Headlines

Portuguese authorities seized control of Banco Privado Português SA, providing emergency funding for the troubled unlisted bank, The Wall Street Journal reported today. The seizure Tuesday was coordinated among Portugal's finance ministry, the Bank of Portugal and six of the country's largest banks, the central bank said. BPP is the second Portuguese bank to face liquidity problems as a result of the global financial crisis. Last month, Portugal nationalized unlisted Banco Português de Negócios SA after the bank recorded huge losses.

Strategic Finance management's view of expected loan recoveries during the ailing company's proposed moratorium is optimistic and further bad debt provisions may be needed, accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers say. Strategic has unveiled a moratorium plan aimed at fully repaying $315 million of investors' money in instalments starting from next year and ending in 2013, BusinessDay reported.

German biodiesel producer Campa GmbH has declared insolvency for a second time this year and a commercial court in Wurzburg appointed a new administrator, a court official said on Tuesday. Campa first declared insolvency in May but resumed production in early June after being bought by a consortium of about 2,000 farmers in the southern state of Bavaria, Reuters reported. It operates a 150,000 tonne annual capacity plant producing biodiesel from rapeseed oil. Campa's oil mill was purchased by U.S. agribusiness group Archer Daniels Midland in August.

Receivers Deloitte say Dominion Finance investors are likely to get back just 10-25 cents on the dollar of their $224 million capital, The National Business Review reported today. Only part of this grim forecast can be blamed on the slowing property market; Dominion’s lending decisions play a much more significant role in the low returns, Deloitte says. Many of the company’s loans were second or lower-ranking mortgages that were in default and against property developments, exposing the book to severe risks. Deloitte will now start realising these assets in an orderly way.

The need to help the struggling auto industry and preserve 400,000 Ontario jobs has Premier Dalton McGuinty calling for a resolution "sooner rather than later" to the political crisis in Ottawa, the Toronto Star reported today. With General Motors, Ford and Chrysler due to present their restructuring plans Friday, McGuinty met with Canadian Auto Workers head Ken Lewenza seeking cooperation. Lewenza told the Star he would not speculate on what his union might promise to assure government aid, or whether it might entail reopening labour contracts.

The ill wind of the global financial crisis may be sending many firms to the wall and tossing people into bankruptcy, but it's creating jobs elsewhere, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Law firms' insolvency teams are adding staff as they pick up the pieces of the crisis. Dan Pennicott, the head of corporate recovery at Brisbane law firm Gadens, said the business had added six new members to its specialist team over the past 18 months, increasing its size by nearly 50 percent.

A Spanish sports newspaper said Tuesday that first division football club Valencia is on the verge of bankruptcy, Agence France-Presse reported. The club must pay 50 million euros before December 31, and only a loan from the Bancaja bank can save it, Marca said on its Internet site. The club was not immediately available for comment on the report. Marca said that tense negotiations are underway between the bank and the club, Spanish champions in 2002 and 2004 and currently in third place in the Primera Liga.

In its latest effort to prevent Japan's economy from sinking further into recession, the Bank of Japan expanded its lending programs to ensure sufficient funds are available for companies ahead of the key year-end season, The Wall Street Journal reported today. The steps, announced after an unscheduled meeting of the BOJ's seven-member policy board, came as Japanese banks and companies are beginning to find it harder and more expensive to raise money in the financial markets.

U.K. fund manager New Star Asset Management Group's shares plummeted 43% Monday after the company disclosed that it is holding talks with its bank lenders, The Wall Street Journal reported today. The discussions likely revolve around trying to organize a debt-for-equity swap to help stabilize the highly leveraged firm, a person familiar with the matter said. The company sought to have trading of its shares temporarily suspended Monday as it delivered the potentially gloomy news, but U.K. regulators denied the request.

Canadian employees of the Big Three automakers say they’re nervous about Washington’s next move, concerns that may not be exaggerated, Bloomberg reported today. Congress is likely to make preserving as many U.S. jobs as possible a condition of financial aid to Chrysler, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., and that would deepen cutbacks in Canada, said Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. The U.S.