Headlines

New Zealand-owned kitchen and appliance chain Autel is in receivership after being buffeted by the housing downturn and pressure from big international chains, The New Zealand Herald reported. Kerryn Downey and William Black of McGrathNicol have been appointed receivers and managers of three companies that sell imported kitchen and laundry goods: Autel TV Services Limited, Lifestyle Appliances (2004) Limited and Prestige Appliances NZ Limited.

For the second time in less than five weeks, China’s central bank has moved to limit lending to consumers and businesses by ordering big commercial banks to park a larger share of their deposits at the central bank, The New York Times reported. The step, announced late Friday, came earlier than most economists had expected and was aimed at forestalling a rekindling of inflation by controlling a rapid expansion in bank loans. Families, real estate developers and industrial companies have been borrowing heavily and have started paying more for everything from food to apartments.

European leaders said they wouldn't let Greece succumb to its credit crisis, in an unprecedented pledge of support that could push the 16 countries that share the euro currency closer to collective responsibility for their budgets and debts, The Wall Street Journal reported. Countries belonging to the euro "will take determined and coordinated action, if needed, to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole," leaders of the European Union declared at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, after discussing Greece's budget crisis.

The frenzy has left euro zone governments surprised and bruised, and wondering whether there is anything they can do to stop this kind of assault from the financial markets. The answer is probably no, but that doesn't mean they won't try, The Wall Street Journal reported. From the point of view of derivatives traders in Europe, the timing hasn't been good. Just as the decision by Goldman Sachs and one or two other investment banks to pay out billions of dollars in compensation reignited a U.S.

The tiny Baltic states have pursued closer integration with Europe with enormous zeal. But the price of monetary union may be giving them pause, The New York Times reported. Economists and ordinary citizens alike are watching the protests rumbling through the streets of Athens and the slow response to Greece’s problems coming out of Brussels. “Countries like Estonia and Latvia were once desperate to get in,” said Alf Vanags, director of the Baltic International Center for Economic Policy Studies in Riga.

Germany officials reported no growth for the fourth quarter of 2009 on Friday. While some fear that the slowdown might signal the beginning of another slump, others just see it as a bump in the road to continued recovery, Spiegel Online reported. A number of experts attributed the unexpected drop to factors such as the end of Germany's cash-for-clunkers program in September and the harsh weather conditions that have gripped Germany for most of the winter. "Just look out your window and you know why," Andreas Rees, the chief German economist at UniCredit, told the Associated Press.

Commercial banks were on Thursday scouring their records for signals as to how big the government’s decision to revoke more than 130 titles for prime properties in Nairobi, the first of a countrywide cancellation of dubious land ownership deeds, would damage their loan books, Business Daily Africa reported. Lands minister James Orengo said his office had used executive orders to cancel 137 titles that were illegally issued for public land without following due process.

The company that owns Shaw Cable and the StarChoice satellite TV service has arranged to buy a controlling stake in Canwest Global Communications Corp., CBC News reported. Calgary-based Shaw Communications Corp. would own at least 20 per cent of Canwest's equity and 80 per cent of its voting stock if the transaction announced Friday closes. Canwest's National Post newspaper and the firm's chain of other Canadian newspapers are not part of the deal.

Grupo Corporativo Ono SA, Spain’s biggest cable operator, failed to get the approval of its lenders to refinance €1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) of debt by this week’s deadline, according to three people familiar with the talks, Reuters reported. Ono will extend the negotiations into next week to try and persuade lenders providing 80 percent of the debt to agree to the plan, said the people, who declined to be identified because the matter is private.

European Union leaders will express support on Thursday for a financial rescue plan for Greece to be designed and supervised by eurozone finance ministers and the European Commission, EU officials and diplomats said, the Financial Times reported. The plan will require a cast-iron commitment from the Greek government to put its public finances in order and will draw on the technical expertise of the International Monetary Fund without tapping IMF funds, they said.