Canada

Canadian newsprint maker AbitibiBowater Inc. said Tuesday that a majority of its unsecured creditors have approved its plan for reorganization under Canadian bankruptcy law, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported. The Montreal-based company filed for bankruptcy protection more than a year ago and has been soliciting votes from creditors. The company's plan will require creditor approval and confirmation by the U.S. and Canadian Courts. AbitibiBowater said it has received the votes it needs, except with respect to Bowater Canada Finance Corp., a special-purpose subsidiary with no operating assets.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is challenging AbitibiBowater Inc. over Chapter 11 plan provisions he says violate the Bankruptcy Code and rob taxing authorities of the rights to recoup past taxes, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., Abbott invoked a March U.S. Supreme Court ruling that he says puts the court under a duty to reject AbitibiBowater's Chapter 11 plan. The high court's decision came in a case involving student-loan debt.

The largest single shareholder of Onco Petroleum is trying to pry the troubled company’s affairs out the hands of a court-appointed receiver, The London Free Press reported. Terri Ramage, wife of Onco founder and former president Robert Vanier, said Onco officials and the receiver are acting without the consent of Onco’s 1,441 shareholders. She wants the receivership halted and a shareholder meeting convened. “Shareholders will suffer irreparable harm if the annulments are not granted,” she said Thursday in Windsor court.

Insolvent Nortel Networks Corp. has a preliminary agreement to sell its Multi Service Switch business for US$39 million in cash, The Canadian Press reported. The former Canadian technology giant, which is being dismantled and sold under court protection, said the bid was submitted by PSP Holding LLC, an entity formed by Ottawa-based Samnite Technologies Inc. and Marlin Equity Partners. The Multi Service Switch business provides non-optical equipment and as of last fall employed about 300 people. Nortel did not provide current employee numbers in its announcement.

AbitibiBowater Inc., the world’s biggest newsprint maker by capacity, won court approval to borrow as much as $1.35 billion to help fund its exit from bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey gave the company permission to obtain the funds after no objection to the financing proposals was filed, according to court documents filed yesterday in Wilmington, Delaware. Units of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc. will be the agents for a $600 million asset-based loan and each will contribute $100 million, court papers show.

Canada agreed Tuesday to pay newsprint maker AbitibiBowater more than $100 million to settle the company's claim over what it said was an illegal seizure of its assets, the Associated Press reported. The forestry giant had sought $500 million under the provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement after Canada's Atlantic-coast province of Newfoundland expropriated some of its assets.

A potential "white knight" offer has emerged for Tagish Lake Gold Corp., which has been fending off a takeover by New Pacific Metals Corp, The Canadian Press reported. Tagish Lake said Monday it has been approached by YS Mining Company Inc. and its two shareholders, Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. and Northwest Nonferrous International Investment Company Ltd. They are proposing the formation of a new company to own Tagish's Mt. Kukum property and YNG's Ketza River gold property.

The McCormick Macnaughton Caterpillar dealership in the Republic has been taken over by Canadian firm Finning, but the group’s rental businesses have ceased trading, The Irish Times reported. Assets belonging to three rental-related companies in the McCormick Macnaughton group, including three premises, will be sold off at an auction scheduled for September 4th. Management at Finning, the world’s largest Caterpillar dealer, took over the running of the dealership in west Dublin on Monday.

AbitibiBowater Inc. is seeking to quickly strike a deal in connection with a proposed bankruptcy-exit financing package of up to $750 million, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The pulp-and-paper company is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., to schedule an Aug. 25 hearing at which it would consider allowing AbitibiBowater to enter into agreements with Barclays Capital Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., which have agreed to manage a $750 million notes offering.

A U.S. federal magistrate has shielded Nortel Networks Corp. from action by U.K. pension regulators who fear the troubled company will walk away from obligations to 40,000 retirees, leaving a $3.4 billion funding shortfall, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Recommendations issued Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge relieve the company of worry that the U.K.'s Pension Regulator will intrude as Nortel negotiates a bankruptcy exit plan, at least until a federal district judge reviews and acts on Thynge's recommendations.