Canada

Nortel Networks Corp. Thursday postponed a hearing on the appointment of a mediator to help broker an end to disputes over the cash raised in the liquidation of its global telecommunications equipment business, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Lawyers for U.K. retirees whose pensions are in jeopardy due to Nortel's bankruptcy have petitioned to be part of the mediation, and the company is in talks with them, said James Bromley, attorney for Nortel. The Toronto company and its creditors want to summon Layn R.

Canada's Adanac Molybdenum Corp, which is under Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act protection, said it will seek court approval Monday for its credit restructuring plan, Reuters Africa reported. The company, which has got extension to CCAA protection until Oct. 29, intends to seek approval from the Supreme Court of British Columbia to increase its authorized share capital and consolidate its shares at a 150-to-1 ratio.

Bernard Callebaut has found an investor to make a bid for his chocolate company, which was placed in receivership in August, The Calgary Herald reported. His wife Francesca said they are "working with a company here in the city" and will put in a proposal Tuesday. Earlier in the week, Callebaut said he was seeking investors and if that option didn't work, he had developed a plan that would see him making chocolates under a new brand identity.

Nortel Networks Corp. and its creditors have tapped former federal judge Layn R. Phillips to help divide nearly $3.2 billion raised in a series of bankruptcy sales, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Phillips is being called in to serve as a mediator as the former telecommunications giant completes the dismantling of its global equipment and service business, according to documents filed Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Mediation sessions have been scheduled to start Nov. 11 and run through Nov. 16, court documents say. Creditors in Canada, the U.S.

Bernard Callebaut is making a final bid to save his company which went into receivership in early August, The Calgary Herald reported. In a new release issued today, Callebaut said: "These have been very trying times, and strengthened by the love of my family and the support from Calgarians, I am sourcing investors who share my vision for quality." He said he was still considering offers from investors willing to join him in the bid process prior to the Wednesday deadline. Callebaut opened its first in Calgary in 1983.

A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved the $65 million sale of Nortel Networks Corp.'s multiservice switch business to Swedish telecom equipment vendor L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co., Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Judge Kevin Gross of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., signed off on the sale less than a week after Ericsson won an auction for the business. Ericsson beat out PSP Holding LLC, a special-purpose entity funded by Marlin Equity Partners and Canada's Samnite Technologies, which kicked off the Sept. 24 auction with a $39 million bid.

AbitibiBowater took another step towards ending 18 months of court protection from creditors when its restructuring plan won the required support from a majority of its U.S. creditors, the Canadian Press reported. As was the case last week with votes in Canada, creditors of Bowater Canada Finance Corp. failed to approve the plan. Aurelius Capital Management and Contrarian Capital Management opposed the plan as noteholders of the special purpose subsidiary which has no operating assets. BCFC will be excluded from the Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S.

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.