Headlines

Bankers and regulators who turned up at the World Economic Forum found that their headaches only intensified as the conference wore on. The need for change in the banking industry was generally accepted, but for what that change should be and how it might most effectively be achieved, there was no clear prescription. If dozens of different doctors had scribbled down their thoughts in the illegible script for which they are famed, the result couldn't have been more confusing.

Hundreds of workers in the New South Wales south-west have lost their jobs after a major abattoir went into receivership, ABC News reported. Employees at the Burrangong Meat Processors at Young were laid off unexpectedly at a meeting this afternoon. The abattoir is the town's biggest employer. Workers will find out if they will receive their pay and entitlements at a meeting tomorrow morning. Read more.

The Reader's Digest Association Inc. said Monday it had decided to temporarily delay its emergence from Chapter 11 to address its U.K. unit's pension fund deficit, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

Struggling Swedish carmaker Saab is forecast to return to profitability by 2012 and its new focus on three to four niche models will require funding of 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion), its buyer Spyker Cars said. The tiny Dutch luxury carmaker, which produces several dozen handmade sports cars a year, clinched an audacious deal to buy Saab from General Motors last week, rescuing the brand from looming oblivion, Reuters reported.

The High Court has allowed some investors who lost millions in Sasanet pyramid scheme to sell assets belonging to one of the racket directors, Business Daily reported. Three investors had sued the self-styled pyramid companies, Sasanet Ltd, Sasanet Investment Co-operative Society and its directors Mr Michael Chege and Mr Sammy Gitau, claiming more than Sh7 million from one of the schemes. Commercial Court Judge Luka Kimaru froze Mr Chege’s property in Nairobi.

The extent to which the recession has cut into high-value research and development jobs in the pharmaceutical industry will be laid bare this week as job losses in the industry climb to 12,000, the Times Online reported. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the British drugs group, will announce plans on Thursday for further restructuring with the loss of 4,000 jobs, of which nearly half will be in GSK’s research and development centres. The company employs 99,000 people, of whom 16,000 are located in the UK. The global job cull is likely to be felt in Britain, where the company has six R&D sites.

Alitalia faces disruption by striking workers this week for the first time since it emerged from bankruptcy just over a year ago, the Financial Times reported. But rather than being a return to the bad old days, its new management insists the restructured airline is on the path to recovery. "One four-hour strike in 13 months is a huge success," said the company. Its very absence from the headlines over the past year also represents a success for Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, whose centre-right government in effect blocked a takeover bid by Air France-KLM.

Dubai’s failure to reassure investors its restructuring plan will succeed is causing the emirate’s benchmark stock index to drop the most in the world and forcing companies to scrap bond sales, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. The Dubai Financial Market General Index lost 15 percent since Dec. 14, wiping out a rally sparked by Abu Dhabi’s bailout of Dubai World that day.

The government will review receivership laws with the aim of reducing the number of companies that are driven to the graveyard by statutory managers, the Daily Nation reported. Experts say that the current laws provide leeway to entities owed money — whose chief concern is recovery of their loans — sometimes leading to the collapse of companies that could have been saved by proper management. This review would have the effect of making the business environment better for local companies.

German fashion label Escada was virtually dead in the water last year. But then Megha Mittal, a member of the Indian steelmaking clan, bought the company. She now hopes to breath new life into the Bavarian fashion house, Spiegel Online reported. The 33-year-old daughter-in-law of steelmaking billionaire Lakshmi Mittal was at Escada's fashion show last Monday to present herself publicly for the first time as the take-charge businesswoman whose negotiating skills beat out the competition and won her bankrupt German fashion house Escada.