Switzerland

The number of insolvencies among Swiss machine makers rose an annual 35% last year, as the strength of the Swiss franc crimped demand in their key euro-region markets, data released Tuesday showed, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. "With around 80% of Swiss machinery output being exported, and two-thirds of that to the euro zone, the franc's appreciation, particularly versus the euro, had a big impact on the sector," a survey by Credita AG noted.

Swiss trading house Vitol and two other companies are interested in leasing the UK's Coryton refinery from administrators, sources familiar with the discussions said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Administrators PwC have has been looking to find a buyer for Coryton since Petroplus, Europe's largest independent refiner by capacity, went into administration at the end of December. Vitol and PwC declined to comment.

A French prosecutor has launched an investigation into the insolvency filing by the local unit of Swiss-based refiner Petroplus Holdings AG, Dow Jones reported. The prosecutor started an investigation into whether there was irregular money flow, of about EUR100 million, out of the company's bank accounts prior to the filing for insolvency, a spokeswoman said Thursday in a telephone interview. She said the French police's financial brigade is investigating and officers have already carried out searches at some Petroplus sites.

Switzerland-based refiner Petroplus Holdings AG plans to file for insolvency, after talks with its lenders failed to unblock credit lines and the company succumbed to the weak profit margins that have dogged the sector in Europe during the past year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The search is on for new investment "safe havens" following Switzerland's blocking off of its franc, diverting flows into less traditional assets that may already be too expensive, Reuters reported in an analysis. The Norwegian crown, the Australian dollar and emerging market debt are all in the frame for increased investor attention as one of their favourites has at least temporarily been blocked off. This is in addition to the traditional harbours such as gold and U.S. Treasuries -- which are at or near record prices.

Swiss financial giant UBS AG is planning to separate its investment bank and incorporate it outside of Switzerland in an effort to placate regulators there who want to prevent another bailout should the bank fall on hard times as it did in 2008, said people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. UBS is considering incorporating its investment bank, which lost billions during the financial crisis and was rescued by the Swiss central bank, in London, New York or Singapore, where it would have its own capital and be overseen by local regulators.

Switzerland's banking regulator Tuesday said regulation aimed at limiting the threat that UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group pose to Switzerland's economy should they collapse needs to include measures for the orderly liquidation of part of a troubled bank's operations in a crisis, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The move could have implications for UBS's and Credit Suisse's structure because it represents more measures after the so-called too-big-to-fail draft law, which the government wants to send to parliament before April 24 when a consultation period ends this week.

Credit Suisse Group is selling a $2.8 billion portfolio of soured commercial-property loans to Apollo Management LP for $1.2 billion, marking one of the largest bank sales of distressed real estate loans since the downturn, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The properties backed by the loans include apartment buildings in Germany and hotels in Denmark, Sweden and France, many of them of lower quality and in hard-hit locales.

The Swiss bank that leads a lender group owed $300 million by Tamarack Resort says liquidating the central Idaho vacation getaway is the best way to recoup a fraction of their investment, the Associated Press reported. Credit Suisse Group asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers this week to set the stage for the final sale of Tamarack assets, either under a U.S. trustee or a state court judge's supervision. Tamarack owner Jean-Pierre Boespflug, trying desperately to arrange a sale, said Wednesday he plans to oppose the motion.

A Kazakhstan bank's bid to use the U.S. bankruptcy court to halt an overseas legal proceeding could drag the court into disputes in which the U.S. itself has little at stake, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Kazakhstan's JSC BTA Bank says the U.S. bankruptcy court's decision to grant it Chapter 15 protection in the U.S. after it underwent restructuring in its home country last year extended a key benefit of U.S. bankruptcy law: the automatic stay that halts legal action against a debtor company.