Restructuring

U.S. companies will continue defaulting near their current low rates barring a major crisis overseas, a bankruptcy expert said in his 13th annual address to restructuring professionals on Monday.

In his annual speech put on by the New York chapter of the Turnaround Management Association, New York University professor Edward I. Altman said he expects only a 2.03% default rate for U.S. corporate bonds in 2014, but an implosion in another country could change that number dramatically.

Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charlie Ergen is again fighting with a group of hedge funds that hold LightSquared’s bank debt, this time over which side should be providing a short-term bankruptcy loan to keep LightSquared afloat. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review article via The Wall Street Journal.

The team winding down the remnants of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has reached a far-ranging settlement resolving Fannie Mae’s $18.9 billion claim stemming from mortgage loans and mortgage-backed securities the failed investment bank sold to Fannie Mae before the financial crisis.

The publisher of Fredericksburg, Va., newspaper the Free Lance-Star filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday.

Fittingly, the newspaper itself was the first to report the news of Free Lance-Star Publishing Co.’s bankruptcy, which was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Va.

A Fortress Investment Group LLC affiliate won the bidding at Tuesday’s auction of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd., which was involved in a deadly crash this past summer. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review article via The Wall Street Journal.