Headlines

The UK's top law firms have suffered a dramatic fall in profitability and a shrinking market in what has been confirmed as the worst trading conditions for the profession since the early 1990s. Legal Week's 2008-09 results, the first comprehensive picture of the performance of the UK's top 50 law firms, shows that profits per equity partner (PEP) across the group on average fell by 17.3%. Driven by the strength of the euro and dollar, the top 50 as a whole managed to grow revenues against 2008, with total revenues up 2.9% to £12.3bn.

British coffee retailer Coffee Republic said on Thursday its operating business had been bought out of administration by Arab Investment Ltd, a property firm best known for plans to build a London skyscraper, Reuters reported. Arab Investments said in a separate statement that it planned to expand the business, which currently includes 80 outlets -- around 60 in Britain and the rest in countries including Bulgaria and Saudi Arabia. Read more.

The operator of the Sydney Entertainment Centre (SEC) has gone into receivership after sustained losses caused by the economic downturn, The Age reported. Arena Management Pty Ltd said a secured creditor who is owed $1.7 million has called in Andrew Wily and David Hurst of Armstrong Wily Chartered Accountants as receivers and managers of the company. The unnamed creditor holds a charge over Arena Management's assets as security for the loan.

Canada's Ambrilia Biopharma Inc, a cash-strapped biotech company, said it would seek protection from its creditors in a Quebec court as its cash on hand would not allow it to meet its current obligations, Reuters reported. The company, which fired both its chief executive and chief financial officer on July 29, said it had not yet determined a restructuring plan. Montreal-based Ambrilia said the Quebec Superior Court would hear its application under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) on July 31.

After about half a year of intensive talks, Russian aluminum producer United Company Rusal has agreed to the principal terms of a long-term restructuring of its $7.4 billion debt to international banks, including the pledge of stakes in its operating companies as collateral, people familiar with the matter said. In what Rusal Chief Executive Oleg Deripaska described as a "landmark restructuring," the company earlier Thursday announced it had reached an agreement on the debt with the coordinating committee of lenders, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Air Canada has secured a $1-billion lifeline with help from the federal government, giving the carrier a crucial infusion of cash to help it survive the recession and avoid another trip through bankruptcy protection, The Globe and Mail reported. The centrepiece of the financial package is a $600-million loan from a syndicate of lenders.

Canada will not make a decision on whether to review Nortel Networks' $1.13 billion sale of wireless assets to Sweden's Ericsson until after a 21-day appeal period is complete, Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. "We have to first consider whether the Investment Canada Act applies, that's what we're reviewing right now," Clement told reporters in Ottawa. The sale to Ericsson got the blessing of U.S. and Canadian courts on Tuesday. Losing bidders and Nortel creditors can now appeal the ruling.

Northern Rock shareholders have lost their appeal to secure improved compensation following the nationalisation of the lender, with the claimants now prepared to take their case all the way to Europe, LegalWeek reported. A judgment handed down in the Court of Appeal supported a February decision, which scuppered the attempts of more than 150,000 private shareholders to increase their compensation level. The judgment followed a three-day hearing in June before the Master of the Rolls Sir Anthony Clarke, Lord Justice Laws and Lord Justice Waller.

A selloff in Chinese stocks Wednesday, in part on fears that loan growth could be braking, sent a jolt through other regional markets from Mumbai to Sydney, The Wall Street Journal reported. Hopes of a world-wide economic recovery increasingly center on continued growth in the developing world, and China in particular. The Australian dollar has been rising on expectations of Chinese purchases of the country's metals and other resources. U.S. and European banks and consulting firms hope China's continued growth will generate fee income that has become scarcer at home.

In pursuit of middle-class prosperity, South Koreans have looted their household savings like no other people on Earth, The Washington Post reported. They have collectively binged on private schools and fancy cars, language camps and new apartments, foreign travel and designer shoes. The consequences of South Korea's collapsed savings rate are beginning to register in the country's slowing rate of growth, economists said. For nearly 40 years, growth galloped along at between 6 and 8 percent, as banks were flush with household savings that fueled business investment and research.