Ten things you may have missed Wednesday from the world of business

BLOOMBERG NEWS

NEW YORK — A trustee recovering money for thousands of victims of Bernard Madoff’s epic Ponzi scheme has asked a New York court to let him distribute another $1.2 billion. Irving Picard asked the US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Wednesday to approve the allocation. A hearing is scheduled for May. The distribution would raise the amount recovered and returned to investors to nearly $8.2 billion and leave more than 55 percent of allowable claims fully satisfied. The payouts to individual investors would range from $1,082 to $168 million, with an average payout of $855,000. Picard has recovered or reached agreements to recover about $10.5 billion.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A new report points to a silver lining in February’s historic snowfall that wreaked havoc on businesses throughout the Boston area: an increased demand for hotel rooms. Hotels in Greater Boston operated at a 66.4 percent occupancy rate in February, a gain of almost 6 percentage points from the same month in 2014, according to a monthly report from PKF Consulting USA, a national firm with an office in Boston. Revenue per available room jumped 14 percent to $105.51, and average daily rates climbed 4.1 percent to $158.98. PKF said occupancy in Greater Boston reached its highest level for the month since 2007. Revenues for the month have not topped 2015 sales since 2008. PKF said suburban hotel occupancy rates grew more significantly than Boston proper because of snow removers, insurance adjusters, and displaced families who needed overnight lodging.

TARYN LUNA

ATHENS — The Standard & Poor’s rating agency downgraded Greece’s credit grade further into junk status Wednesday, saying the country’s financial commitments would be unsustainable without ‘‘deep economic reform or further relief.’’ The agency downgraded Greece to CCC+ from B-, with a negative outlook ‘‘given the risk of further worsening in liquidity for the sovereign, the banks, and the economy.’’ Greece is in talks with its European creditor states to get the latest loan installment from its bailout program. But the creditors want to see a list of economic reforms first.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

INDIANAPOLIS — Angie’s List says longtime CEO William S. Oesterle will step down to pursue other interests, including becoming more civically involved in the consumer review site’s home state of Indiana. Oesterle will remain CEO until his successor is selected and plans to serve out the remainder of his term on the company’s board. The executive cofounded Angie’s List in 1995 and has served as CEO since 1999. Oesterle managed former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels’s political campaign and was outspoken during a recent, high-profile debate over a state religious objections law that had sparked criticism that it would allow discrimination against gay people.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Paul Guzzi, the longtime head of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, will chair the Wang Theatre’s board of directors after leaving his post at the chamber this summer. The theater, formally known as the Citi Performing Arts Center, is led by a volunteer board, and Guzzi will not be paid. After he is voted into the position in June, he will replace chairman Scott Sperling, who will remain on the board, a spokesman said. Guzzi, 72, announced his departure from the Boston chamber last September, citing the desire to devote more time to his family and other corporate boards.

JACK NEWSHAM

The Massachusetts Restaurant Association is calling for a statewide ban of powdered alcohol this week. Powdered alcohol is just as it sounds: alcohol in a powder form that comes in different flavors and can be mixed with liquids. The federal government approved the sale of four powdered alcohol products last month. After the announcement, the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission followed up with its own advisory that said the state prohibits the importation, sale, and manufacturing of powdered alcohol. There are no laws prohibiting the possession of the substance. Bob Luz, president of the restaurant association, said the group is working closely with legislators to support a ban because members are concerned about unsafe consumption of the products in their restaurants.

TARYN LUNA

HELSINKI — Nokia has agreed to buy the ailing French telecom company Alcatel-Lucent through a public exchange of shares in France and the United States, in a bid to become a leading global networks operator. Though Alcatel-Lucent has been racking up billions of euros of losses since its creation in 2006, Nokia seems to believe it can cut costs and hopes the deal will give it scale in the market of providing the networks that mobile phones use. The Finnish company said Wednesday that the all-share transaction will be on the basis of 0.55 of a new Nokia share for every share of Alcatel-Lucent. The share offer values the French concern at 15.6 billion euros, or $16.5 billion.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Despite booming demand for its beer, the pay of top officials at Boston Beer Co., makers of Samuel Adams beers, fell last year. Jim Koch, the brewery’s chairman and public face, made $918,000 last year, and Boston Beer Co. chief executive Martin Roper made $1.2 million. Although the company’s sales rose 22 percent last year and its payouts to shareholders grew, the pay for the company’s top five executives fell 8 percent because the Jamaica Plain brewery didn’t meet its goals.

JACK NEWSHAM

AshleyMadison.com, a dating website for cheating spouses, wants to hook up with investors by pursuing an initial public offering in London this year. The site’s parent company, which failed with a previous IPO attempt in Canada, said on Wednesday it is looking to raise as much as $200 million to exploit booming demand for its services. AshleyMadison had sales of $115 million last year, an almost fourfold increase on 2009, Christoph Kraemer, its head of international relations said in an interview. It makes money by charging men for credits, which they then use for introductions to women. AshleyMadison claims to be the world’s second-largest paid-for Internet dating website behind Match.com.

BLOOMBERG NEWS