Headlines

Bankrupt mining company Asarco may sell its multibillion-dollar court award stemming from a suit against its former parent and has contacted more than 100 potential bidders, according to court documents, Reuters reported. Asarco said it has asked Barclays Capital Inc to evaluate the potential bids for the court award, which includes about $5 billion of the common stock in Southern Copper Corp and about $1.4 billion in cash.

Volkswagen AG's plan to acquire Porsche Automobil Holding SE's auto business has run into fresh complications over a potential multibillion-dollar tax liability and growing tensions between the two camps, said people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. The two sides tried unsuccessfully over the weekend to find a way around a tax payment that could be triggered by the sale of Porsche's sports-car operation to Volkswagen, the centerpiece of a complicated three-way deal also involving Qatar, a person familiar with the matter said.

An independent committee will develop a code of conduct for New Zealand’s financial advisers to encourage ethical behaviour and competence in the industry, the Securities Commission announced today. Financial advisers will be legally obligated to comply with the code when it comes into action at the end of 2010, The National Business Review reported. The Code Committee has 10 appointed members and legislation requires it to have at least seven to 11 members at any given time.

A consortium of bidders for Opel led by Magna International will make a new offer for the German carmaker on Monday which includes a demand for rights to Opel’s intellectual property, a Russian newspaper reported. Citing a single source, the Russian daily Kommersant said the consortium, which includes Russian state bank Sberbank, would make the new offer “in the form of an ultimatum” and leave the talks if it was not accepted, The New York Times DealBook blog reported.

Swedish bank Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken said Monday that it swung to a second-quarter loss due to soaring bad debt charges in the Baltic countries and goodwill write-offs from its acquisitions in the region, MarketWatch reported. The group reported a net loss of 193 million Swedish kronor ($24.8 million) for the second quarter, compared to a profit of 2.81 billion kronor a year earlier. The loss was largely due to a surge in credit provisions -- or charges to cover customers who couldn't repay loans -- which jumped to 3.57 billion kronor from 448 million kronor.

An Ontario Superior Court judge ordered that Sextant Capital Management Inc. and related entities, including its hedge fund invested in Icelandic glaciers, be put under receivership, The Globe and Mail reported. PricewaterhouseCoopers will be receiver and manager of the property of Sextant Capital Management, Sextant Capital GP Inc. and Sextant Strategic Opportunities Hedge Fund, Mr. Justice Geoffrey Morawetz said in his ruling.

Australia's trade minister said on Monday China's detention of Rio Tinto employees would not hurt economic relations if handled properly, but said the case was a signal to everyone looking to invest in China, Reuters reported.

Iceland took a step towards clearing the debris of its financial meltdown on Monday, unveiling a deal with creditors of its failed banks and plans to capitalise the new ones, Reuters reported. The government said it expected the capitalisation to total about 270 billion Icelandic crowns ($2.1 billion) but this would be reduced to about 200 billion if the old banks, controlled by creditors, subscribed to equity stakes in two of the new banks -- Islandsbanki and New Kaupthing -- as planned.

Madeleine Schickedanz, the wealthy heiress behind Arcandor, blamed herself in part for the collapse of the German tourism and retail group and the loss of her fortune, she told Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag. "I noticed far too late that I lost control. And I should have tackled issues like the Internet in mail-order or the future of department stores and their structural change much earlier," the 65 year-old recluse said in a rare interview.

Ten Network's major shareholder has won another last-minute reprieve to restructure its finances as it fights off bankruptcy, The Australian reported. The Canadian-based Canwest Global Communications owns a 57 per cent economic interest in the Australian stockmarket-listed Ten, which has television stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.