United Kingdom

A U.S. federal magistrate has shielded Nortel Networks Corp. from action by U.K. pension regulators who fear the troubled company will walk away from obligations to 40,000 retirees, leaving a $3.4 billion funding shortfall, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Recommendations issued Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge relieve the company of worry that the U.K.'s Pension Regulator will intrude as Nortel negotiates a bankruptcy exit plan, at least until a federal district judge reviews and acts on Thynge's recommendations.

The new Northern Rock Plc retail bank, born from the ashes of the original lender which was Britain's first major credit crisis casualty, posted a maiden loss on Tuesday and saw deposits plunge by a tenth, Reuters reported. State-owned Northern Rock Plc, which manages new mortgages and savings, posted a loss of 140 million pounds ($216.5 million) for the six months ending June, due partly to costs for its spin-off from the original company.

A U.K. Court of Appeal ruled in favor of hedge funds that maintained their client money, held in the main European arm of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., wasn't properly protected when the investment bank collapsed, The Wall Street Journal reported. The development is the latest aspect of the complex effort to return cash and other assets to Lehman's clients after the bank failed in September 2008. Lehman's bankruptcy, with more than $600 billion in total assets, ranks as the largest U.S. corporate failure.

Britain announced plans to scrap the fixed retirement age next year, saying it wanted to give people the chance to work beyond 65, but business leaders warned the move would create serious problems, The Washington Post reported on a Reuters story. Currently, employers can force staff to retire at the age of 65 regardless of their circumstances and without having to pay any financial compensation. Under the government's consultation proposals, the default retirement age (DRA) would begin to be phased out from April 2011 and come to an end by October next year.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is set to write off up to £15m in the wake of the break-up and sale of Halliwells, it has emerged, LegalWeek.com reported. RBS, which was owed substantial sums in corporate debt and partner loans from Halliwells, recovered just over £7m from the sales, with Barlow Lyde & Gilbert and HBJ Gateley Wareing - which took the largest teams - paying £2.5m and £2.55m respectively. Hill Dickinson paid £1.88m, while Kennedys paid £125,000 for the Sheffield office.

Four Seasons Health Care has extended the deadline for holders of GBP600 million of bonds, backed by a loan to the U.K. nursing-homes operator, to approve a lockup agreement, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Noteholders now have until July 30 to sign the agreement, which would prevent them from selling their debt in return for a consent fee of 60 basis points, according to a regulatory notice released Friday.

George Osborne and Vince Cable will spell out next week the dangers of a double-dip recession caused by a drying up of bank lending to Britain's hard-pressed small and medium-sized businesses, The Guardian reported. A green paper, to be rushed out by the chancellor and business secretary before next week's parliamentary recess, will acknowledge the scale of the lending rationing crisis, which could "abort" the fragile recovery.

HBJ Gateley Wareing's partnership has approved the firm's purchase of Halliwells' Manchester commercial practice, LegalWeek.com reported. The acquisition was confirmed by a partnership vote held last Friday. The Halliwells commercial practice covers employment, intellectual property, construction, corporate, pensions and corporate recovery, and accounts for more than 300 members of staff.

B3 Cable Solutions is to close after the firm's receivers, Deloitte, failed to secure a new owner for the company. The Longford firm which manufactures copper-based cable has been based in Aghafad for three decades and employed approximately 100 full and part-time staff. The firm had traded in a challenging environment in recent years and was placed into receivership earlier this month by its English owners, the Manchester-based B3 Cable Solutions. Deloitte’s had been engaged in an extensive process to sell the business and assets of the company as a going concern.

The future of BP PLC has shifted in recent days from a death-watch discussion to a debate about how valuable the British oil giant will be after it finishes paying for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, the Associated Press reported. BP gained temporary control of its broken well in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday and is counting on shutting it off permanently within weeks. Its shares have regained more than a quarter of the value lost in the wake of the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.