Business news for Mon, 17 Dec 2007 & with word debt. 19 news.

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Monday that moves by some big banks to bring off-balance sheet investments tied to subprime mortgages back onto their books would help ward off a widespread credit crunch.

ASIAN stocks fell the most in four months, led by Samsung Electronics Co and HSBC Holdings Plc, on concern accelerating inflation will limit interest-rate cuts, threatening global growth. Samsung declined the most in three weeks. HSBC and Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd paced losses in Hong Kong, where interest rates track those set by the Federal Reserve, after United States consumer prices rose the most since 2005. Centro Properties Group plummeted 76 percent in Sydney after the owner of US shopping malls said it was struggling to refinance debt. "Sentiment in the region is getting worse," said David Ng, who helps manage US$954 million at Hwang-DBS Asset Management Sdn in Kuala Lumpur. "First we had slowing US growth; now add on inflation fears. That makes for a bad combination." The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 2.9 percent to 152.28 as of 6:49pm in Tokyo, its sharpest decline since August 17, Bloomberg News said. The benchmark is set for its lowest annual gain

MERRILL Lynch & Co, the securities firm that reported a record US$2.24-billion third-quarter loss, told fixed-income managers to cut 2007 bonuses by an average of 40 percent, according to two people briefed on the matter. Payments may fall by as much as 80 percent for traders who specialize in the mortgage bonds and collateralized debt obligations that posted the steepest losses, said the people, who declined to be named because the decisions aren't public. Bonuses may drop 20 percent for interest-rate traders and 60 percent in the New York-based firm's corporate bond unit, the sources said, according to Bloomberg News. Chief Executive Officer John Thain, who took over from Stan O'Neal on December 1, said he will reward good performers while cutting payouts for people who caused losses. He has to placate investors by trimming wages while making sure the most valuable employees don't leave, said Russ Gerson, head of New York-based recruiting firm Gerson Group. On Wall Street,

CHINA Eastern Airlines Corp, the nation's third-largest carrier, said it is in talks to buy 40 Boeing Co 737 planes and has applied to the government for 40 Airbus SAS A320s to expand its fleet. The planned purchases may help expand the Shanghai-based carrier's fleet by 53 percent to 322 aircraft in 2010 from the current 210, Zhang Jing, a China Eastern spokeswoman, said yesterday, confirming a Reuters report. Singapore Airlines Ltd and parent Temasek Holdings Pte plan to buy a 24-percent stake in China Eastern for HK$7.16 billion (US$918 million), cutting the carrier's debt and easing its "most difficult" period, Chairman Li Fenghua said last week. The cash infusion may help the company pay for the planes to compete with Air China Ltd, according to Bloomberg News. "Carriers are queuing up to buy planes as demand grows," said Ma Ying, an analyst at Haitong Securities Co in Shanghai. "China Eastern's stake sale will enable it to afford the

CENTRO Properties Group, the owner of 700 shopping malls in the United States, slumped 76 percent in Sydney trading and said it was struggling to refinance debt because of the collapse in the US subprime housing market. Melbourne-based Centro suspended dividends and said in a statement that it may have to sell assets, after lenders gave it until February 15 to renegotiate maturing debt. Traditional sources of funding are "shut for business," Chairman Brian Healey said. The share slump wiped A$4.98 billion (US$4.3 billion) from the market value of Centro and Centro Retail Group, the listed real estate investment trust it manages. A sale of assets threatens to undo Chief Executive Officer Andrew Scott's US$9 billion expansion into the US. "Centro are no longer in charge of their own destiny," said Callum Bramah, a Sydney-based analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd, in a report. "We believe Centro will be required to sell assets at a loss simply to use the cash

INGERSOLL-RAND Co, the maker of Thermo King refrigerated trucks, has agreed to buy Trane Inc for US$10.1 billion in cash and stock to gain cooling systems for transportation and buildings. Ingersoll-Rand will pay US$36.50 in cash and 0.23 of a share for Trane, the Bermuda-based company said, according to Bloomberg News. That values the New Jersey-based air-conditioner maker's shares at US$47.81 based on Friday's closing price. Ingersoll-Rand will take on US$150 million of debt. Chief Executive Officer Herbert Henkel said the purchase of the air-conditioner maker will create a company with US$17 billion of sales, more than half coming from the heating and cooling business. Ingersoll-Rand this month completed the sale of its Bobcat construction-machinery unit, shifting its focus to refrigeration systems amid rising trade in frozen foods. "The market for transporting food is very strong," Sanjay Jha, a London-based analyst at Pali International, said in an interview.

Tropicana Entertainment LLC said Monday that it is planning to sell three casinos, including Casino Aztar in Evansville, Ind., in order to repay its outstanding senior debt.

Related Cos., developer of the Time Warner Center in New York, received equity and debt investments of nearly $1.4 billion from the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government and others, the privately held real estate company said Monday.

Morgan Stanley, the No. 2 U.S. investment bank, reported a $9.4 billion writedown on today from bad bets on mortgage-related debt, leading it to take a $5 billion infusion from an arm of the Chinese government.

About 50 big debt investors are banding together to lobby for better protection to be written into bond contracts.

Now comes the hard part for Sam Zell, Chicago's newest media baron. When he takes Tribune Co. private this week in an $8.2-billion deal, the new chairman will first have to navigate a mountain of high-interest debt that rivals or exceeds the amount of cash the Chicago-based media company can ...

Related Companies, the New York real estate developer, said Monday it would receive $1.4 billion in equity and debt investments from a group including Goldman Sachs, Michael Dell’s MSD Capital and Mubadala Development, an affiliate of an investment firm owned by Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Related is one of New York’s biggest residential [...]

Lehman Brothers faces the threat of legal action by municipal councils in Australia over the sale of high-risk collateralized debt obligations by the Wall Street bank’s local subsidiary, Grange Securities, according to The Financial Times. At least two councils in New South Wales and a third in Western Australia are considering litigation against Grange, which marketed [...]

Australia's Centro Properties, the fifth-largest retail property owner and manager in the US, warned it is having trouble refinancing $1.1bn in debt due to fallout from the subprime crisis

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Lehman Brothers is facing legal action from municipal governments in Australia who say they were sold high-risk collateralized debt obligations by the firm's local unit Grange Securities, according to reports. Two government councils in New South Wales and a third in Western Australia are among those considering legal action, the Financial Times reported on its Web site Monday. Lehman-orginated CDOs were reportedly also sold to charities and a public hospital provider. The report said some Australian councils had as much as 70% of their assets devoted entirely to CDOs. Lehman reportedly said investment products sold through its subsidiary in Australia complied with local regulations.

Provident Bank is suing Clark Construction Group to recoup a $150,000 debt that Clark allegedly owed to Architectural Metals Inc., a Frederick firm that filed to liquidate in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

I spend a lot of time talking to people about the reasons they get stuck when it comes to getting a grasp on their money. Credit card debt is a common one. So is income. But one of the biggies is a fear of numbers.

A record number of families are now having to devote more than one-fifth of their salaries to debt payments, according to research published by the Bank of England today.

The chain was almost brought to its knees by debt. Bill Grimsey, brought in to sort out the mess, tells Helen Power about his 100-day plans.