Independent News & Media has issued a fiercely worded attack on its rebel shareholder Denis O'Brien, warning that his "personal antagonism" could scupper rescue talks with its lenders at a critical stage, The Guardian reported. In a combative statement issued to the London and Dublin stock markets late today in response to O'Brien's demand yesterday for a shareholder vote on INM's financial restructuring plan, the board effectively told him to put up or shut up.

An exclusive resort in the Turks and Caicos Islands that catered to celebrities and offered personal butlers and a pillow menu has closed after less than two years of operation, The Associated Press reported. The owner of Nikki Beach Resort & Spa — Leeward Resort Ltd. — has been placed into receivership, General Manager Jonathan Steers said. The resort, which the Travel Channel rated No. 2 on its list of the "21 Hottest Caribbean Escapes" this year, is the latest one in the region to close amid the global economic crisis.

France will not impose unilaterally an overall ceiling on bankers’ bonuses after it narrowed differences with other countries over pay at a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers, the Financial Times reported. French officials insisted that in spite of Nicolas Sarkozy’s outrage at what he called the “scandal” of bonuses, Paris would not impose its own cap. The president, who has played to public outrage over rewards to executives in an industry blamed for the economic crisis, had called for the G20 summit in Pittsburgh this month to find ways to cap bonuses.

Germany is calling on the world’s largest economies to adopt joint measures to prevent banks from becoming “too big to fail” and holding governments to ransom in future financial crises, the Financial Times reported. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said on Monday – following a meeting in Berlin with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France – that steps to prevent excessive risk-taking by large banks should rank high on the agenda of the summit of the Group of 20 largest economies in Pittsburgh later this month.

Nursery furniture retailer BabyCo has gone into voluntary administration and only four of the company's 22 shops in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia will remain open, Big Pond News reported. Deloitte partners Tim Norman, Sal Algeri and Simon Cathro have been appointed as voluntary administrators of the company on Friday. Mr Norman says slow sales and the competitive nature of the retail industry prompted the company to appoint administrators.

Clients of Lehman Brothers in Europe may have to wait longer to get their assets back after a judge blocked a move to speed the unwinding of the bankruptcy, accountants warned on Friday. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), administrators to Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBIE), had asked the High Court to approve a plan to accelerate the return of client's assets, tied up in the bank since its collapse last year, Reuters reported.

Linklaters and Allen & Overy (A&O) have taken lead roles on the €12 billion (£10.3 billion) debt restructuring of ball-bearing manufacturer Schaeffler, in a move which could lead to a merger with auto-parts manufacturer Continental, LegalWeek reported. Linklaters advised a consortium of five lending banks comprising UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, UniCredit, Commerzbank and LBBW, with London and Frankfurt-based banking partners Stephen Lucas and Marc Trinkaus leading the team. The debt restructuring should clear the path for a merger between Schaeffler and Continental.

Canadian companies facing bankruptcy are being given access to a new $1-billion lifeline from Ottawa and major financial firms to provide breathing space to restructure operations and return to solvency, Export Development Canada said yesterday. The EDC said it has agreed to become the top contributor to a new fund that would act as the bank of last resort to struggling companies who are unable to obtain credit through normal channels, The London Free Press reported on a Canadian Press story.

Britain had an 8 billion-pound ($13.2 billion) budget deficit in July, the largest for the month since records began in 1993, as the recession ravaged tax revenue and the cost of unemployment benefits surged, Bloomberg reported. The shortfall compared with a surplus of 5.2 billion pounds a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said in London today. It came in a month when the Treasury usually gets a boost from quarterly tax payments. Britain last had a deficit in July in 1996. The U.K.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office is to meet with Icelandic investigators in London next month as Reykjavik seeks international help to discover whether criminal wrongdoing played a role in bringing down Iceland’s banking sector, the Financial Times reported. The talks signal increasing co-operation between the UK and Iceland over the corruption probe, even as tensions flare between the two countries over a disputed deal to repay billions of pounds lost by British savers in Icelandic banks.