Headlines

British bookstore chain Borders U.K. has filed for a form of bankruptcy protection and is now looking for buyers for its stores, the administrators appointed to run the company said Thursday, The Canadian Press reported. Administrators MCR said 1,150 jobs are affected. It added that all stores will remain open for business as normal while the administrators review the company and look for buyers for all or some of its 45 stores. The company is not currently taking orders through its Web site and has launched "closing down sales" at some of its stores. MCR said sales at Borders U.K.

Dubai-based port operator DP World will be excluded from debt-standstill talks and a restructuring of its parent Dubai World announced on Wednesday that sent the cost of insuring the emirate's debt rocketing, the company said. "The Government of Dubai has confirmed that DP World and its debt are not included in the restructuring process for Dubai World announced earlier," the world's fourth-largest port operator said in a statement posted on the Nasdaq Dubai Web site.

The premier of the German state of Hesse that is home to carmaker Opel's headquarters in Ruesselsheim warned General Motors that any plans to cut 2,500 jobs there were "completely unacceptable." Roland Koch said that the interim head of Opel, Nick Reilly, had told him just 24 hours earlier that GM's restructuring plan would "in principle" orient itself on job cuts agreed with Canada's Magna, whose plan to buy Opel fell through. Magna's concept, greenlighted by the German state and federal governments, foresaw a reduction of 1,400 to 1,600 jobs in Ruesselsheim through 2014, according to Koch.

The future of General Motors’ European operations was thrown further into confusion Tuesday when the automaker said the sale of its Saab Automobile subsidiary in Sweden had fallen through, The New York Times reported. The expected buyer, Koenigsegg Automotive, backed out of the deal, G.M. said. The announcement caught the American automaker, which is also struggling to restructure its Adam Opel unit in Europe, by surprise. General Motors is “obviously very disappointed with the decision,” Fritz Henderson, the G.M. chief executive, said in a statement.

Swedish media warns that Saab Automobile is close to bankruptcy, a day after luxury carmaker Koenigsegg abandoned its bid to buy the group from its US parent General Motors, The Swedish Wire reported. "The Death Knell," financial daily Dagens Industri headlined on its front page, while the country's leading newspaper Dagens Nyheter blazed "It's Over Now." In an analysis piece, conservative daily Svenska Dagbladet said "everything was pointing to the closure of Saab," adding it was "unlikely" a new buyer would turn up.

Newfoundland and Labrador Refining Corp., the Canadian company planning to build a C$4 billion ($3.8 billion) oil refinery on the country’s east coast, won a judge’s approval to exit bankruptcy and find a buyer or a partner for the project within two years, Bloomberg reported. Newfoundland Supreme Court Judge Robert Hall dismissed objections from BAE Newplan Group Ltd., a unit of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., and Japan Steel Works Ltd., Kobe Steel Works Ltd. and IPS Services Inc., who had sought to have the Canadian company declared bankrupt.

Financially troubled Dutch commodities trader Schouten Ceralco said on Tuesday it had filed for bankruptcy, raising concerns about possible glitches in European grains markets, Reuters reported. Schouten Ceralco, a grains and compound feeds trader which has been doing business since 1893, said in a statement the bankruptcy would be effective as of Tuesday after it made the filing with a Dutch court. "During the last few weeks, Schouten Ceralco has explored several possibilities to continue its activities as a trading company in agricultural products," the firm said in the statement.

A second wave of corporate collapses is still causing headaches for Australia’s banks even after many declared the worst was behind them on the bad-debt front, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Cubbie Station, a giant cotton farm in Queensland's south-west, went into voluntary administration last month owing an estimated $320 million, including $227 million to National Australia Bank. Suncorp is believed to also have a significant exposure.

Some 98 percent of landlords approved Blacks' proposed Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which means that the UK retailer can exit 89 underperforming stores. If the landlords had not passed the CVA, Blacks would have missed out on bank funding and would have had to enter administration, The Telegraph reported. Richard Fleming, UK head of restructuring at KPMG and "supervisor" of the CVA, said: "This is a pivotal moment in the turnaround of Blacks. Without the approval of the CVA, the company faced administration, putting 4,300 jobs and 291 trading stores at risk.

The Bank of England said it provided emergency loans, which peaked at £61.6 billion ($102.37 billion) in total, to Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and mortgage lender HBOS PLC at the height of the financial crisis last year, The Wall Street Journal reported. BOE Gov. Mervyn King, testifying before Parliament, said the funding "was to prevent a loss of confidence spreading through the financial system as whole." The bank said it is disclosing the emergency loans now because both RBS and Lloyds are stable.