Formula 1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone is part of a bid to take over struggling Swedish car maker Saab, the Independent reports.
The billionaire has teamed up with the Luxembourg-based investment company Genii Capital, which recently invested in Renault’s racing team.
Saab have been put up for sale by owner GM as part of a major restructuring operation, and a bid deadline passed yesterday.
The US car-making giant have been trying to sell Saab since January last year and …

An impoverished Labour Party will be unable to return fire against the Conservatives’ pre-election advertising blitz for months, amid fears that they could emerge from the campaign bankrupt, The Times reports.
David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary and chairman of Labour’s election development board, said the party was going into an election at a greater financial disadvantage than any time since 1983, when they suffered a landslide defeat.
Labour have been forced to scrap a planned manifesto …

The Tories have called on Labour to do more to help firms through the recession after figures obtained by the party show almost 27,000 have gone bust since last year, Sky News reports.
Data from the Insolvency Service reveals 17,500 more companies have been made bankrupt in the current economic crisis than during the 1980s’ recession, and 3,000 more than in the 1990s.
“Despite Alistair Darling’s attempt to cover up the truth, this confirms what many people …

Russia’s largest carmaker Avtovaz are on the verge of bankruptcy and need to cut almost 50,000 jobs if they are to have any hope of survival, AFP reports.
Avtovaz will at the start of next year have £1.6million of debts, excluding £200,000 owed to suppliers.
Restructuring such debts is “impossible under market conditions”, Deputy Industry Minister Andrei Dementiev said, adding that this means that Avtovaz bear “all the signs envisaged under the legislation for bankruptcy”.
The Lada carmaker …

Sweden is bracing for a full-blown economic and political “breakdown” in Latvia, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Sweden’s finance minister Anders Borg had told banks secretly that Latvia’s political order was unravelling, advising them to prepare for the collapse of Latvia’s rescue talks.
Latvia has failed to deliver draconian spending cuts agreed to secure the next tranche of its €7.5bn (£6.85bn) bail-out from the EU, the International Monetary Fund, and Sweden, balking at 20pc cuts in pensions and …

Over the past year, 52 pubs a week went out of business and 24,000 jobs were lost due to that, the Times reports.
Almost 2,400 pubs and bars have vanished from villages and towns in the past 12 months, according to research for the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA). Local pubs serving small communities have been the worst hit, the association said.
The number of closures represents the steepest rate of decline since records began in …

Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and California’s legislative leaders agreed yesterday on a plan to close the state’s $26 billion budget shortfall, potentially getting the state back on firm financial ground so it can stop issuing IOUs, the AP reports.
The governor and leaders from both parties announced the compromise after more than five hours of closed-door talks. If the agreement survives its run through both houses of the Legislature, it would provide temporary relief to …

The “new” General Motors which have emerged from bankruptcy are going to focus more on customers (who did they focus on before???) and they’re in partnership with eBay for people to buy vehicles by online auctions.
Company’s CEO Fritz Henderson said that the “new” GM will be far faster and more responsive to customers than the old one, and will make money and repay government loans faster than required, FoxNews reports.
Henderson promised that they will repay …