Headlines

The head of China's biggest property developer warned that real-estate bubbles in some of China's biggest cities could spread elsewhere in the country, with potentially damaging consequences for the market, The Wall Street Journal reported. In an interview, Wang Shi, chairman of China Vanke Co., said government stimulus measures enacted a year ago to keep China's economy from being sucked into the global recession have helped to cause a fundamental turnaround in a property market that was severely ailing before the global financial crisis hit.

The Queensland Government has announced new long-term regional air service contracts for rural communities across Queensland, ABC News reported. Emergency contracts have been in place since March this year after the airline MacAir went into voluntary administration. Air contracts have been announced for routes servicing centres in the Gulf, north-west, south-west and the central-west communities of Longreach and Winton. Regional Express (REX) will fly some routes, replacing West Wing, while Qantaslink and SkyTrans have also been successful tenderers.

Germany needs new insolvency requirements to win time and guard itself against any failure of systemically relevant banks, Deutsche Bundesbank President Axel Weber said Thursday, Nasdaq.com reported on a Dow Jones story. One of the things currently discussed would be more stringent capital requirements for systemically relevant banks, Weber said, with a view to pending international agreements. Commenting on money market developments, he said he doesn't share the view that the market place for banks' liquidity provisions will return to business as usual after the global financial crisis.

A federal judge has ruled that a London-based fur broker that filed the equivalent of bankruptcy in the U.K. can't stay a bid-rigging suit in the U.S. without first petitioning for recognition of the U.K. insolvency proceedings under Chapter 15, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

The price drop in bonds related to Dubai World's real-estate subsidiary has posed a question for investors: Does the discounted debt represent an attractive buying opportunity or an ill-advised journey into the uncharted world of debt restructurings of this size in the Persian Gulf? Bonds of real-estate subsidiary Nakheel dropped in value after the Gulf city-state said last week that it was delaying payment of state-run Dubai World's debt, The Wall Street Journal reported.

UK banks have an aggregate exposure to Dubai World of about $5 billion, the Financial Times has learned, confirming them as the biggest creditor group at the crisis-hit emirate holding company. A week on from the emergence of Dubai’s financial turmoil, banks and their advisers are still scrambling to pin down exactly how much they are on the hook for, but last night it became clear that Royal Bank of Scotland was the most exposed of the UK banks, ahead of HSBC, Standard Chartered and Lloyds.

Canadian staffing firm Brainhunter Inc. said on Wednesday it has filed for creditor protection as it seeks to either restructure or sell its business, the Financial Post reported. The company did not specify its liabilities, but said it has secured an interim financing facility from TD Bank to keep its operations going, including regular paycheques for its contractors and employees.

European Union finance ministers on Wednesday reached a compromise on a new supervisory framework for the bloc's financial markets, The Wall Street Journal reported. Under the plan agreed by the ministers, the EU will create two new supervisory groups for financial markets: a "macro-prudential" body to study big-picture risks to stability and three "micro-prudential" groups to look at specific issues in the banking, securities, and insurance and pension sectors.

The long-running takeover battle between VW and Porsche has created deep divisions between the two auto manufacturers. Now they are dependent on each other for their future success, but some people at both firms are clearly reluctant to bury the hatchet, Spiegel Online reported. It will not be easy for VW and Porsche to come up with a sensible cooperation model. During the takeover battle, executives and works councils spent more than three years battling each other, and for many, the wounds have not healed yet.

A retirement village caught up in a tangled receivership and a unit-ownership crisis is getting time with Housing Minister Phil Heatley to discuss its plight, which could signal a solution on the horizon, The National Business Review reported. Stonehaven Retirement Village near Whangarei went in to receivership in December 2008 when the trust running it voluntarily found the new Retirement Village Act requirements too complex and time consuming to comply with.