Headlines

Canadian telecommunications-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. disclosed a change in accounting would result in a noncash charge of over $2 billion in the fourth quarter, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The company said the charge is primarily related to the recognition of intercompany liabilities between the Canadian and U.S. units that previously were eliminated upon the consolidation of financial results. Nortel on Thursday said it determined the company's U.S.

A proposal to pay the holders of some €1.3 billion of Quinn Group debt a cash payment of up to €200 million, in lieu of guarantees over the assets of subsidiary companies of Quinn Insurance, was one of a series of recommendations put forward by the Quinn family in its discussions with Anglo Irish Bank on a possible joint takeover of the insurer, the Irish Times reported. The details of the Quinn family’s proposals for its proposed takeover of the company have emerged as the sale of Quinn Insurance reaches its final stages.

China went from scooping up the most Japanese debt in a year to selling the most, exiting the world’s lowest yields as forecasters expect the yen to retreat further from the 15-year high seen in November, Bloomberg reported. The country sold a net 81.3 billion yen ($979 million) of Japanese bonds in November, Japan’s Ministry of Finance said yesterday. China had been set for the biggest yearly increase since at least 2005 before unwinding with net sales in three of the four months through November.

Engineering company Siemens has provided funding to fulfil a wind turbine equipment order at a Scottish factory which went bankrupt last week, administrator Ernst & Young said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. 130 workers at the factory in Machrihanish on the west coast of Scotland -- owned by Danish wind power company Skykon -- will be able to return to work on Thursday to complete an order for 30 wind turbine towers destined for a 350-megawatt onshore wind farm in Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Germany is backing proposals to give new powers and lending capacity to the €440bn ($577bn) eurozone rescue fund, even if that means increasing its financial guarantees, according to people familiar with the issue in Berlin and Brussels, the Financial Times reported. Such a move would be part of a package of measures, including greater co-ordination of economic policymaking between the 17 eurozone members, that could be agreed by European Union heads of government at their next summit in February.

Harles and Jentzsch, a manufacturer accused of supplying dioxin-laced fat to the animal-feed industry in Germany, filed in court for insolvency on Wednesday, Monsters and Critics reported. The company, based in Uetersen, north-west of Hamburg, is under investigation by prosecutors and may also potentially face vast civil claims from 5,000 German farms that were idled during the dioxin scare that blew up last week. A spokeswoman for the state court in Itzehoe, Julia Gaertner, said the company had filed for protection from its creditors.

Indonesia's troubled budget-carrier PT Mandala Airlines will temporarily cease operations Thursday, while it plans to restructure its debt and seek strategic investors, the company said Wednesday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. "We will file a debt restructuring request to the Commercial Court tomorrow [Thursday]. This is the best step to safeguard Mandala's future," the airline's President Director Diono Nurjadin told a news conference. "We will cease operations temporarily so we can focus on debt restructuring and invite several potential investors," Nurjadin added.

Lazard was the world's top bank for bankruptcy and restructurings in 2010, as debt turmoil in the Middle East and a sovereign debt crisis increased the workload for advisors in Europe. Worldwide, the total value of completed deals was down 6.2 percent to $305 billion in 2010, as a vibrant U.S. high-yield bond market helped firms manage their debt burden, Thomson Reuters data released on Tuesday showed.

Receivers have been appointed to the $500 million Raine Square office/retail tower project in Perth, which was being jointly developed by rich list member Luke Saraceni and fellow property developer Hossean Pourzard, SmartCompany.com.au reported. Major lender Bankwest – which has also signed on as the 20-storey tower's major tenant – called in receivers Mark Korda and Cliff Rocke of insolvency firm Korda Mentha in conjunction with fellow lender Bank of Scotland.

As neighboring Portugal seems to move inexorably toward requesting a bailout, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero pledged to accelerate the cleanup of his country's opaque network of savings banks known as cajas, The Wall Street Journal reported. This means the cajas for the first time will disclose the extent of their exposure to troubled real-estate and construction loans, a move that could trigger injections of government funds into some of the banks. The cleanup effort is part of Spain's attempt to convince investors it isn't another Portugal or Ireland.