Nortel Networks’ chief executive Mike Zafirovski has told the Financial Times (FT) that the company hopes to complete its reorganisation plans and emerge from bankruptcy protection before mid-year. Zafirovski told the FT that the Canadian equipment maker – which earlier this week reiterated plans to become a viable business despite reporting a widened fourth-quarter loss of US$2.14 billion – aims to complete the reorganisation plan “over the next few weeks” before submitting it for approval to the board towards the end of this month. The Nortel chief executive said he hoped to put the business reorganisation plan before stakeholders – including creditors – next month, and to complete the process “by the end of April or May.” The FT notes that would clear the way for Nortel to seek the courts’ approval to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

The company has already announced the appointment of Pavi Binning as Chief Restructuring Officer, a position he will hold in addition to his existing role as CFO. Last week the vendor also announced a further 3,200 job losses. The new reductions, which will be carried out over the next several months, are in addition to the 1,800 reductions previously announced. Nortel had a cash balance of about US$2.4 billion when it sought court protection from its creditors in January (in the US, Canada and the UK), and carries about US$4.5 billion in long-term debt. Despite the vendor’s best efforts, analysts have speculated that a trimmed-down Nortel could end up lacking the scale to compete in a fiercely competitive network infrastructure market.