Headlines

A legal fight between U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs and insolvent Canwest Global Communications Corp. is brewing after Goldman filed court documents suggesting creditors of the media conglomerate have been making moves without telling them, The Canadian Press reported. The allegations centre around a numbered company created by Canwest at the request of Goldman to hold the specialty TV assets the Winnipeg-based company bought from Alliance Atlantis in 2007.

General Motors Co.’s board voted to keep its Opel unit rather than sell a majority stake to Magna International Inc. and partner OAO Sberbank, citing an improving economy and the brand’s strategic importance, Bloomberg reported. The decision sets aside an agreement to sell 55 percent of Ruesselsheim, Germany-based Adam Opel GmbH to Magna, Canada’s largest car-parts maker, and Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender. GM expects about €3 billion ($4.42 billion) in expenses to restructure the money-losing unit and its U.K. twin Vauxhall.

Feeling jilted after six months of negotiations, German officials reacted angrily Wednesday to General Motor’s decision to keep its European business, Opel, rather than sell a majority stake to a consortium backed by Berlin, The New York Times reported. Expressing frustration with the U-turn, Rainer Brüderle, the new German finance minister, vowed to make the Detroit automaker repay the money that already had been lent. “We will get back taxpayers’ money,” he told reporters in Berlin.

German and Russian leaders seethed and unions tore up a deal to cut costs in protest at General Motors' "completely unacceptable" decision to keep Opel, its European unit, after months of talks, Reuters reported. Labor leader Klaus Franz rescinded hundreds of millions of euros in cost concessions that workers agreed to on condition that Opel was bought by Magna, the Russian-backed Canadian group long backed as buyer by Berlin and Moscow.

The British government still could make financing available for the restructuring of General Motors Co.'s European operations despite its decision not to sell the business to Austrian-Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc., Dow Jones reported. Provision of funding remained a possibility, according to a spokeswoman for Business Secretary Peter Mandelson. GM's European operations comprise the Opel and Vauxhall brands. Vauxhall operates two plants in the U.K. at Luton and Ellesmere Port, which employ about 4,700 workers.

Up to 158 staff at low-cost airline bmibaby face losing their jobs under a restructuring programme, the BBC reported. An airport spokesperson said 54 pilot and 82 cabin crew positions at Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff airports were "at risk of redundancy". The airline also said it was reducing its number of aircraft from 17 to 12 next year. Managing director Crawford Rix said the industry was experiencing record losses and action had to be taken. Another 22 management and support positions at the firm's head office at Castle Donington in Derby are also at risk.

Banks placed under receivership of Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) should be liquidated outright, the state agency said on Wednesday, as it believes rehabilitation is no longer a viable option for institutions ordered to shut down because of financial distress, the BusinessMirror reported. The outright liquidation of banks ordered closed by the Monetary Board is included in the package of proposals PDIC is pushing for in amending the Charter of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). A total 511 closed banks were under PDIC receivership and liquidation as of end-September.

Bank of Ireland today reported a pre-tax loss of €979m for the six months ending September 30, 2009, compared to a profit of €647m in the same period in 2008, Finfacts reported. The bank made an operating profit of €787m before bad debt charges. It said impairment charges over that period were €1.8bn, reflecting "significant deterioration" in asset quality in its property and construction portfolio.

Canada's largest circulation daily has launched what its publisher said will likely be the biggest restructuring in the newspaper's history by offering voluntary buyouts to employees in all divisions of the company, The Associated Press reported. Toronto Star Publisher John Cruickshank said in a memo to employees Tuesday that the broad reworking of the company will affect every job in every corner of the organization and could include layoffs. He said the paper is also exploring the possibility of contracting out some work in both copy editing and pagination.

The Bank of Spain said on Tuesday that it has approved the takeover of the only Spanish bank to be bailed out during the financial crisis, Caja Castilla La Mancha (CCM), Reuters reported. A savings bank from the region of Asturias, Cajastur, will take control of CCM if the general assemblies of both regional banks approve the terms of the deal, the Bank of Spain said in a statement.