Headlines

German prosecutors are finally investigating two former top executives at Porsche Automobil Holding on suspicion of market manipulation, The Wall Street Journal reported. Last year's short squeeze in Volkswagen shares briefly made it the world's second-biggest company by market value after Exxon Mobil. But that could prove cold comfort for hedge funds that were caught short. Porsche simply may have exploited loopholes in Germany's lax stock-market regulations, using derivatives to buy VW stock on the sly.

Online travel booking company Roamfree is the latest local company to be stung by high debt levels and a downturn in consumer spending, GoldCoast.com.au reported. The Surfers Paradise company moved into voluntary administration late yesterday after it failed to reach a debt-servicing agreement with its noteholders. A decline in travel spending also fuelled the company's administration. Ferrier Hodgson's Tim Michael and Will Colwell have been appointed to take control of the company.

Troubled boat builder Ivan Erceg is believed to owe preferential and unsecured creditors over $40 million, McDonald Vague’s first liquidator’s report has revealed, The National Business Review reported. On 31 July, Boris Van Delden and Peri Finnigan were appointed liquidators of Sensation Yachts, after an application by Public Trust to place the company into liquidation was granted at the High Court at Auckland. Public Trust’s move was preceded by numerous attempts by creditors to place Sensation Yachts into liquidation. Mr Erceg is the sole director of the company.

Ireland’s High Court agreed today to hear a second application on Tuesday next week by embattled developer Liam Carroll to get 100 days of court protection via the examinership process for a number of the Zoe group companies which are technically insolvent, Finfacts reported. The Zoe group, comprising 51 companies, owes lenders almost €3 billion. Seven companies are involved in the effort to seek protection and they owe about eight lenders debts of €1.2 billion. It is seeking protection from ACC Bank, the Irish unit of Rabobank NV, which is demanding payment of a €136 million loan.

The German government isn't planning a new car-incentive program to replace its €5 billion ($7.2 billion) cash-for-clunkers scheme, which runs out later this year, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. He was speaking after local newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the ruling government's grand coalition parties are working on a replacement for the car-incentive program, spurred by fears that car makers and suppliers will suffer when the program ends.

Walk through the grand arched entrance of Universal Studios' Dubai theme park, and you step into ... wind-swept desert. The planned park is part of a vision by Dubai officials to turn a patch of sand on the edge of the Mideast city-state into Dubailand - a vast amusement complex twice the size of Walt Disney World studded with theme parks including Universal Studios, Six Flags and Legoland, along with resorts, the world's biggest shopping mall and the first golf course designed by Tiger Woods. It is now unclear when or if much of it will ever get built.

Babcock & Brown Ltd's creditors have voted to wind up the company, empowering liquidators to probe further into the collapse of the investment firm, the Brisbane Times reported. Liquidators David Lombe and Simon Cathro had recommended the wind-up deal, which will return shareholders nothing and give noteholders about 1.5 cents in the dollar. Creditors approved the plan on Monday at a meeting in Sydney, giving the liquidators powers to investigate the matter in greater detail, conduct public examinations and increases their powers to commence recovery actions.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said General Motors Co. needs to decide soon on the fate of its Adam Opel division, The Wall Street Journal reported. "I very much regret that there hasn't been a final decision at GM," Ms. Merkel told ZDF television. "This would be urgently necessary for the employees and also for the economic situation at Opel." GM executives on Friday proposed a majority sale of Opel to Canadian auto supplier Magna International Inc. but failed to win the support of GM's newly appointed board. Chairman Edward E. Whitacre Jr.

Creditors of the retail chain Focus DIY are expected tomorrow to approve a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), an insolvency process that will save the retailer from administration and protect 5,000 jobs, The Guardian reported. The Cheshire-based chain needs 75% of creditors – mostly landlords – to back a plan put together by the accounting firm BDO Stoy Hayward.

The threat of receivership hanging over embattled finance company St Laurence Ltd probably won't spill over to St Laurence Property & Finance Ltd, according to Kevin Podmore, a director of both companies, The New Zealand Herald reported. Podmore is in talks with the trustee for St Laurence Ltd., Perpetual Trust, to try to stave off receivership amid concern the company won't be able to meet the terms of its moratorium. Some 9,000 investors owed NZ$250 million in frozen funds last year agreed to give the company until 2013 to repay 70 per cent of its debentures.