Headlines

The number of Irish companies that went into receivership more than doubled last year to 124, as banks increasingly moved to have receivers appointed to recover their debts, The Irish Times reported. New figures from InsolvencyJournal.ie show a 118 per cent rise in receiverships, as the total number of insolvencies increased 82 per cent to 1,406.

Japanese authorities have thrown a lifeline to the crisis-struck Japan Airlines (JAL), the largest carrier in Asia, by doubling a state-sponsored credit line to £1.33 billion, The Guardian reported. The government in Tokyo asked the Development Bank of Japan to double its existing 100 billion yen (£665 million) commitment facility to JAL today after ministers – including Seiji Maehara, transport minister, and Naoto Kan, deputy prime minister – met for crisis talks to discuss how Tokyo could further support the troubled carrier.

Korea Asset Management Corp (KAMCO) will buy about 15 trillion won ($13 billion) worth of bad loans from financial institutions and assets from companies undergoing restructuring this year, the state debt clearer said. KAMCO Chairman and Chief Executive Lee Chol-hwi said in a new year speech on Monday that the planned purchases would be financed with 10 trillion won from a corporate restructuring fund, Alibaba.com reported on a Reuters story. The agency will pick up another 1.2 trillion won worth of soured household debt with its own money in 2010.

The state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) and other financial firms have decided to freeze debts of Kumho Petrochemical and Asiana Airlines for one year to help the struggling Kumho Asiana Group tide over its worsening cash flow problem, The Korea Times reported. They also plan to appoint financial auditors to oversee the money management and restructuring of the two flagship units of the nation's ninth-largest conglomerate, while taking equity and other assets held by the debt-ridden firms as collateral when providing fresh loans.

President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is still contemplating whether to veto the Icesave legislation, which the Icelandic parliament passed on December 31, Iceland Review reported. The number of signatures on the petition urging the president to veto the legislation so that it will be up for a national referendum is still growing. Last night it had reached 62,000 signatures, which represents a quarter of Icelandic voters.

Britain is in danger of succumbing to a budgetary crisis this year, with the economy likely to stay in the doldrums until at least the end of 2010, a Financial Times survey of economists warns. Asked to name the three biggest risks to the economy, 37 of the 79 economists polled said the UK was threatened by a fiscal crisis that could derail any revival. The economists said the government must make its plans to improve the public finances more transparent and credible if Britain was to avoid the fiscal crises that have engulfed Greece and Ireland.

Singapore's economy contracted at a sharper-than-expected rate in the fourth quarter due to a pullback in manufacturing output, but the island state's full-year gross domestic product shrank much less than earlier expected, indicating that the recovery is on firm footing, The Wall Street Journal reported. Singapore's economy has recovered quickly from the sharp fall in external demand triggered by a collapse in global financial markets in late 2008.

Power generators owed $5 million by the failed energy retailer Jackgreen are unlikely to redeem a cent from the collapsed group, the company's administrators say, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Jackgreen, which was Australia's largest specialist renewable retailer, toppled into voluntary administration the week before Christmas after failing to pay a $500,000 bill to the NSW government-owned Integral Energy.

Australian Productivity Commission chairman Gary Banks has defended the decision to soften the so-called "two strikes" rule to tackle executive pay, arguing he hasn't watered down the reform proposals, The Australian reported. Under the Productivity Commission's draft report, a spill of the board for a re-election vote would follow two "no" votes by 25 per cent of shareholders to a remuneration report. But that has now been softened so the two minority votes would only trigger another vote requiring the support of a majority of shareholders.

Dutch luxury car maker Spyker Cars is working on its final offer for General Motors' Saab assets and will file its bid by a January 7th deadline, its chief executive said today, The Irish Times reported. Swedish daily Dagens Industri said on Monday Spyker cars would revise its bid for GM's loss-making car manufacturer Saab for a third time to address GM's criticism of its current offer. Spyker CEO Victor Muller said he would file an offer by a deadline that would expire on January 7th but he declined to give details.