Headlines

The author of an editorial linking Rio Tinto Group’s actions in China to 700 billion yuan ($102 billion) in excess charges for the steel industry said the article was his own opinion and used previously published data, Bloomberg reported. Jiang Ruqin, an employee with the Jiangsu Province Administration for the Protection of State Secrets, said he has no involvement in a legal case against four Rio employees detained last month, and that no “leaders” assigned him to write the essay or reviewed the piece before publication.

Ivan Erceg has appointed Peter Jollands as the receiver for Sensation Yachts after Public Trust placed the company into liquidation late last month, The National Business Review reported. Speaking from the South of France, Mr Erceg told NBR that the full debt of Sensation Yachts would not be known until creditors started filing claims.

The Brisbane campus of private training institution Sterling College, in Fortitude Valley, has closed its doors with 177 international students left to find places elsewhere, The Brisbane Times reported. The Minister for Education and Training, Geoff Wilson, said representatives from his department met the students on Tuesday to inform them of the company's collapse and to assure them they would not be left out of pocket for fees already paid to the college. The campus closed on Thursday.

Deloitte partners Sal Algeri and Tim Norman have been appointed as administrators of Australian boat building firm, Whittley Marine Group, by the directors of the firm, Marine Business News reported. Whittley Marine Group has been an Australian ‘family-style’ boat builder since 1953 and is Australia’s largest and most awarded fibreglass trailer boat group. Prior to the global economic downturn, the firm’s production capacity was in excess of 1,000 boats at its Australian manufacturing plant.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) Friday said it has been asked by the European Commission to pull back on lending to small U.K. businesses in order to get state-aid approval, putting it at odds with the U.K. government's call for banks to ease credit to small companies, Dow Jones reported. RBS and the U.K. government are seeking European Union state-aid approval after the bank received a GBP20 billion capital injection in October, resulting in the government taking a 70% stake in RBS. Chief Executive Stephen Hester said the bank, the U.K.

The House of Commons industry committee wants to talk to the lead players in the Nortel Networks sale drama, The Canadian Press reported. The parliamentary committee has called for an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the auction process that ended with Swedish telecom company Ericsson as the successful bidder for a key chunk of Nortel's wireless technology business. "We want to know what happened, how the bidding process has unfolded and what consideration the government has given to public investment in Nortel," Liberal MP and committee member Marc Garneau said Wednesday.

A flood of objections has come in against the parent company of Asarco LLC, which filed one of three competing reorganization plans for the bankrupt copper mining company, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. The deadline for filing objections to the plan was Wednesday, at which time Asarco told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas that the plan proposed by its parent, Grupo Mexico SAB de CV, was not filed in good faith, not fair and equitable, not feasible, and failed to comply with all provisions necessary to confirm a plan.

President Nicolas Sarkozy piled pressure on banks to refrain from paying substantial bonuses to traders by summoning them on Friday to a meeting on an issue which has generated controversy in France, Reuters reported. Sarkozy instructed top banking executives to report to him on Aug. 25 on their bonus policies, as well as on whether they were living up to commitments to keep credit flowing to businesses and families, a statement from his office said. At a summit in April, G20 leaders had promised to implement "tough new principles on pay and compensation".

Fraser Papers Inc., a Toronto-based forestry company that's restructuring under bankruptcy protection from creditors, said its net loss for the second quarter narrowed by nearly half as the company booked a currency related one-time gain, The Canadian Press reported. Fraser said it lost US$8 million or 36 cents a share for the quarter ended June 30, down from US$15.6 million or 31 cents a share for the same 2008 period. During the second quarter, Fraser booked a net gain of $12.5 million from unwinding its foreign exchange hedging program.

Creditors have hired Canada's top corporate fixer to guide CanWest Global Communications Corp. through its complex restructuring as it lurches toward a plan for reducing its crippling $4-billion debt load, The Globe and Mail reported. Harold (Hap) Stephen, a no-nonsense chartered accountant known for leading high-profile reorganizations at struggling firms such as Stelco Inc., Algoma Steel Inc. and retailer Timothy Eaton Co. Ltd., has been appointed for his ability to navigate situations involving family-owned companies, people familiar with the situation said. Mr.