Headlines

The sister of Storm Financial's co-founder met insolvency experts days before approving a $2 million payment to her relatives - but 'didn't know' Storm was in dire straits, The Courier Mail reported. An inquiry into Storm's collapse heard that three non-executive board members resigned in early December as the company's finances weakened and Dawn Collett, sister of Storm co-founder Julie Cassimatis, was appointed to the board on December 23.

Melbourne-based transport and logistics company, Mannway Logistics has been pushed into receivership by its bankers, just two years after the company went on an acquisition drive, SmartCompany.com.au reported. The company, established in 1979 and owned by Stuart Brown, is now in the hands of Ferrier Hodgson partners George Georges, Brendan Richards and Morgan Kelly, who will keep the company running as usual while they conduct a review of its financial position. The transport sector has been hit hard by the downturn.

Hungarian chemicals company BorsodChem Zrt. has agreed to Chinese mezzanine lender Wanhua Industrial taking a minority stake, moving the Permira-owned company one step nearer to completing a restructuring. Wanhua owns 75% of the mezzanine debt in BorsodChem and will be swapping some €200 million in loans for the equity stake, people familiar with the matter previously told Dow Jones Newswires.

Arcandor AG’s insolvency administrator said four bidders remain in contention to buy the retailer’s Quelle mail-order unit after Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that only three were still in the running. “We still expect an agreement by the end of this month or early November,” Thomas Schulz, who speaks for insolvency administrator Klaus Hubert Goerg, told Bloomberg News. The newspaper had said the talks would be completed in coming days, without saying where it got the information.

A decision on whether the Swedish government will give loan guarantees to troubled auto maker Saab is still a couple of months away, the country's enterprise minister told Reuters on Thursday. The Swedish government said last week it had asked the European Commission to assess whether proposed loan guarantees to Saab Automobile would break rules on state support. Sweden's Enterprise Minister Maud Olofsson said it would take some time for the Commission to reach a decision. Swedish luxury car maker Koenigsegg, backed by U.S.

The Dutch central bank shuttered DSB Bank NV, a struggling consumer and mortgage lender, after a run by depositors that followed a call from a consumer group to pull money out of the controversial institution, The Wall Street Journal reported. The government said it would begin an investigation into what happened at the bank, a privately owned institution with reported assets of some €8 billion ($11.77 billion). The DSB seizure was described by the government as a one-off situation unconnected with last year's financial crisis.

General Motors Co. has finalized a deal to sell its Hummer brand to Chinese firm Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd. for a reported $150 million in a deal helping the formerly bankrupt company reduce its bevy of brands, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

The British government on Tuesday watered down proposed new solvency rules for big airports which the industry had claimed would push up the cost of financing development projects, Reuters reported. The move is a boost for debt-laden airport operator BAA, a unit of Spanish construction group Ferrovial, whose bond ratings were at risk of a downgrade if the government's original plans had been introduced.

Storm Financial co-founder Julie Cassimatis defied legal and financial opinion when she transferred $2 million from the company to the personal bank account she shared with her husband and co-founder, Emmanuel Cassimatis, as the company was falling apart in December, The Australian reported. And a court heard that on the same day the cash was sent, Mrs Cassimatis was involved in discussions about sacking large numbers of Storm staff.

General Motors could finalize the sale of its German auto unit Opel as early as this week, the U.S. automaker's CEO said Tuesday. Fritz Henderson, visiting China for the first time since GM was restructured last summer, was also upbeat about the prospects for the sale of the company's Hummer unit to Chinese buyer Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp., which is still awaiting Chinese government approval, The Associated Press reported.