Ireland

The Irish government has indicated that it may be ready to help current and former Ireland-based employees of Waterford Wedgwood to secure their pensions, after the luxury tableware company was put into receivership this week, the Financial Times reported. Waterford Wedgwood had a pension deficit of €111 million (£100 million) on October 4 which, together with its debts of just less than €450 million, are seen as the main issue for any prospective buyer.

Talks to salvage Waterford Wedgwood were under way with at least three US parties on Monday night after the owner of the historic crystal and porcelain brands was forced into receivership, the Financial Times reported. Lenders, led by Bank of America, called in their loans to the company, which can trace its roots back to 1759, after talks with a US private equity investor collapsed at the weekend.

Waterford Wedgwood Plc received protection from creditors after losing money for five years and failing to find a buyer, threatening an Irish crystal-making heritage that dates back to 1759, Bloomberg reported. As many as 1,900 Irish and British jobs may be at risk if no buyer emerges. Deloitte Ireland was appointed as receiver for the company and some local units, Dublin-based Waterford said today in a statement. Its shares were suspended in Dublin.

Little Bird, a Dublin film company whose credits include Bridget Jones’s Diary, Into the West and Ordinary Decent Criminal, has gone into receivership after failing to raise funds, The Sunday Business Post reported. Kieran Wallace, an accountant with KPMG in Dublin, has been installed as receiver of Little Bird Holdings. The group consists of 32 companies in five countries, many of which are continuing to trade.

British children's clothing retailer Adams Childrenswear Ltd. is on the brink of a form of bankruptcy protection, a spokeswoman for the 75-year-old company said Monday, which would make Adams the latest well-known British retailer to fall victim to the economic downturn. The spokeswoman said the central England-based kids clothing retailer had applied to go into administration on Wednesday and was expected to be placed in the hands of administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers on Monday.

Britain's economic downturn claimed another prominent retailer Wednesday as music, games and DVD retail chain Zavvi filed for a form of bankruptcy protection, blaming the collapse of the Woolworth Group's distribution arm, the Associated Press reported. Ernst & Young administrators, appointed to run the company, said that they would continue to trade "with a view to selling all or part of its business as a going concern." Zavvi, created by a management buyout of the Virgin Megastores just over a year ago, is Britain's largest independent entertainment retailer.

Ireland's finance ministry said it will inject €5.5 billion ($7.66 billion) into three banks and take large stakes in them, days after a loan-accounting scandal at Anglo Irish Bank Corp. further weakened the country's already fragile banking sector, The Wall Street Journal reported. The government said it would make an initial investment of €1.5 billion in Anglo Irish in exchange for preference shares that will give it 75% of the voting rights of the bank.

British sofa retailer Land of Leather Holding PLC's share price plummeted 32 percent on Tuesday after it said that talks regarding a possible bid for the company had ended, the Associated Press reported. Land of Leather, which has 109 stores across Britain and Ireland and around 950 employees, said it had stopped discussions with "a number" of potential bidders after those early negotiations suggested any resulting offer would represent "insufficient value" for shareholders.

Dublin's premier pub-running company won bankruptcy protection Friday in a surprising sign that Ireland's credit crunch is pushing even the most liquid of businesses to the breaking point, the Associated Press reported. The High Court granted bankruptcy protection to the Thomas Read Group, which runs a dozen of the capital's most popular pubs and eight more at Dublin Airport. The company also runs an award-winning restaurant on the River Liffey, the Winding Stair Bookshop & Cafe, and a top Dublin nightclub, Ri Ra.

Troubled German lender Hypo Real Estate reported Monday a net loss of 3.1 billion euros ($4 billion) in the third quarter as the financial crisis worsened, with a unit in Ireland hit especially hard by write-downs on the values of its assets, the Associated Press reported.