Headlines

Europe’s economy contracted at the fastest pace in at least 13 years in the first quarter as companies cut output and jobs to survive the worst global slump in more than six decades, Bloomberg reported. Gross domestic product in the 16-member euro region dropped 2.5 percent from the fourth quarter, when it fell 1.6 percent, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That’s the biggest drop since the euro-area GDP data were first compiled in 1995 and exceeded the 2 percent decline economists expected in a Bloomberg News survey.

The UAE government is going to enact a new Investment Law and revise the Companies Law in the next six months, Gulf News reported. The Investment Law will change the country's foreign investment regime and allow more than 49 per cent foreign ownership in companies in certain sectors outside free zone areas. The UAE ranks 144 among 178 economies in business competitiveness. The government is also revising the Commercial Companies Law and the Commercial Agencies Law, and re-introducing the Bankruptcy Law and bringing them in line with international best practices.

Marklin makes some of the world's most beloved toy trains, producing models for the past 150 years from the founding family's hometown, the city of Goppingen. Its headquarters is a prime destination for children and their parents and toy train aficionados. Small, family-owned manufacturing companies like Marklin once formed the backbone of the German economy. Now 400 workers at Marklin have lost their jobs and a plant in Nuremberg was just shuttered, tossing dozens more people out of work, NPR reported.

Bankruptcy petitions in Hong Kong in April jumped 56 percent from a year earlier, totalling 1,490, as the territory struggled with economic recession, although that was lowest monthly total since January, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. March bankruptcies totalled 1,872, a six-year high, while bankruptcies in April a year ago amounted to 957. The latest data marked only the second time since August that bankruptcy petitions, which give an indication of future bankruptcies, had fallen from the previous month.

Greg Olliver has escaped bankruptcy after a judge signed off on a proposal that will give his creditors, owed more than $90 million, a guaranteed return of less than half a cent in the dollar, The National Business Review reported. Financier St Laurence, owed $6.5 million, had opposed the arrangement and protested over a deal in which the $7 million Olliver family mansion, against which it held security, ended up being on-sold to entities associated with Mr Olliver’s wife Sarah.

Venezuela has put ailing state-owned Banco Industrial in receivership, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said on Wednesday, due to problems "of certain severity," The Guardian reported. Rodriguez did not link the decision to the global financial crisis, though the bank may have been affected by a slow-down in the OPEC's nation's economic growth since last year's tumble in oil prices.

A Quebec company’s financial troubles are no excuse to renege on a new collective agreement provision for early pension, the Quebec Superior Court has ruled, Canadian Employment Law Today reported. Montreal-based forestry and newsprint company AbitibiBowater negotiated a new collective agreement with its union that changed the company’s retirement policy and pension plan. However, Abitibi experienced financial problems after the signing of the new collective agreement and is currently under bankruptcy protection in both Canada and the United States.

The German government wants more detailed concepts in the next week from the two rival groups interested in investing in General Motors unit Opel, Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Guttenberg, speaking to reporters after a meeting of top government officials on the Opel matter, said Berlin wanted Opel assets placed with a trustee in the event that GM filed for bankruptcy before a deal with investors had been concluded. Read more.

A scheme of arrangement from Kelly McEwan has been rejected by liquidators, The National Business Review reported. Kelly and his father Dan were active over the past 10 years in a host of projects that they on-sold to investors. Many of these investors have contacted NBR with tales of woe about losses ranging from $50,000 to more than $1 million. Many say they have not received any information for a year or more. Liquidators at PricewaterhouseCoopers confirmed they had rejected promises of part payment in relation to debts owed to the group of McEwan companies involved.

The Belgian government again moved to prop up its embattled banking sector Wednesday, taking steps to bail out KBC NV for the third time, The Wall Street Journal reported. The intervention came a day after the government announced that the sale of Fortis Bank to France's BNP Paribas SA had formally closed after a seven-month saga that riveted the nation and brought down a prime minister. KBC has received some $8 billion in public bailout money, with cash injections made in October and January. The bank is due to report first-quarter results Thursday.