North America

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. continued its court battle Monday to claw back billions of dollars in assets from Barclays Plc, as two witnesses testified that the British bank wasn't supposed to see an immediate gain when it bought Lehman's core U.S. operation in 2008, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. A member of Lehman's board of directors and its former president testified that the deal hammered out following Lehman's historic bankruptcy filing called for Barclays to acquire a pool of assets and an equivalent amount of liabilities when it bought Lehman's broker-dealer unit.

A bankruptcy court judge on Friday approved Lyondell Chemical Co's plan to exit bankruptcy, signaling the near-end of a 15-month process during which the chemical maker fended off a takeover and settled hundreds of environmental claims and a creditor lawsuit, Reuters reported. Judge Robert Gerber gave his assent to a plan in which Apollo Management, Ares Management and Access Industries will provide financing. Lyondell filed for bankruptcy in January of 2009 under the weight of about $24 billion in debt.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy estate sued three arms of Japanese investment bank Nomura Holdings Inc. in an attempt to wipe out more than $1 billion of claims related to derivatives contracts, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Lehman filed legal complaints Friday against Nomura International PLC in London, Nomura Global Financial Products in New York and Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. in Tokyo, seeking to invalidate large claims the companies made against the investment bank after it had filed for bankruptcy. In each complaint, filed in the U.S.

Goldman Sachs is considering a takeover of the remains of insolvent German department store chain Karstadt if no other investor emerges, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. Goldman Sachs as well as Deutsche Bank are part of the Highstreet consortium, which owns about two-thirds of Karstadt's store space. "Is increasingly looking like Highstreet is keeping this option open as a last resort," one of the sources said on Wednesday. Goldman would look for a co-investor if it decided to bid for Karstadt, another source said.

Swedish network equipment vendor L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. has purchased Nortel Networks Corp.'s controlling stake in a South Korean joint venture for $242 million in cash, a move that should help boost its footprint in the Asian country, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Ericsson said Wednesday that it has bought Nortel's 50% plus one share stake in its joint venture with LG Electronics Inc., LG-Nortel. LG-Nortel will be renamed LG-Ericsson and will continue to have its headquarters in Seoul.

Davie Yards Inc. has halted work on the first and most advanced of five offshore oil supply ships ordered by international customers, and on Monday a further 100 workers will be laid off at its Lévis facilities opposite Quebec City, The Montreal Gazette reported. Davie was given protection from creditors under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act on Feb. 24 after it ran out of cash and began a second restructuring program. It said almost 1,600 employees would be laid off, leaving about 160 working to complete the first vessel and on engineering and planning.

An Alberta judge has appointed a receiver over the companies and assets of Gary Sorenson, who is charged in an alleged fraud that has ballooned to as much as $500-million, making it the country's largest alleged Ponzi scheme, the National Post reported. The justice found that Mr. Sorenson's businesses, known as the Merendon companies, which are located in Central and South America, have received more than $50-million from companies run by his alleged co-conspirator in the Ponzi scheme, Milowe Brost. "None of the companies has accounted for any of the monies received.

Skyservice had survived recessions and dips in travel demand before, The Globe and Mail reported. This past winter marked its eighth year of serving tour operator Signature Vacations and the 15th year of flying on behalf of Sunquest Vacations, which is owned by Thomas Cook Canada Inc. And Skyservice appeared to have had access to a steady stream of revenue from its two major customers until the fall of 2012, court files show. But this time was different. In January, Signature completed its merger with Sunwing Travel Group, which operates its own fleet of planes.

Wilbur Ross, the billionaire US turnaround specialist, has bought a 21 per cent stake in Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Money for £100 million as the group prepares to make a major assault on the UK banking market, The Scotsman reported. Ross, nicknamed the "King of Bankruptcy", is also prepared to pump in "hundreds of millions" more to fund acquisitions, including Virgin's £2 billion bid for 318 Royal Bank of Scotland branches. Virgin will join Clydesdale Bank owner National Australia Bank and Santander in submitting a bid for the RBS assets ahead of tomorrow's deadline.

Defense attorneys want a federal judge to throw out a $24 billion predatory lending lawsuit filed against Credit Suisse Group by investors in broke resorts in the West and the Bahamas, The Associated Press reported. The investors contend Credit Suisse set up a branch in the Cayman Islands to skirt U.S. rules and appraised the resorts at inflated prices as part of a scheme to later foreclose on the properties. In court documents filed Monday, attorneys for Credit Suisse said the legal action was based on absurd claims by people who never borrowed money from the bank.