Irish oil producer Petroceltic International Plc said a court examiner had selected its largest shareholder, Worldview Capital Management, to take control of the group. Petroceltic, which received a 3 pence per share offer from Worldview in February, said it expected to sign an investment agreement over the coming days which would result in Worldview owning the company, Reuters reported. The company was placed in examinership in March, a process under Irish law that is akin to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States and administration in Britain.

An interim examiner has been appointed by the High Court to the department store chain, Debenhams Retail (Ireland) Ltd, which operates 11 stores in the Republic, the Irish Times reported. The move affects the jobs of 2,265 people, of whom 1,415 are directly employed by the business. Some 500 staff people work in concessions within Debenhams stores, with a further 320 are employed in cosmetics.

Ireland is no longer seeking further debt relief from its European partners, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said, as he arrived in Brussels on Monday for a key eurogroup meeting on Greece. While Ireland had been targeting debt relief through direct recapitalisation of Bank of Ireland and AIB by the ESM fund, the euro zone’s bailout fund, Mr Noonan said that this mechanism was no longer being sought. “We’ve got what we wanted.

The number of debt judgments registered against businesses in the Four Courts during the first three months of the year, was up 24 per cent versus the same period in 2015, the Irish Times reported. New figures from the non-profit organisation Registry Trust show there were 295 judgments recorded, of which 158 were against incorporated businesses and 137 for unincorporated firms. The value of first quarter judgments totalled €25 million, up 118 per cent on the first quarter of 2015.

Mineral company Kenmare Resources has confirmed a large-scale financial restructuring plan that could involve raising hundreds of millions of dollars at the troubled explorer, the Irish Times reported. The company defaulted on its debts earlier this year after failing to reach an agreement with its lenders on a deleveraging plan. Kenmare, which focuses on iron and titanium ore ilmenite, said on Thursday it was ready to raise $100 million by selling stock to a company based in the British Virgin Islands.

Europe’s largest investment bank Deutsche Bank has emerged on the list of bidders this week for one of the National Asset Management Agency’s last big portfolio sales, the Irish Times reported. The Frankfurt-based bank joins a joint offer from Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs and CarVal, a US investor in distressed assets, on Nama’s sale of two portfolios which have a combined nominal value of €4.7 billion, according to sources. Others bidders include Lone Star and Cerberus.

Creditors to the failed lender Anglo Irish Bank are set to receive their first payment within months after its liquidators built up about €2.1 billion of cash following the sale of most of its assets, according to sources. While the prospect of junior bondholders in the bank, who refused to share in its losses, being repaid the €285 million they’re owed has increased in the past year, they are unlikely to receive anything until at least 2018, the sources said. More senior creditors, led by the government itself, will be dealt with first.

Motor insurers are growing increasingly concerned at the lack of Government action to tackle pressure on premiums due to the €90 million collapse of Setanta Insurance two years ago, the Irish Times reported. Major insurance firms are now pressing for urgent steps to settle serious legal questions over their liability for any future failures after two court rulings found the industry-funded Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) should bear the cost of 1,750 outstanding claims by and against Setanta clients.

It is the most bitter industrial relations dispute Ireland has seen for many years. For the past few weeks, a series of two-day strikes on the Dublin tram system, known as Luas, has left 90,000 commuters walking to work. And there may be worse to come, the Financial Times reported. After an uncompromising exchange this week between Transdev, the French transport company that operates Luas, and the Siptu trade union that represents tram drivers, an all-out strike now threatens to shut the service indefinitely.

Small businesses whose bank loans were bundled into portfolios and sold to “vulture” funds have been advised to consider going into examinership to protect themselves should the funds call in their loans, the Irish Times reported. Hughes Blake accountants, which specialises in examinerships for small businesses, said seeking court protection from the funds could be a “valid tactical maneouvre”. It said many of the funds behave differently from each other so businesses should familiarise themselves with the approach of the fund that bought their loan.