Headlines

A Queensland-based supplier of kitchen surfaces has gone into liquidation after accumulating about $5 million in debts, Inside Retailing reported. More than 20 workers are jobless after the financially troubled Euroline Group closed its plants at Brendale and Forest Glen, north of Brisbane. Both plants were placed into liquidation on Wednesday (Wednesday) after the company went into voluntary administration last week. The company's base at Warner near Strathpine, north of Brisbane, has been bought by another kitchen business, Bench Space, saving 31 jobs.

The US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has granted protection over the US assets of a Cayman Islands exempted company in liquidation, Hedgeweek reported. The company, SIFCO5, is subject to official liquidation proceedings in the Cayman Islands, which the Bankruptcy Court found was eligible for relief under chapter 15 of the US Bankruptcy Code.

Japanese wireless communications service provider Willcom Inc will likely file for bankruptcy as part of a restructuring set to involve investment from a state-backed fund and Softbank Corp, the Nikkei newspaper said. Willcom, majority owned by U.S. buyout firm Carlyle, has been weighed down by heavy debts and has been struggling to expand its subscriber base in the country' saturated and fiercely competitive wirelss market.

Sydney’s Lane Cove Tunnel has finally been placed in receivership after waiting in the grey zone of administration for the past few months, Project Finance International reported. Lane Cove Tunnel’s receivers can now move forward proactively either to sell the asset or negotiate with the lenders on a recapitalisation. KordaMentha, which handled the Cross City Tunnel sale, will handle the possible sale of the assets. Traffic figures for the toll road had improved over the past 12 months but not enough to safely service its debt.

Tiny Dutch auto group Spyker clinched a last-minute deal on Tuesday to buy Sweden's Saab from General Motors Co in an audacious attempt to turn around a money-losing brand that only days ago was headed for oblivion, Reuters reported. Spyker, a company that was liquidated in the 1920s only to be reborn as a high-end sports car maker in 2000, said it would pay GM $74 million in cash and $326 million in deferred shares for Saab.

Greece is wooing China to buy up to €25 billion of government bonds, a move that underlines Beijing’s growing financial power, as Athens struggles to fund soaring public debt, The Irish Times reported. Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, has been promoting a Greek bond sale to Beijing and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe), which manages China’s $2,400 billion foreign exchange reserves, said people familiar with the issue.

Canwest’s main creditors have won backing from a majority of the company’s lenders for a plan to restructure the newspaper publishing chain, despite opposition from Chief Executive Leonard Asper, The Toronto Sun reported. According to McMillan LLP, the legal firm representing the main creditors, 135 lenders holding nearly 77% of the company’s senior secured debt have committed their support to the plan. That “surpasses both thresholds required for the restructuring plan’s approval,” the statement said.

European companies face increased risk of failure as the economy creeps out of recession, because they will need more working capital, credit insurance specialists and distressed debt investors warn, Reuters reported. Distressed debt investors and advisers predicted a second wave of restructurings throughout Europe in 2010, responding to a survey by Debtwire released on Tuesday. Companies that have limped along by stripping costs to the bone may struggle to build inventories in an economic recovery if they cannot meet their working capital requirements, investors said.

Vitro SAB, the Mexican glassmaker that defaulted on $1 billion of bonds last year, will delay making a second debt-restructuring offer until it receives proof that a group of creditors owns a quarter of the securities, said investor relations chief Adrian Meouchi, Bloomberg reported. A bondholder group that requested Vitro accelerate payments earlier this month failed to provide documentation showing it held at least 25 percent of the defaulted debt, Meouchi said in Jan. 25 telephone interview from Mexico City.

McNally Robinson Booksellers has emerged from bankruptcy protection and the owner of the company believes there is still a strong future for the industry, CBC News reported. A bankruptcy court on Monday concluded hearings on restructuring the company, said owner Paul McNally. "It's a conclusion of a process that was punishing [and] very emotional," he said. The company, founded in Winnipeg in 1981, was forced in December to close two of its four Canadian stores — one in Toronto and one in Winnipeg — as it filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to reorganize.