United States

Russian conglomerates Kaskol and RU-COM will increase their energy holdings by together acquiring Composite Technology Corp.'s assets out of its U.S. bankruptcy proceeding in a deal valued at more than $11 million, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The Russian companies' joint venture, called CTC Acquisition Corp., will pay $1 million in cash and take on the responsibility for at least $10.5 million of Composite Technology's liabilities, according to a purchase agreement filed Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana., Calif.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said it settled $20 billion of intercompany claims with liquidators for Lehman Hong Kong and won the affiliate’s support for its liquidation plan, Bloomberg reported. Details of the agreement, which is subject to court approval in the U.S. and Hong Kong, weren’t provided in Lehman’s statement today. Edward Middleton, a partner at KPMG China and one of the Hong Kong liquidators, said in the statement that the settlement will benefit creditors by speeding liquidations.

Bankruptcy work may have slowed for restructuring firms in the U.S., but London is calling. And so is Paris, Frankfurt and Reykjavik, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Read more.

Britain's Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed an appeal by units of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bank of New York Mellon, a win for investors in a high-stakes legal dispute involving complex derivatives transactions that has divided courts on both sides of the Atlantic, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The U.K.'s Supreme Court, the nation's highest, unanimously ruled in favor of investors represented by Australia's Belmont Park Investments PTY Ltd.

Vitro SAB won U.S. recognition of its ongoing Mexican restructuring proceeding, a decision that shields U.S. assets from debt collection attempts by angry creditors, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Judge Harlin D. Hale of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas signed off on the Mexican glass maker's Chapter 15 petition Thursday. Read more. (Subscription required.)

Vitro SAB bondholders say the Mexican glass maker lost something in translation of a Mexican court's recent ruling: a few key phrases that could weaken the company's position in a Texas bankruptcy court, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The bondholders said Vitro filed an inaccurate translation Wednesday of the ruling with the U.S. Bankruptcy in Dallas in an attempt to allow the company's general counsel and his assistant to serve as key representatives in U.S. courts.

The Canadian government ruled Tuesday its rules governing foreign investment don't apply in the $4.5 billion sale of patents belonging to Nortel Networks Corp, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a statement, Industry Minister Christian Paradis said the acquisition of 6,000 patents by a consortium primarily of giant foreign technology companies led by Apple Inc. and Sweden's Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson didn't trigger a government review because the book value of the assets was less than the C$312 million ($325 million) threshold established under Canadian law.

Tokio Marine Europe Insurance Ltd, a part of the Tokio Marine Group, said it filed a petition for protection from creditors under Chapter 15 in U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan, London South East reported on a Reuters story. The company, which underwrites commercial property, casualty and marine insurance, in a court filing on Monday listed assets of more than $100 million and liabilities of more than $100 million.

A court has delayed a hearing that will decide whether Blockbuster Canada can legally use the brand name as it goes through receivership, The Canadian Press reported. The hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday, but has been bumped to July 26 in a New York City court. The new owner of Blockbuster USA, which did not buy Blockbuster Canada, says it does not want the Canadian retailer to use the name. The receiver in charge of selling Blockbuster Canada has argued that stripping the chain of that right would "devastate" business.

German retailer Tengelmann expects to exit its holding in Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea (A&P) when the U.S. grocery store chain emerges from bankruptcy protection, Reuters reported. "We hope that A&P can be led out of its insolvency. But we do not believe that we will be significant shareholders after the process ends," Tengelmann Chief Executive Karl-Erivan Haub told reporters on Thursday. Tengelmann, which owns about 38 percent of A&P, said last year it expected the company to be combined with another retailer in the long term.