First Brands, Creditors Start Mediation Over Who Is Owed What

First Brands Groupand its main creditors will start confidential mediation sessions to potentially resolve a series of business-crippling disputes that have left the auto-parts maker weeks away from a shutdown that would throw 13,000 people out of work.

The bankrupt company, senior lenders and a committee of unsecured creditors will work with US Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur in Houston over the next two weeks to decide whose debt is backed by collateral, which assets are really owned by third-party financiers and how to keep First Brands alive long enough to sell its factories and other operations.

The mediation sessions ...