Headlines

The European Union’s competition regulator approved state guarantees worth €18 billion ($26 billion) for German bank Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, as it prepares to rule on the bank’s restructuring plan, Bloomberg reported. The government will grant one guarantee worth €8 billion on Dec. 23, while the other, worth €10 billion, will be granted in the coming months if the bank needs urgent liquidity. They are an “appropriate means to remedy a serious disturbance in the German economy,” the European Commission said in an e-mailed statement today.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson Monday said he expects to restart construction on the casino operator's delayed resort projects in Macau in about five months, with the first two phases of the project to be completed by the end of 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported. Construction of the project was halted in November last year due to a lack of funding during the credit crunch. The new target underscores Sands' renewed ambitions in Macau, the world's biggest casino growth market and the only place in China where gambling is legal.

A Swiss bank seeking some $300 million from Tamarack Resort should go to the end of the line when it comes to getting repaid, other creditors argue in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, The Associated Press reported. In documents filed Friday, Petra Inc., an Idaho construction company demanding $1.4 million from Tamarack, contends Credit Suisse Group's 2006 construction loan to the central Idaho resort is similar to a separate $375 million loan the Zurich-based bank made to Montana's Yellowstone Club.

Gordon Brown received a twin blow today when a leading ratings agency warned Britain to get a tighter grip on its record budget deficit and figures revealed that the slump of the past 18 months was now officially the deepest since the second world war, The Guardian reported. Fitch said that the UK – along with France and Spain – needed to "articulate more credible and stronger fiscal consolidation during the course of 2010 to underpin confidence in the sustainability of public finances".

Spyker Cars, the tiny Dutch automaker whose last-ditch bid for Saab was rejected Friday by General Motors, came back Sunday with a renewed offer for the struggling Swedish icon, which G.M. has said it plans to shut down, The New York Times reported. A spokesman for G.M. reacted cautiously to Spyker’s new offer, which many industry insiders consider a long shot. However, he said other potential buyers had expressed interest in Saab since Friday’s announcement.

Dubai World made no specific proposals on a debt standstill at an "expectation management exercise" with its creditors this morning, the first meeting since it requested a standstill on $59 billion in debt on Nov. 25, Reuters reported. The lack of any concrete plan dismayed investors, who have been left in the dark for weeks. Dubai's flagship company had been expected to formalize a request for a payment standstill at the meeting, until it tempered expectations in an email to debtholders, saying its two-hour presentation would offer only a glance at its financial situation.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s European and Japanese units have swapped $2 billion in assets, allowing $1 billion to be dispersed under the European division's claims resolution agreement, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson said the opening of the company's $5.5 billion Singapore casino and resort has been delayed again, and now expects it to begin operations in April, The Associated Press reported. The Marina Bay Sands, one of two casinos being built in Singapore, was initially scheduled to open this month. Then Adelson said in July it would open by February. Heavy rains and the bankruptcy of some of the project's sub-contractors further pushed back the opening, Adelson said.

Transport infrastructure group Asciano has secured $1.14 billion in new debt funding to shore up its balance sheet, but confirmed that shareholders will miss out on a half-year dividend, The Australian reported. In a release to the Australian Securities Exchange, Asciano said the new debt facilities from members of its existing banking syndicate and several new banks left it with no repayment obligations until May 2012.

Capmark Financial Group Inc's Japanese loan servicing unit is being sold to Elliott Management for 3.4 billion yen ($38 million), a U.S. fund management firm, which outbid Japan's Orix and others, U.S. court documents show, Reuters reported. Elliott outbid to buy Capmark's Japanese loan servicing business called Premier Asset Management, according to the documents, by beating Sandringham Capital Partners, a UK-based fund management firm which had agreed to buy Premier in October.