Headlines

Telecommunications company Avaya Inc.’s bid to acquire bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp.’s business phone system unit for $915 million has come under fire again, with Canada’s industry minister vowing to scrutinize the proposed deal, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

Credit Suisse Group is trying to sell a $1 billion claim it holds against bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Hedge funds and private equity firms would be among the potential buyers for the Credit Suisse claim, which is tied to about 20,000 derivative contracts, Bloomberg reported. Banks and investors have been selling their claims on Lehman for increasingly higher prices in the last few months.

The Group of 20 nations is close to an agreement to improve global coordination of economic policies, a significant change to the world economy that would envision member countries monitoring each others' commitments, according to G-20 officials, The Wall Street Journal reported. Also, the G-20 nations' heads of state will announce on Friday that the G-20 will become the permanent council for international economic cooperation, eclipsing the Group of Eight, a senior U.S. administration official said.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and its unsecured creditors asked a bankruptcy judge on Thursday to unseal court documents related to an investigation of the sale of Lehman's core U.S. assets to Barclays PLC. Earlier this month, Lehman asked a judge to revisit the sale of Lehman's brokerage to Barclays Capital claiming that the British bank got an improper $8.2 billion "windfall profit" from excess assets it took control of in the September 2008 deal. About 50 pages of the request were redacted and not made public due to certain confidentiality agreements.

Iceland's financial regulator is investigating the country's collapsed banks over allegations they may have manipulated markets prior to the economic crash last year, newspaper Morgunbladid said on Thursday. Morgunbladid said that the Financial Supervisory Authority was investigating whether Kaupthing, Glitnir and Landsbanki systematically sought to boost their stock prices prior to their demise by sending misleading information to the market. The three banks collapsed under a mountain of debt in October 2008.

The Japanese government was not considering bankruptcy for loss-making Japan Airlines Corp, Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said on Thursday, adding he had not yet given the airline an answer to its plea for a public bail-out, Reuters reported. The new transport minister met JAL's CEO and the airline's lenders on Thursday to discuss how to rescue the airline, which has been hit hard by the global aviation downturn in the wake of the financial crisis. Speaking after the meetings, Maehara said the biggest problem for JAL was a lack of capital.

Ukraine’s state energy giant on Sept. 24 offered bondholders to swap its $500 million Eurobonds maturing next week for fresh sovereign-guaranteed bonds with a 9.5 per cent coupon and five-year maturity, the Kyiv Post reported. European officials and bankers are closely watching the talks, which are also seen as key to Naftogaz Ukraine's bigger plans – rolling over a total of $1.6 billion in external debts. The cash-strapped company plays a critical role in supplying Europe with Russian gas.

Moody's Investors Service, the New York-based financial rating agency, says the amount of unpaid Canadian credit card debt written off by issuers rose nearly 60 per cent to record levels in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, The Canadian Press reported. What's more, credit card delinquency rates - the number of accounts 30 days past due - rose 23 per cent in the April-June period versus last year.

Adair Turner, Britain’s chief financial regulator, is daring to ask the very question that many Britons are asking themselves: What good are banks if all they do is push money around and enrich themselves? The New York Times reported. As he sees it, the City takes too much from British society and gives back too little. It has grown too big and too powerful. And, he contends, the bankers have co-opted many of the regulators who watch over them. So Mr. Turner is proposing a few changes, none of which would make the bankers very happy. Tax financial transactions.

Canwest Global Communications Corp., Canada’s biggest media company, plans to sell its 50 percent stake in Australia’s Ten Network Holdings Ltd. for A$680 million ($592 million) to help pay off debt. Unprofitable Canwest, which owns Canada’s Global Television network and National Post newspaper, is ending a 17-year investment in Ten as it continues talks with lenders to restructure C$4 billion ($3.7 billion) of debt.