Headlines

The company developing the $300 million Fiji Beach Resort & Spa managed by Hilton says it is on the verge of going into receivership, The New Zealand Herald reported. Neville Mahon, Auckland-based developer of the huge luxury property, has written to villa owners saying receivership of Denarau Investments is imminent. Bank Of Scotland (BoS) and Auckland finance company Strategic had funded the project. Mahon says he has been unable to pay dozens of investors who bought villas at his Hilton Denarau Island project, planned to be eventually expanded and called Fiji Hilton.

An article in The Irish Times today, signed by 46 economists, calls on the Government to reconsider the "bad bank" National Asset Management (NAMA) project, Finfacts reported. Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan will announce on September 16th, the valuation system for the property-related loans that will be transferred from the Irish financial institutions to NAMA. The Irish Times article argues that NAMA should pay the banks only the current market value for the loans it will assume.

The liquidators of the failed Kleenmaid Appliance group has successfully applied to have two cars allegedly owned by the wife of the former MD of Kleenmaid seized after a judge was not convinced that Linda Young owned the luxury cars, SmartHouse reported. Lawyers acting on behalf of Kleenmaid liquidator Deloitte convinced Justice Applegarth sitting in the Queensland Supreme Court to issue orders for Ms Young to return the vehicles to the liquidators before August 31. She was also ordered to pay $10,000 in legal costs to the liquidators.

UK investors affected by the collapse of a high profile Spanish property developer have five weeks to register their claim, a Manchester legal expert has warned, TheBusinessDesk reported. Antonio Guillen, a Spanish lawyer with DWF, says it is estimated that Aifos Arquitectura y Promociones Inmobiliarias has debts of over £900 million and more than 2,000 creditors. The company filed for voluntary administration, which has now been accepted. Read more.

Defaults among non-finance companies in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, are likely to peak in the last three months of the year, according to Moody’s Investors Service, Bloomberg reported. The default rate may rise to between 18 percent and 20 percent in the fourth quarter, and then drop to 10 percent in the three months ending June 30, Clara Lau, a Moody’s analyst, said in an e-mailed statement today. It had climbed to 16 percent at the end of last month. Read more.

The long battle for Asarco LLC may be nearing its conclusion, as the two groups vying for control of the bankrupt U.S. copper miner started their final arguments on Tuesday following a two-week hearing in federal court in Texas, Reuters reported. Mexican miner Grupo Mexico SAB de CV, which owns Asarco but does not control it because of the bankruptcy, and India's Sterlite Industries have been engaged for over a year in a bidding war for Asarco, which is seeking to emerge from Chapter 11 protection after four years.

General Motors' new board may still sell its money-losing European Opel unit to a group led by Canadian auto parts maker Magna, but it needs guarantees that Opel's technology won't be used in Russia to compete against GM's Chevrolet, according to a person briefed on the sale talks, The Associated Press reported. The board on Friday balked at picking between bids for Adam Opel GbmH from a group led by Magna International Inc. that includes Russia's state-owned Sberbank, and one from GM's preferred bidder, Brussels-based investor RHJ International SA.

General Motors Co is considering a plan to raise funding to keep Opel as an alternative to selling the unit to Magna International, sources with knowledge of the deliberations said on Monday, Reuters reported. The development comes against a backdrop of escalating labor tensions and political stakes over GM's slow-moving effort to sell control of Opel and its British affiliate, Vauxhall. The Obama administration pledged on Monday to stay out of GM's choice of a buyer for Opel, while union leaders in Germany put more pressure on the U.S. automaker to make a decision.

U.K. homeware retailer Focus DIY Monday said that its creditors had overwhelmingly approved an insolvency process allowing it to shed onerous leases on its closed stores and avoid being tipped into administration, Dow Jones reported. Focus DIY, which is owned by U.S. private-equity firm Cerberus, is using a Company Voluntary Arrangement, or CVA, under which companies struggling under specific conditions but profitable in the long-term can agree with creditors to repay outstanding liabilities over a period of time.

The heiress to the Quelle mail-order shopping empire, Madeleine Schickedanz, looks set to lose her entire fortune as German retail group Arcandor goes into liquidation, Deutsche Welle reported. A partner at the law firm overseeing the proceedings, Rolf Weidmann, told the Handelsblatt newspaper that Arcandor shareholders are likely to lose their investments because German bankruptcy law requires the concern to meet all other creditors' demands before making payments to investors.