on Feb. 11 after hearing representations from legal counsel. The court was told that all parties involved in the proceedings have agreed to the extension. In granting the application for an extension brought forth by the company’s legal counsel, Justice Cheverie said he was satisfied that Mariner has been acting in good faith in this process.

Catania Chile SA, an independent company and a division of M.L. Catania Co. Ltd., has halted operations in Chile and filed for bankruptcy protection, trade publication The Packer reported. Paul Catania Jr., executive vice president of the Toronto-based parent company, confirmed the closing of Catania Chile and the bankruptcy filing. Catania declined to comment until the matter is resolved in Chilean courts. Of the 513,000 cartons of fruit Catania Chile exported during the 2007-08 season, about 25%, 127,000 cartons, went to the U.S. and Canada.

The Italian government wants to speed up the sale of assets by Italian fashion group IT Holding which has been in administration since last year, a trade union leader said on Monday, Reuters reported. Government-appointed commissioners and trade unions met the industry ministry on Monday to discuss a plan for the group, which owns fashion brands Gianfranco Ferre and Malo as well as production unit Ittierre. Ittierre makes clothes for lines such as Just Cavalli and Galliano. The commissioners have said the group's three main assets would be sold separately under a plan they have drawn up.