The sell-off in global markets has accelerated amid fears that the eurozone debt crisis would worsen and that China’s recovery is faltering, the Financial Times reported. From Hong Kong to New York, there was mounting concern that the €110bn international rescue package for Greece would not prevent the crisis spreading from Athens to other highly indebted eurozone nations. The euro dropped to a one-year low against the dollar, European shares plumbed two-month lows and the bond markets of weaker eurozone economies fell as rattled investors sold risky assets.

Barclays Plc had “a right to walk away” from a 2008 deal to buy bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s brokerage unit and would have if certain assets had been left out, the U.K. bank’s top in-house lawyer said, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. “That was clearly in Barclays’s mind at that point in time,” Jonathan Hughes, Barclays’s global general counsel, told a bankruptcy judge in New York today, referring to the bank’s discovery during the negotiations that Lehman couldn’t deliver all the promised assets.

Frankfurt-based aluminum company Almatis Group Friday put its operations in the U.S., Germany and the Netherlands in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure the company's $1 billion debt load, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In court papers filed Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Almatis said the proposed restructuring would slash its debt by more than $600 million to $414.6 million. The company has already filed a reorganization plan, which has the support of more than two-thirds of the holders of Almatis's first-lien debt.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. pressed its case Thursday that former executives of the firm were conflicted as they worked on closing a deal to sell its assets to Barclays Plc in 2008, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Lehman, which is fighting to recover billions of dollars from Barclays, has claimed top executives working on the sale had conflicted loyalties because they were negotiating new employment contracts with Barclays when they were supposed to be acting on Lehman's behalf.

Dubai International Capital Wednesday sent a letter to senior lenders of German aluminum company Almatis, urging them to vote against a restructuring plan from distressed-debt investor Oaktree Capital, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The letter comes on the eve of Almatis' management filing to place the company in U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings as part of Oaktree's restructuring plan to more than halve Almatis' $1 billion debt to around $422 million.

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.

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.