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Nortel Cleared to End Bankruptcy, Distribute $7 Billion to Creditors

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Judges in Delaware and Canada yesterday approved a plan to pay more than $7 billion to creditors of Nortel Networks, ending years of litigation over the former telecommunications company that filed for bankruptcy in 2009, Reuters reported. The rulings by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross in Wilmington, Delaware and Frank Newbould of the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto ends one of the longest and most expensive chapter 11 cases, marked by battles over funds raised by the company's liquidation. The coordinated ruling yesterday will allow repayment of vendors, retirees in Canada, government agencies and investment funds later this year.

ABN Amro Queries Cocoa Supplier over “Missing” $313 Million

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ABN Amro wants to know what became of more than $300 million which it claims was collateral that the bankrupt U.S. unit of cocoa supplier Transmar Group may have moved to a European affiliate, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The Dutch bank asked a federal judge in Manhattan for permission “to investigate the facts and circumstances surrounding the apparent disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars in collateral and other property” from the estate of Transmar Commodity Group Ltd., which filed for bankruptcy in New York on the last day of 2016. ABN Amro, which is an agent for a lender group on the $400 million Transmar Commodity credit facility, said in a Jan. 17 court filing that about $313 million in asset value vanished from the company’s books sometime after the end of October. The bank said that some of the assets may have been transferred to Transmar affiliate Euromar Commodities GmbH. Euromar, which owns a cocoa-processing factory in Fehrbellin, Germany, began its own insolvency proceedings in the country in early December. The processor was partly felled by the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union, which weakened the pound and drove up prices for London cocoa futures. 

Sale of Container Terminal Takes Center Stage in Hanjin Bankruptcy

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The sale of the operator of a Long Beach, Calif., container terminal has provoked stiff opposition from Hanjin Shipping Co.’s U.S. creditors, many of whom say the deal is designed to bypass them, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Hanjin has asked Bankruptcy Judge John Sherwood to sign off on a proposed $78 million sale of the business, overruling creditors that have fought the deal and aim to keep as many of the shipper’s assets in the U.S. as possible. Some U.S. creditors — including container lessors, insurance providers and the Port of Seattle — say that the terms of the sale and Hanjin’s plans to direct any proceeds to South Korea could leave them empty-handed and without recourse to fully enforce their rights. During a U.S. court hearing on the sale that began on Thursday, lawyers for Hanjin described the Long Beach terminal business as a “melting ice cube” that had to be sold quickly to preserve Hanjin’s ability to extract any value from the asset. The Seoul Central District Court, which is the primary authority overseeing Hanjin’s bankruptcy, has already approved the sale.