Treasury Debt-Purchase Plan May Be Smaller Than Anticipated at $20 Billion The U.S. Treasury Department may
begin its program to spur purchases of mortgage-backed
securities from banks with about $20 billion in public and
private money, down from as much as $100 billion when it was
announced in March, two people familiar with the matter said.
ThyssenKrupp Said to Abandon Sale of Unit After Potential Buyers Pull Out ThyssenKrupp AG, Germany’s largest
steelmaker, scrapped the sale of an industrial services unit as
part of a 1 billion-euro ($1.4 billion) disposal of assets after
buyers pulled out, people familiar with the situation said.
Wiedeking Era at Porsche Runs on Fumes as Volkswagen Takeover Backfires Wendelin Wiedeking, hailed as “the
man who outfoxed the market” by Fortune magazine in January, is
fighting to save Porsche SE -- and his job -- as a strategy to
take over Volkswagen AG unravels.
Australia Facing `Full Brunt' of Global Recession as Exports, Lending Drop Australia’s economy, which has so far
skirted the global recession, may stall after reports showed
exports dropped to a 14-month low, bank lending fell and home-
building approvals declined by the most since 2002.
Escada Is Optimistic of Rescue as Dressmaker Suffers, CEO Saelzer Says Escada AG Chief Executive Officer
Bruno Saelzer said he’s optimistic investors will back a
refinancing plan and avert insolvency at the German dressmaker
whose celebrity clients include actress Katie Holmes.
Halabi Companies Fail to Fix $1.9 Billion Commercial Mortgage Bond Default Investor Simon Halabi’s real-estate
companies failed to remedy a default on 1.15 billion pounds
($1.9 billion) of commercial mortgage bonds at a time when,
according to Fitch Ratings, “pretty much” all such European
deals would breach loan-to-value conditions if they were tested.