Headlines

Zinc companies in Peru, the world’s third-largest producer, will look to sell more concentrates overseas after the government said smelter Doe Run Peru may file for bankruptcy, according to a creditor, Bloomberg reported. A bankruptcy may take months to complete, said Carlos Galvez, chief financial officer of precious metals producer Cia. de Minas Buenaventura SA, a Doe Run Peru creditor. Doe Run, a unit of Renco Group Inc., may file for bankruptcy to restructure about $156 million of debt, Energy & Mines Minister Pedro Sanchez Gamarra said yesterday.

The world economy cannot sustain any further rise in the oil price, the International Energy Agency’s chief economist warned as oil prices rose toward a record high for the year. Fatih Birol told the Financial Times that prices higher than about $70 could dampen a world economic recovery. “If we go one step further, if we see prices go much higher than that, we may see it slow down and strangle economic recovery,” he said of oil prices on Friday, when the European benchmark was around $70.

The number of companies with a high risk of defaulting on their debt globally fell in July for the fourth consecutive month, indicating the recent wave of corporate defaults may be reaching a bottom, according to risk management firm Kamakura Corp., Reuters reported. Kamakura's index of "troubled" public companies fell by 1.7 percentage points in July from June, to 14.7 percent of the global public company universe, down from its recent peak of 24.3 percent in March, the company said on Monday. A company is considered troubled when its default probability is in excess of 1 percent.

Nationalised lender Northern Rock today announced a 24 per cent jump in half-year losses and warned rising unemployment could pile further pressure on its mortgage book, The Northern Echo reported. The Newcastle-based company posted a pre-tax loss of £724.2 million for the six months to June 30, compared to £585.4 million for the same period last year as the amount of loans turned sour tripled. Northern Rock - which was taken into public ownership in February 2008 - said impairment charges on bad loans rose to £602.2 million and expected that figure to be similar in the second half.

Debt-ridden Eftpos technology company ProvencoCadmus, whose major shareholders include some of New Zealand's richest people, yesterday called in receivers after failing to secure support for its badly needed recapitalisation from key investors, The New Zealand Herald reported. A few hours after its shares were suspended from trading on the NZX yesterday morning, the company issued a statement saying it had asked its bank ANZ National to appoint receivers, "as the company will not have sufficient funds to meet its working capital requirements".

British clothing and footwear retailer JD Sports Fashion Plc said on Tuesday it has further diversified its business with the acquisition of rugby brand Canterbury for 6.5 million pounds ($11.01 million). JD said it purchased the key trading assets and trade of Canterbury Europe Limited along with the global rights to the Canterbury and Canterbury of New Zealand brands, which are over 100 years old, from the firm's administrators.

After months of dodging enormous bills, Ivan Erceg’s luxury boat building company Sensation Yachts has finally been forced into liquidation, The National Business Review reported. Creditor Public Trust filed an application to liquidate the troubled company on Friday, which was approved at the High Court at Auckland. Peri Finnigan of McDonald Vague was appointed as liquidators of Sensation Yachts yesterday.

A unit of Russian residential developer PIK Group, which is in debt to the tune of $1.3 billion and engaged in lengthy restructuring talks, faces a bankruptcy lawsuit, court filings showed on Monday. Leasing Force has filed the bankruptcy lawsuit against OOO PIK Development in the Moscow Arbitration Court, the court database showed. A PIK spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the company had not fully examined the court filing, Reuters reported.

The premier of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said on Friday he expected that next week there would be a "clear decision on the new start for Opel", the General Motors unit which has a plant in his state, Reuters reported. State premier Kurt Beck office added that, like the premiers of the other German states home to Opel plants, he had backed a bid for the carmaker from Canadian auto parts maker Magna.

The future of Ssangyong Motor grew gloomier as management said it is considering filing for bankruptcy and liquidating the company after failing to hammer out an agreement with its labor union, which has been on strike at the automaker’s plant in Pyeongtaek for more than two months, the JoongAng Daily reported. It was a final warning from management after negotiations over layoffs and related issues broke down. The automaker still has a shot at survival if production resumes in August, management said. It would take about two or three weeks to get the plant back in operation.