United States

Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., a key contributor to AbitibiBowater Inc.'s proposed $500 million bankruptcy-exit financing package, refused to move forward with the deal after a bankruptcy judge said the company couldn't grant the investor immunity from a possible legal challenge, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Fairfax and two other AbitibiBowater bondholders that were to backstop a debt offering walked away from the deal this weekend, causing the newsprint maker to scramble for other options, said company attorney Kelley A.

A bankruptcy judge on Friday refused to approve a $500 million financing deal for AbitibiBowater Inc. as long as that deal grants key investor Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. immunity from a possible legal challenge, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Judge Kevin J. Carey of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., said he would approve the financing deal, which AbitibiBowater claims is essential to its effort to raise more than $1 billion to fund it emergence from Chapter 11, if the company dropped the Fairfax release.

Movie Gallery Inc. said Wednesday that its Canadian subsidiary has begun liquidating all 181 of its video rental stores, including 50 stores that were potentially up for sale but no longer are, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported on an Associated Press story. Net proceeds from the sale of inventory worth an estimated 48 million Canadian dollars ($47 million) will be used to fund a proposal by the company to pay its Canadian creditors, including landlords and employees, Movie Gallery said. The Canadian unit, Movie Gallery Canada Inc., is not in bankruptcy proceedings.

General Motors Co.'s European division said Wednesday it has decided to withdraw all applications for state aid in the region and finance the planned turnaround with a further €1.4 billion of funds from its parent, marking a broad strategic shift after the German government last week refused to provide aid to the U.S. auto maker, Dow Jones reported.

Deutsche Bank is deeply involved in the American real estate crisis. After initially profiting from subprime mortgages, it is now arranging to have many of these homes sold at foreclosure auctions. The damage to the bank's image in the United States is growing, Spiegel Online reported in an analysis. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Deutsche Bank now holds loans for American single-family and multi-family houses worth about $3.7 billion (€3.1 billion). The bank, however, claims that much of this debt consists of loans to wealthy private customers.

Japan's Nomura Holdings Inc. is objecting to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s attempt to consolidate legal action against Nomura's affiliates in three countries as the two investment banks battle over more than $1 billion of claims related to derivatives contracts, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In papers filed Wednesday with the U.S.

More than 40 U.S. lawmakers called today for BP Plc to suspend its dividend, stop its advertising and spend the money instead cleaning up its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. “Not a single cent” should be spent on television ads, said Representative Lois Capps, a California Democrat, at a news conference in Washington.

Germany said it wouldn't provide General Motors Co. loan guarantees of more than €1 billion, or $1.19 billion, to help restructure its troubled Adam Opel GmbH unit, but Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to leave the door open for some form of aid, saying "the last word has not been spoken," The Wall Street Journal reported.

Two noteholders are protesting AbitibiBowater Inc.'s bid to hold a rights offering, saying the move is unnecessary and could actually be detrimental to the newsprint manufacturer and its creditors, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Aurelius Capital Management and Contrarian Capital Management LLC - as well as Wilmington Trust Co., which serves as the indenture trustee of the notes - are objecting to the company's request to auction off the rights to fund its exit from bankruptcy. In papers filed Monday with the U.S.

Germany's Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle on Sunday ruled out any "special treatment" for General Motors' unit Opel, which is seeking state aid in exchange for keeping thousands of jobs in the country, Agence France-Presse reported.