Headlines

British outdoor goods retailer Blacks Leisure has put its Sandcity surfwear business into administration as it battles to stem losses and produce a recovery plan that will win the continued support of its banks, Reuters reported. Blacks, which also runs the Blacks Outdoor and Millets chains, said on Wednesday that consultants KPMG had been appointed as administrators to Sandcity Ltd, which operates 11 stores under the O'Neill brand and employs 90 people.

Melbourne-based fashion brands company Mercury Brands Group has been put up for sale after being placed into the hands of receivers, SmartCompany.com.au reported. Receivers and managers Ian Carson and Craig Crosby of insolvency firm PPB launched the sales campaign for the company this morning, and are seeking "urgent" expressions of interest by 29 September. Mercury Brands Group owns more than 20 lifestyle brands, including No Fear, French Kitty, Kangol and Rochford Australia.

The European Union's executive arm proposed new bloc-wide regulatory bodies to supervise banks and detect big-picture risks threatening the financial system, but unresolved questions over their authority may lead to resistance from the U.K. and other countries, The Wall Street Journal reported. The EU has been considering new regulations for the better part of a year, spurred by the global financial crisis to unify the bloc's national rules and overseers.

Japan’s second-largest consumer lender by assets, announced plans to cut as much as 44 percent of its workforce and forecast a full-year loss, sending the shares to a six-month low, Bloomberg reported. The Kyoto-based company said it expects a loss of 311 billion yen ($3.4 billion) for the year ending March 31, compared with an earlier forecast for an 8.1 billion yen profit, according to a statement.

Japan Airlines Corp. will consider a breakup of the company along with a range of other options, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the ailing carrier faces pressure from lenders and the government to turn around its operations, The Wall Street Journal reported. Executives from JAL are scheduled to meet with Transport Minister Seiji Maehara Thursday to discuss plans to straighten out the unprofitable company. The transport ministry is supervising the rehabilitation of JAL, which has already received three government bailouts since 2001.

Growers have put forward a proposal to recapitalise Australian Bight Abalone after it went into voluntary administration in July, the Port Lincoln Times reported. A second meeting of ABA creditors is planned for around October 14 to consider the proposal. An initial creditors meeting was held in July and a second meeting was planned for earlier this month but the meeting was delayed to give administrators McGrathNicol time to consider the proposal from the growers. A report on the proposal will be prepared and given to creditors before the October meeting.

China’s stimulus spending and record bank lending are interrupting efforts to restructure the economy away from investment- and export-led growth toward private consumption, said the Asian Development Bank. The investment and lending boom prompted the bank to raise its forecast for China’s economic growth this year to 8.2 percent from a previous estimate of 7 percent, in a report released today. It increased its 2010 forecast to 8.9 percent from 8 percent. U.S.

U.S. and European leaders, who have committed to using the financial crisis to strengthen the global banking system, are increasingly at loggerheads over how much capital the world's largest financial institutions should keep on hand in case of unexpected losses, The Wall Street Journal reported. The outcome of the dispute could determine how competitive banks are in the future -- and how resilient in times of crisis.

China’s central bank deputy governor, Hu Xiaolian, proposed setting up a multinational sovereign wealth fund to invest in developing nations and help reduce the danger of another financial crisis, Bloomberg reported. Hu’s proposal “will give countries with excess foreign- exchange holdings more options to invest in the emerging world rather than in the U.S.,” said Ma Jun, chief China economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Hong Kong. The current crisis is due in part to the dollar’s role as the main currency for trade and foreign-exchange reserves, Hu said in the paper.

The Russian producer of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, the world's most ubiquitous firearm, is facing bankruptcy owing to falling orders, The Scotsman reported. A court in the Russian region of Udmurtiya has accepted a bankruptcy petition filed against Izhmash, the country's biggest arms manufacturer and the maker of the rifle. The iconic weapon has been produced in the millions and adopted by 106 armed forces across the globe, but production in its home land is now in doubt.