Headlines

The world could face high inflation and a “crisis after the crisis” when the global economy recovers, Peer Steinbrück, German finance minister, has warned, the Financial Times reported. The comments, in a weekend interview, are the latest sign of concern from Germany at the extra-loose monetary policies conducted by central banks around the world and the ever-larger fiscal stimuli being unveiled by governments.

Tech Mahindra, a joint venture between British Telecom and the Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra, stands to win control of Satyam Computer Services after a bid that values the fraud-damaged company at $1.2 billion, The New York Times reported. Tech Mahindra was the highest bidder for Satyam, with a 58 rupee, or $1.16, per share bid, for 31 percent of the company, Satyam said Monday. The offer beats a bid from the Indian engineering firm Larsen & Toubro, which already owns a 12 percent stake in Satyam.

China’s government is considering additional stimulus measures to boost consumption and bolster growth just as the nation shows more signs of recovering, Bloomberg reported. The government will issue some “guideline” policies and continue to use fiscal and taxation measures to spur an expansion, the official China Securities Journal reported today, citing Gao Huiqing, a researcher at the State Information Center as saying on April 11.

As Barack Obama, the U.S. President, eyes a "quick and surgical" bankruptcy solution for ailing automakers, don't expect the wound in Canada to be as clean or neat should car companies here seek creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). That's because of a difference in Canadian labour and insolvency law, the Financial Post reported. In the United States, insolvencies can be used to end high-cost union contracts if certain procedures are followed.

South Korean business conglomerates need to actively join the creditor-led corporate restructuring program by disposing of distressed assets, the nation's top financial regulator said Monday, Xinhua reported. South Korea's top business groups should clean up their balance sheets, which would help not only the companies, but the local financial sector and the national economy, Financial Services Commission (FSC) chairman Chin Dong-soo said in a forum in Seoul.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group was a hot potatoes Friday, as investors raced to unload shares of the smallest of Japan's big three megabanks after it said it would hold a massive share sale that would dilute its share value by nearly a third, Forbes reported. Sell orders outnumbered buy orders to such an extent that the stock did not move for much of the morning session, with the stock eventually closing down 14%.

Russian banks’ bad loans will quadruple to $70 billion this year, deepening the country’s worst financial crisis since the government’s 1998 debt default, a Bloomberg survey shows. Non-performing loans will increase to 12.8 percent of the 18.4 trillion rubles ($549 billion) owed by Russian companies and individuals by the end of this year, from 3.2 percent in March, according to the mean estimate of 17 banking analysts polled by Bloomberg in the past week. HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank, expects delinquencies to reach 23 percent, Europe’s highest rate after Hungary at 25 percent.

Kleenmaid’s 150 staff will lose their jobs after the Queensland-based upmarket kitchen and laundry appliance seller was put into voluntary administration, the Australian Associated Press reported. However, 25 employees will be asked to help with the administration process involving the company which had 20 outlets in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia and a $90 million turnover last year. A total of $27 million in customer deposits has also been lost, the administrator says.

The record of millionaire Fred Bart as a director of three companies that collapsed while he was on the board, or shortly after he left, will be raised in an inquiry into the failure of his fourth company, the Brisbane Times reported. Mr Bart's company, which traded as the Sleeping Giant, Bedroom Collections, Liberty Bedding and Bedroom Factory, went into voluntary administration in February with its liabilities exceeding its assets by $5.7 million.

After a year of complex negotiations, Quebecor World Inc. has worked out a deal on the key terms of a restructuring plan with its major creditors and anticipates emerging from bankruptcy protection by mid-July, The Globe and Mail reported. The agreement marks the end of a troubled chapter for what was once a key company in the media and printing empire of Pierre Karl Péladeau, and will usher in changes such as recapitalization and deleveraging of the company, which filed for protection 14 months ago.