Headlines

Indebted Austrian car parts maker Polytec (POLV.VI) said on Thursday it had struck a deal in principle with its creditor banks to stave off a looming insolvency, Reuters reported. The group, creaking under €345 million ($459 million) of net debt, part of which was taken on to buy German peer Peguform last year, said it would present details of the plan after approval by all parties. "The goal in negotiations with the involved banks ... was to ensure the continuity of the Group without insolvency," Polytec said in a statement.

The number of people declared insolvent could top 150,000 this year, industry experts warned today, as figures showed a record 19,026 people were declared bankrupt in England and Wales during the first three months of this year, The Guardian reported. The Insolvency Service figures showed bankruptcies up 23.4% on the same period last year and 0.5% higher than in the last quarter of 2008. The number of people declared insolvent, which includes those entering into individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) with their creditors as well as bankruptcies, was up 19% year-on-year to 29,774.

The company behind the golf club at Pauanui Lakes Resort has gone into liquidation bringing into question whether the course will continue to operate, The National Business Review reported. Lakes Resort Golf and Country Club, which operates the golf course, and a second company Pauanui Lakes Properties were put into liquidation at the High Court at Auckland today following applications from Inland Revenue. A lawyer for BNZ asked that the bank’s application as a supporting creditor be withdrawn.

The court-appointed liquidator for Clico Bahamas Ltd., a Bahamian life and health insurance company owned by one of the largest financial conglomerates in the Caribbean, has filed a Chapter 15 bankruptcy petition seeking permission to investigate the company's U.S. assets, including at least $70 million Clico invested in several South Florida real estate developments, Bankruptcy Law360 reported.

Chrysler LLC is expected to file for bankruptcy protection in the United States by the end of the week and the Canadian and Ontario governments will jump in to help backstop the company with financing that will enable it to keep making and selling cars while it restructures, sources said. The bankruptcy filing is expected even though a deal by Fiat SpA to create a strategic alliance with the No.

Pakistan’s corporate regulator will introduce an insolvency law by July to enable companies hit by the economic downturn to be revived or taken over, Bloomberg reported. “There’s a national emergency,” Salman Ali Shaikh, chairman of the Islamabad-based Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan, said in an interview in Karachi yesterday.

The insolvency administrator overseeing the restructuring of a German affiliate of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has petitioned a federal bankruptcy court for protection of the investment firm’s assets in the United States, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. The Frankfurt-based company listed over $1 billion in assets and liabilities. Dr. Michael C.

Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. agreed today with the group's senior secured creditor, Investec Bank (Australia) Limited, to the appointment of a receiver to Austral Pacific Energy Ltd., the publicly traded Canadian corporation, and two of its New Zealand subsidiaries, Austral Pacific Energy (NZ) Limited and Totara Energy Limited, the company announced in a press release. Investec is owed approximately US$16.8 million, which amount is now due for payment due to the expiry of the previously announced standstill arrangements.

As in other countries, the current economic and financial crisis has already taken its toll on Belgium. The number of bankruptcies has reached record heights. Unemployment is rising and forecasts for 2009 are pessimistic, Legal Week reported. In this context, the Belgian Parliament adopted a new Act on Business Continuity, which came into force on 1 April, 2009. This new Act replaces the former and unsuccessful judicial composition procedure with a more effective and flexible restructuring instrument.

Buyers interested in Timbercorp's assets are lining up for a bargain purchase after the agribusiness investment group was placed into voluntary administration, Stock Journal reported. And now the path could be open for investors to launch a class action against such failed timber managed investment schemes, the financial advisors who peddled them or even the Federal Government for allowing them. The Shareholders Association of Australia said there was precedent against companies who had created a misleading prospectus and poor governance.