Chemtura Corp. has struck a deal to sell its stake in a Dutch joint venture that will pay the chemical company $5 million and allow it to unload $14.25 million in environmental and pension liabilities, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In papers filed Wednesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., Chemtura said the deal will allow it divest a petroleum-additive business that contributes little to its bottom line but exposes it to potentially expensive obligations. The sale to Sonneborn B.V.

Secured lenders owed $357 million and an assortment of creditors say AbitibiBowater Inc. owes them a better explanation of its bankruptcy-exit proposal, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Term lenders said the newsprint producer is unfairly capping what they can recover, while depriving them of the right to vote on its Chapter 11 plan. The plan promises payment in full to secured lenders, including the term lenders, and lists them as "unimpaired," meaning AbitibiBowater doesn't need to poll them.

Nortel Networks Corp. has complained to a U.S. bankruptcy court that Avaya Inc. is balking at handing over $22 million of the agreed $900 million purchase price for Nortel's enterprise business, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. As it musters cash to pay creditors, Nortel says, it needs a court order to force Avaya to turn over the money, which it says is being withheld in violation of the sale agreement.

The Financial Stability Board on Sunday urged leaders of the world's 20 largest developed and emerging nations to support the introduction of stricter capital rules to help banks withstand possible future crises, Dow Jones reported. The statement, made in a letter to the Group of 20, comes amid a tussle involving governments, banks and regulators on the scope of the new rules and the timing of their implementation.

No company has the ability to pay unlimited claims, even one that earned $16.6 billion last year and more than $20 billion annually in the prior four years. At the same time, no one has any idea how big BP’s damages will be, Bloomberg reported in a commentary. That hasn’t stopped Wall Street analysts from churning out estimates that move up in lockstep with the number of barrels thought to be leaking from the collapsed well each day. How many companies are willing to face unlimited civil claims, the prospect of criminal prosecution and daily excoriation by the U.S.

AbitibiBowater Inc. is seeking to pay fees to banks that will assist it in lining up more than $2.3 billion in capital that the newsprint maker says is necessary for it to emerge from Chapter 11 protection, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In papers filed Wednesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., AbitibiBowater said lining up the necessary financing is "critical" as it prepares to seek permission to send its bankruptcy-exit plan to creditors on July 7 and emerge from Chapter 11 this fall.

Shaw Communications Inc on Wednesday won court approval for its C$2 billion purchase of Canwest Global's broadcast arm after it agreed to provide C$11 million to shareholders who had complained of being shut out of the deal, Reuters reported. The amended agreement, approved by Ontario Superior Court Judge Sarah Peppal, followed last-ditch negotiations that began early Tuesday and ran late into the night before resuming on Wednesday.

A legal dispute over Shaw Communications Inc's takeover of Canwest Global Communications' broadcast assets that shareholders say leaves them empty-handed continued into the evening on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The two sides hope to hammer out a deal that can be finalized in a hearing on Wednesday, David Byers, a lawyer for the court-appointed monitor for the CanWest bankruptcy and sale, told Toronto Superior Court on Tuesday. Shaw was in court to get approval for its purchase of Canwest's bankrupt TV assets.

The chief executive of General Motors Co.'s Adam Opel GmbH division, Nick Reilly, said he wants to complete almost all of the planned restructuring measures by the end of this year in a bid to turn around the business as soon as possible, Dow Jones reported. Thanks to the revamped Meriva and Astra models, Opel's market share in the second half of the year is expected to rise to slightly more than 9% from currently just under 9%, Reilly said.

Nortel Networks Corp. has moved to shut off health care to retirees and payments to disabled employees in the U.S. as it prepares to distribute $2.8 billion in cash and deal with patents that could be worth another $1 billion, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Papers filed recently in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court say the former telecommunications equipment giant wants to end health care and life insurance benefits on Aug. 31 for more than 4,000 retired people or their dependents, and cut off long-term disability payments to another 280 people.