Headlines

Former Bridgecorp chief Rod Petricevic's insolvency hearing has been delayed today, The National Business Review reported. Lawyer for the official assignee Charles Jones appeared in the High Court in Auckland this morning to ask for an a adjournment in “the setting aside of transactions between him and his trust.” Associate Judge Hannah Sargisson adjourned proceedings until November 3. Read more.

Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev Wednesday said it will sell its theme parks business to private-equity firm Blackstone Group for up to $2.7 billion, Dow Jones reported. The deal will help AB InBev pay down the $45 billion in debt it took on to buy Anheuser Busch last year and is a sign that banks are prepared to finance risky takeovers.

Australian assembler and distributor, TodayTech, has gone into voluntary administration three months after losing a direct supplier relationship with key vendor partner, Intel. Rob Whitton of William Buck Chartered Accountants was appointed administrator by TodayTech’s directors. He said the business was likely to close in the next week, ARN reported. Headquartered in Sydney, TodayTech also maintains offices across Australia and has about 30 employees. Read more.

Hundreds of Nortel’s retired, long-term disabled and former employees gathered at Queen’s Park yesterday, metronews.ca reported. They demanded that the provincial government step in to secure their rights to full and protected pensions, severance pay and benefits during the veritable yard sale of Nortel’s global assets after the company entered creditor protection earlier this year.

Canwest Global Communications Corp. was granted court protection Tuesday morning from creditors for the National Post newspaper and Global Television as it attempts to restructure its debt, The Toronto Star reported. The Winnipeg-based broadcaster and publisher said its voluntarily filing under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act would give it four to six months of "stability" as it reorganizes. The filing does not include the specialty TV channels Canwest bought from Alliance Atlantis in 2007, or its other daily newspapers and websites.

Canwest Global Communications Corp. is about to embark on a lengthy restructuring process after filing for creditor protection Tuesday, but there are numerous possibilities for its various divisions and $4 billion in debt, The Canadian Press reported. The most prized asset under the Canwest umbrella is also one that, so far, hasn't filed for creditor protection - the 13 specialty TV channels acquired in 2007 from Alliance Atlantis in a partnership deal with Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs worth $2.3 billion.

Investors may give serious consideration to financing a buyout of Canwest's chain of daily newspapers -- but only if presented with a new business model to address the industry's chronic ailments, Reuters reported.

Leading legal firm Minter Ellison is facing pressure over its role in a botched takeover bid and capital raising that almost destroyed a biotech company chaired by one-time health minister Michael Wooldridge, The Australian reported. As Dia-B Tech's main creditor, Trafalgar Capital, this week seized control of the cash-strapped company, its newly installed board indicated substantial fees owed to the legal firm would be disputed.

Networks provider Ciena Corp. is preparing to place a "stalking horse bid" for Nortel Networks' Metro Ethernet Networks unit. Ciena said it is in "advanced discussions" to acquire the assets, InformationWeek reported. Nortel's previous stalking horse bids have been marked by initial bids being trumped by later, higher bids for the bankrupt firm's various units. In a brief statement, Ciena said its negotiations cover "substantially all of the optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets" of Nortel's Metro Ethernet Networks business.

Iceland, the U.K. and the Netherlands are closer to agreeing to loan terms for Iceland to repay the massive losses by foreign depositors in the collapsed Icesave Internet bank, said Iceland Finance Minister Steingrímur Sigfússon, The Wall Street Journal reported. "I feel there is a real will now to move ahead," said Mr. Sigfússon, after what he described as good meetings on the issue with his British and Dutch counterparts at the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting in Istanbul. He said the situation in the U.K.