Headlines

New Zealand property developer Jamie Peters has opened up about being made bankrupt yesterday, The National Business Review reported. In the High Court at Auckland, Mr Peters was adjudicated bankrupt due to failing to make good on a court order to pay Marac Finance $3 million, $2.8 million of which was lent for his Gulf Harbour subdivision. Work from Mr Peters’ 20 year property career includes Gulf Harbour, Quay Park, Wellington’s Sanctum and The Finance Centre in Auckland.

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar, BusinessWeek reported.

A recent re-structuring of Anglican parishes on Vancouver Island did not go far enough to avert a financial crisis, according to church leaders. Bishop James Cowan told a news conference today that the Diocese of British Columbia, its parishes, and its Camp Columbia retreat have been losing a million dollars a year in recent years, C-FAX reported. Overall church attendance is down, and further changes are going to have to be made.

Iceland’s prime minister has hit out against the International Monetary Fund and the British and Dutch governments for holding up recovery efforts a year after the country’s banking sector collapsed, the Financial Times reported. Johanna Sigurdardottir, the prime minister, said that it was “not acceptable” that the IMF had delayed a review for months. This review is needed before Iceland can access more of its $5.1bn (£3.2bn) international rescue package.

Japan Airlines Corp. likely won't conclude alliance talks with rivals Delta Air Lines Inc. and AMR Corp.'s American Airlines until a Japanese government task force finishes a review of its ailing financial structure, according to people familiar with the matter. The airline's executives had hoped to choose between proposals floated by Delta Air Lines and partner American Airlines this month, The Wall Street Journal reported. But Japan's government last month set up a five-member panel to advise on the company's overhaul.

Japanese banks’ bad loans won’t be driven higher by a proposed moratorium on debt payments by struggling small companies, said Financial Services Minister Shizuka Kamei. Lenders won’t have to classify loans encompassed by the plan as non-performing, Kamei, 72, said in an interview yesterday at his office in Tokyo. That means they won’t be forced to boost provisions when borrowers postpone repayments of interest or principal, he said. At the same time, Kamei vowed to push banks to extend more credit to small businesses after bankruptcies hit a six-year high in Japan, Bloomberg reported.

The family behind the old Adare printing and packaging group is set to rescue Buy & Sell magazine from receivership, The Irish Times reported. Buy & Sell was placed under the High Court’s protection last June owing €18.3 million to National Irish Bank (NIB) and went into receivership last week after efforts to save the company failed within the 100-day protection period. Receiver Tom Kavanagh of Kavanagh Fennell confirmed yesterday that a company backed by Nelson and Elgin Loane has bought the companies behind the classified magazine publisher.

The administrator for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's European unit on Monday unveiled a new plan to dole out the collapsed investment bank's assets directly to creditors, Reuters reported. The administrators, said they would put forward a "contractual solution" that would allow them to distribute "a very significant portion" of the $8.9 billion in securities assets currently under their control, according to a statement published on the administrators' website.

Federated Farmers says news that Crafar Farms has gone into receivership - while unprecedented in the industry - does not detract from dairy being New Zealand's largest and most progressive industry, TVNZ reported. The dairy farm investment group is New Zealand's largest family-owned dairying business and went into receivership on Monday. Crafar companies include Plateau Farms Ltd, Hillside Farms Ltd, Tararua Farms Ltd, and Ferryview Farms Ltd - which cover at least 20 of the family's 22 farms.

The EU commission is opposing the restructuring of Hypo Real Estate Holding AG, Frankfurter Allgemeine reported, citing people familiar with the matter in the bank. The commission isn’t satisfied with the split of the bank into a so-called bad bank and a “healthy” remaining part and may demand that the latter must sell more of its business, including parts of Depfa Bank Plc, the newspaper said.