Ireland

Fears are growing that Ireland could default on its national debt after the cost to insure against possible losses on loans to the country rose to record highs at the end of last week, The Guardian reported. Credit ratings agency Moody's recently followed rival Standard & Poor's in warning it might downgrade Irish debt, amid fears that one of Europe's former success stories is falling into a deepening recession.

Ireland’s Ulster Bank has today launched what it terms "a new initiative designed to help potential home buyers onto the property ladder”, Finfacts.com reported. The Ulster Bank Secure Step Mortgage gives customers access to the local housing market with a five-year protection against falling house prices. The Secure Step Mortgage is being launched in conjunction with residential property developers from across Ireland and is available to first-time buyers and customers trading up.

U.S. private-equity firm KPS Capital Partners LP has signed a letter of intent to acquire certain assets of Waterford Wedgwood PLC, the historic crystal and ceramic maker that filed for insolvency this week, the group's administrators, Deloitte LLP, said Thursday. Deloitte said it was continuing to talk to other potential buyers as well, The Wall Street Journal reported. Deloitte and KPS officials said they couldn't comment on the size of the potential deal.

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.