Headlines

The publisher of North America's biggest French-language newspaper, La Presse, said Thursday the publication may cease operations on Dec. 1 if the paper is unable to significantly cut costs, The Associated Press reported. Caroline Jamet, vice president of communications for the paper, said management and the union have three months to reach an agreement on cutting costs, otherwise the 125-year-old paper edition and its newer online version would be shut down.

Brazilian meat company JBS SA is reportedly planning to acquire bankrupt chicken producer Pilgrim's Pride Corp. for $2.5 billion, a deal that could allow Pilgrim's Pride to emerge from bankruptcy and fully pay back its lenders and bondholders, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources, that the deal was in the final stages of negotiations and would create a company that could challenge the largest U.S. meat producer, Tyson Foods Inc.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the largest bank bailed out by the U.K., won’t call $1.6 billion of subordinated bonds after regulators objected to using state aid to pay holders of the lender’s lowest-rated securities, Bloomberg reported. The Financial Services Authority, the U.K.’s market regulator, told RBS not to redeem early four series of bonds after the European Commission stated Aug. 19 that banks shouldn’t use government money to repay equity and subordinated debt, the Edinburgh-based lender said in a statement today.

Commonwealth Bank executives have told a parliamentary inquiry in Sydney that it was the responsibility of Storm Financials responsibility to inform its clients about margin calls, ABC News reported. Rather than come out firing, as the failed investment company's founder did yesterday at the inquiry into the collapse of Storm, the bank's representatives apologised to customers who lost their homes and livelihoods in the collapse. CBA executives said the bank followed standard industry practice in that financial investors were to advise their clients when the lender made margin calls.

Canadian Superior Energy Inc. says its second-quarter loss deepened to $9.9 million as revenues dropped 61 per cent compared with the same 2008 period, The Canadian Press reported. The Calgary-based junior energy company, which has its main assets off the coast of Trinidad, said Thursday the loss amounted to six cents a share compared with a loss of $1.6 million or a penny a share last year. Its revenue dropped to $7.9 million, mostly from oil and gas sales, compared with $20.2 million. The company's court protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act is set to expire Sept. 15.

Creditors have come to an agreement about how to wind up FerroChina Ltd. and are awaiting approval by a mainland China court, said people familiar with the agreement, in a decision that many foreign investors view as a significant test of China's 2007 bankruptcy law, The Wall Street Journal reported. Under the restructuring agreement, the people say, China Minmetals Corp. will acquire five operating subsidiaries of the galvanized-steel maker for 3.2 billion yuan ($468.5 million). Some foreign creditors will recoup as much as 60 cents on the dollar.

Australian digital media firm Swish Group has entered into voluntary administration after being unable to raise essential funds in the current "continuing difficult economic environment," Billboard reported. Melbourne-based Swish has appointed Richard Cauchi and David Lofthouse of CJL Partners to act as administrators of the company and its subsidiaries, which include digital music distributor Amphead, the exclusive partner for U.S. digital content aggregator the Orchard. Trading in Swish's shares on the Australian Stock Exchange has been suspended.

David Cameron, the man considered by most Britons to be their next prime minister, says he’ll abolish the Financial Services Authority and make the Bank of England the main U.K. banking regulator, Bloomberg reported. While Labour has said it’s possible the U.K. would abandon the pound and adopt the euro sometime in the future, Cameron has ruled out joining the single currency under any circumstances. Since February 2008, polls have uniformly shown Cameron’s Conservatives ahead of Brown’s Labour Party, with some surveys giving the party a lead of more than 20 percentage points. Under the U.K.

Spanish jobless claims resumed their upward spiral in August, ending several months of improvement in which an €8 billion ($11.37 billion) government infrastructure program and the summer tourism season gave job creation a boost, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Spanish labor ministry said Wednesday that jobless claims rose by 84,985, or 2.4%, to 3,629,080 in August from July. August jobless claims were up 43% on the year. Spain has been rapidly shedding jobs since the collapse of a labor-intensive housing boom last year.

The Dutch market regulator AFM said on Thursday it has opened an investigation into brokerage Van der Moolen, which filed for creditor protection last month, Reuters reported. The AFM declined to elaborate, though, on the nature of the investigation or how far it has progressed. The 117-year old firm was once one of the top marketmaker names on Wall Street but fell on hard times in recent years as floor trading at exchanges declined and it tried to adapt its business.