Headlines

The top automakers in Asia would not welcome the collapse of one or even all of their three big Detroit rivals, though those who follow the industry expect the likes of Toyota, Honda and Hyundai to gain market share in the long term, the International Herald Tribune reported. The immediate carnage from a bankruptcy of General Motors, Ford Motor or Chrysler would spread throughout an industry that is bleeding cash in a global slowdown, auto executives and analysts say.

Central banks world-wide delivered sweeping interest rate cuts Thursday, even as the continuing turmoil in credit markets means cuts in rates are losing their power to curtail an accelerating global slowdown, The Wall Street Journal reported. Major European central banks, including the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and Sweden's Riksbank joined the central banks of New Zealand and Indonesia in making deep rate cuts. The goal: to stave off deep and painful slowdowns in the wake of financial market turmoil that has squeezed lending globally.

Denton Wilde Sapte LLP has landed a dual role on the administration of London Scottish Bank, the latest financial institution to apply for administration after entering financial difficulties. The firm is advising Ernst & Young, who have been appointed as administrators, as well as representing the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which will be involved in paying compensation to certain customers of London Scottish Bank.

ABC Learning's receiver says it is drawing up a plan to provide alternative care next year for children in centres facing closure, The Australian reported today. Receiver McGrathNicol failed today to spell out the fate of 386 centres marked last week for possible closure. “The reality is we are working through an extremely complex corporate collapse,” McGrathNicol partner Chris Honey said.

Bankruptcies in Canada numbered 9,468 in October, up 7.2 percent from September and 21.1 percent from October 2007, with the pain concentrated among individuals, the Canadian Press reported today. The office of the federal Superintendent of Bankruptcy reported yesterday that 8,972 consumers filed for bankruptcy in October, up 7.5 percent from October and 22.8 percent from a year earlier. Business bankruptcies totalled 496 for the month, up 1.4 percent from the previous month but down 3.3 percent from the year-ago corporate toll.

Ecuador’s government is considering various ways of repudiating its debt and will ask for loans from friendly governments like Iran should it lose access to credit markets, the country’s finance minister Maria Elsa Viteri said. Ecuador has threatened to default on $3.9 billion in bonds because it says a government-commissioned audit found evidence of criminal violations in connection with its issuance, Bloomberg reported. The government skipped a $30.6 million bond payment on Nov. 15, invoking a 30-day grace period.

Begbies Traynor Group Plc, which helps rescue and restructure troubled companies, expects first-half results well ahead of last year on a pre-exceptional basis, thanks to strong trading at its insolvency division, Reuters reported today. Begbies has been one of the few companies to benefit as casualties from the credit crunch mount and it said in a trading update on Friday that substantially higher insolvency activity was expected to drive an in-line performance for the full year.

An investor group is going to court to try to delay Tuesday's vote on a restructuring proposal for failed New Zealand finance company Hanover, The National Business Review reported today. The group has also asked the Minister of Commerce to put Hanover into statutory management. The group expects a hearing to be held at the High Court in Auckland on Monday. Hanover Finance is aiming to repay nearly 16,400 secured deposit investors their principal of more than $550 million within five years, under the debt restructure proposal.

Credit Suisse Group lost three billion Swiss francs ($2.48 billion) in two months and said it plans to fire 5,300 employees, stark signals that investment banks will be retreating from complex bets and are piling into safer businesses as the fourth quarter is proving brutal, The Wall Street Journal reported. Credit Suisse's decision to cut 11% of its work force will save about two billion francs in annual costs and further increases the ranks of the unemployed in the financial sector. Two-thirds of the job cuts, or about 3,500 jobs, will be made at Credit Suisse's investment bank.

The Italian financial police say they have arrested fashion designer Gai Mattiolo on a charge of fraudulent bankruptcy, the Associated Press reported. Officer Stefano Catorci says Mattiolo was placed under house arrest in Rome early Friday for allegedly siphoning funds from his fashion house before declaring bankruptcy. Catorci says another suspect was also arrested on the same charges. He did not give further details because the investigation was continuing. The Rome-based fashion house Gai Mattiolo declined comment. Mattiolo was seen as a rising star of Italian fashion in the 1990s.