North America

In the end, the billion-dollar auction of Canada’s largest newspaper chain wasn’t even close. Torstar Corp. and its deep-pocketed financial backer, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. -- once thought to be the favourites to buy the 46 papers that made up the CanWest Global Communications Corp. media empire -- instead placed a distant second in the bidding, The Globe and Mail reported. The winning offer this week came from a group of unsecured creditors who trumped Torstar and Fairfax’s $800-million offer by $300-million. The $1.1-billion bid came from a consortium that includes U.S.

A committee overseeing the remains of Icelandic lender Glitnir Banki Hf has sued several former bank officials and affiliated investors in the United States to recover more than $2 billion, Reuters reported.

Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. has succeeded in its quest to raise GBP105 million ($156 million) to stave off a bank foreclosure on EMI Group, people familiar with the situation said, giving the private-equity firm leverage in its battle with lender Citigroup Inc. over the fate of the legendary music company, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. EMI has until Friday to inform Citi that it has come up with the cash necessary to stave off default in mid-June.

Transurban Group said Monday that its Canadian pension fund shareholders are considering whether or not to lodge a revised takeover bid for Lane Cove Tunnel after it agreed to pay 630.5 million Australian dollars (US$569.4 million) for the tollroad operator, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Workers at newsprint maker AbitibiBowater have ratified a new collective agreement that includes cost reductions for the company, but protects pensions for retirees and workers, Reuters reported. The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) said on Monday that the new agreement will remain effective until 2014. AbitibiBowater, headquartered in Montreal but incorporated in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2009 after crumpling under a heavy debt load. Last week, the company filed what it called a "framework" for a plan of reorganization.

Paul Godfrey, a veteran media executive with a salesman’s touch, has been given the biggest turnaround assignment of his business career: taking charge of Canada’s largest newspaper chain after a group of investors won the bidding for it, The Globe and Mail reported. The 46 publications, including the National Post, once formed a major piece of the now-crumbling CanWest Global Communications Corp. media empire and were sold Monday to unsecured lenders for $1.1-billion. The deal wraps up an auction process that began when the newspaper unit filed for creditor protection in January.

Computer chip maker Qimonda North America Corp. is suing its German parent in Delaware bankruptcy court over the parent's bid to recoup more than $1.5 billion in intercompany debts from its North American affiliates, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Qimonda North America said that its corporate parent, Qimonda AG, stripped its North American unit of cash and assets in exchange of "near worthless" notes while loading up its struggling Virginia-based subsidiary with hundreds of millions of dollars in loans it knew it wouldn't repay.

The financially-troubled surgical clinic at the centre of a bankruptcy battle says Alberta Health Services abruptly pulled back from an agreement promising it nearly triple the number of surgeries usually provided, according to court documents, The Calgary Herald reported.

Barclays Plc, in the midst of a bitter fight with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. over claims it received a secret multibillion dollar windfall when it purchased some of the investment bank's assets, is suing a group of Lehman's former private-equity real-estate funds now controlled by a real-estate investment firm, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Lehman's bankruptcy case, Barclays says PCCP Mezzanine Recovery Partners II owes its wealth management business $16 million in unpaid management fees.

When big investors saw Greece falling into deep financial trouble this year, some of them turned to a familiar ally to profit from the nation's fiscal crunch: the credit default swap, The Globe and Mail reported. The swaps, often called CDS for short, are financial instruments that allow investors to place money on the risk that a company or country won't be able to pay its debts. Nowadays, they can place such bet against nearly every country, from economic powerhouses like Germany and the U.S. to those of marginal economic significance, such as El Salvador and Guatemala.