%1

Hibu Inc., the publisher of “Yellowbook” phone directories in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy court protection to aid the U.K. restructuring that began this month, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company, based in Reading, England, owes creditors more than $1 billion, according to a chapter 15 filing that seeks to block lawsuits and organize creditors in the U.S. Hibu, which also prints yellow pages in the U.K. and Spain, began reorganizing in U.K. courts on Jan. 17 after earnings fell on competition from the Internet. Before court proceedings began, Hibu negotiated a restructuring in July that would reduce its debt by 800 million pounds ($1.3 billion) while giving lenders control of the company, formerly known as Yell. The case is In re Hibu Inc., 14-bk-70323, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of New York (Central Islip).

The prospect of a game-changing alliance between Nortel Networks Corp.'s U.S. division and European creditors of the defunct telecommunications company has Canadian creditors worried, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Nortel U.S. and Nortel's European creditors, led by British pensioners, recently reached a partial peace over claims the Europeans had filed in the chapter 11 proceeding. The U.S. claims settlement pact includes an agreement to work toward presenting a common front in May, when Nortel's various national divisions are scheduled to fight over $7.5 billion raised in the company's liquidation. Until the agreement was reached on the U.S. claims, Nortel U.S. and the company's European creditor representatives were at odds over everything from how the cash fight should be decided — by arbitration or at trial — to how long it will take to attain finality — months or years. Now both sides say they will look for common ground and hope to hasten the day when Nortel will be able to hand out its billions to creditors around the world.

China's Suntech Power Holdings Co. and a group of bondholders will have to wait a little longer before a court showdown over an involuntary bankruptcy petition filed in U.S. federal court against the solar panel maker, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Stewart M. Bernstein said that he would push back a hearing to consider Suntech's bid to dismiss the involuntary bankruptcy petition to Jan. 23 from Jan. 7.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge yesterday granted the former Anglo Irish Bank Corp. shelter for its U.S. assets, overruling protests from unhappy creditors who allege they were victimized by a rogue institution, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi said that he would grant a bid for chapter 15 bankruptcy recognition from KPMG's Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson, the officials in charge of running the Irish liquidation of the failed bank. Yesterday's decision in the bankruptcy of the liquidation vehicle that contains the remnants of Anglo Irish means that the U.S. court recognizes the validity of a special liquidation process created by Irish lawmakers to get the country out from under the cloud of the bank's collapse. Loans remaining in the portfolio are being sold, through a special vehicle, Irish Bank Resolution Corp., which also includes the remains of another failed Irish institution. Irish property developer John Flynn and other commercial real estate borrowers attempted to block the grant of U.S. bankruptcy protection to Irish Bank Resolution Corp.

Creditors of a defunct company that once ran a string of Getty gas stations have sued the men who bought the company for $1 from OAO Lukoil Holdings, accusing them of siphoning more than $6 million out of the "grossly insolvent" operation in less than a year, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Creditors are suing to reclaim the cash under laws that ban outsize payments to insiders by companies that are unable to pay their bills. Aaserod, who is generally described in news accounts as a Norwegian-born businessman and a financier, and his long-time business ally Karro, "purchased" the operations of Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. from Russia's Lukoil in March 2011.

A Brazilian judge yesterday accepted a request for bankruptcy protection from former billionaire Eike Batista's oil company, OGX, but denied the same protection for two small foreign subsidiaries in a potential setback for the company, Reuters reported today. Rio de Janeiro Judge Gilberto Matos granted bankruptcy protection for the company's Brazil-based units OGX Petróleo e Gás SA and OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações SA. OGX sought court protection from creditors on Oct. 30 after it failed to convince them to refinance more than $5.1 billion in obligations, in Latin America's largest-ever corporate bankruptcy filing. OGX has two foreign subsidiaries, OGX Internacional and OGX Austria. The judge denied the request for those units on grounds bankruptcy protection should be decided in the countries where they are based, according to a copy of the judge's decision.

Creditors of the main unit of Chinese solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. today approved a plan to restructure its $1.75 billion debts with proceeds from acquirer Hong Kong-listed Shunfeng Photovoltaic International Ltd., Reuters reported today. Shunfeng announced this month it had agreed to take over indebted Wuxi Suntech Power Co. Ltd. for 3 billion yuan ($493 million), pending approvals from various parties including its own shareholders and Wuxi Suntech's creditors on the debt restructuring. Shunfeng has said that it would use the proceeds to pay down Wuxi Suntech's debts. Creditors, including representatives from Chinese banks as well as domestic and foreign suppliers, backed the debt restructuring plan.

Brazilian shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, becoming the second company controlled by former billionaire Eike Batista to seek court protection from creditors in just over a week, Reuters reported yesterday. The move follows a decision by the OSX board on Friday to pursue bankruptcy proceedings. The petition was made to the same court in Rio de Janeiro where Batista's oil company OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações SA sought protection from creditors on Oct. 30. That case, citing 11.2 billion reais in debt ($4.8 billion), was Latin America's largest bankruptcy filing. OGX is the shipbuilder's only big customer and filing the OSX petition at the same court in effect asks the judge to consider the two cases together.

Chinese solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co. is fighting to dismiss the involuntary bankruptcy petition filed against it in U.S. federal court, arguing that the move from a handful of disgruntled bondholders threatens negotiations meant to help repay them, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In court papers filed on Wednesday, Suntech officials said that the involuntary chapter 7 bankruptcy, which was filed by several U.S. bondholders on Oct. 14, is complicating talks that could lead an investment firm backed by a local government in China to invest $150 million in Suntech.

China's Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd., once the world's largest maker of solar panels, filed for provisional liquidation, signaling that it may go out of business after years of steep declines in panel prices, Reuters reported yesterday. Suntech filed for provisional liquidation in the Cayman Islands, where it is incorporated. Suntech also said it would consider pursuing a chapter 15 filing in the U.S. that would allow U.S. courts to recognize a foreign bankruptcy as the main proceeding and block creditors from seizing U.S. assets. A group of Suntech creditors in the U.S. filed a chapter 7 involuntary bankruptcy petition against the company in October. Suntech has said that it will contest the attempt to wind up the company.