Canada

Canadian drug maker Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc. says a "large consortium" of its creditors is backing the reorganization strategy it proposed in its home country, and it's asking a U.S. bankruptcy judge to sign off on the restructuring plan that it will put before a Canadian court on April 6, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In papers filed Friday with the U.S.

The multi-million West Vancouver property with links to the Olympic Village is now up for sale, a company appointed as receiver said Tuesday, The Province reported. The receiver, the Vancouver-based Bowra Group, was appointed after a developer of the lands north of Park Royal defaulted on the $72 million mortgage. In December, B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Laura Gerow ordered that the property go into receivership effective Tuesday. The order had been sealed but was lifted Tuesday. David Bowra, president of the Bowra Group, said his task now is essentially to sell the property.

Ipico Inc said its creditors approved its plan to reorganize its debt and capital structure and an Ontario court sanctioned an interim loan facility from Brookfield Asset Management, possibly saving it from going bankrupt, Reuters reported. Ipico, which makes smart tags and other Radio-frequency identification (RFID) products, had said last month it would become bankrupt and go under receivership if the loan facility did not materialize or if its reorganization plan is not approved by creditors and the court.

A C$750 million (US$771 million) lawsuit by a group of former General Motors of Canada Ltd. dealers against the car maker has been granted class-action status by an Ontario court, according to the law firm representing the plaintiffs, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. As reported, the group includes more than 200 former car dealers who alleged that GM Canada, a unit of General Motors Co., breached provincial franchise laws when it eliminated their dealerships in the wake of the 2009 auto bailout.

A Canadian judge has ruled that more than 200 former General Motors dealers who businesses were eliminated in a 2009 restructuring can sue the company as a group, the Associated Press reported. Ontario Superior Court Justice G.R. Strathy on Tuesday granted class action status to the lawsuit filed by more than 200 GM dealers whose franchises were eliminated during GM's financial crisis in 2009, according to a statement from two Toronto law firms representing the dealers.

Boxes of bulk chocolate, molds to shape chocolates, sculptures and computers worth almost $90,000 were removed from Chocolaterie Bernard Callebaut when the company was placed in receivership last year, which landed its namesake back in court Wednesday, The Calgary Herald reported. In the latest twist in the Callebaut saga, receiver Deloitte & Touche is asking that Bernard Callebaut and his wife Francesca be found in contempt of its receivership order.

The federal government is questioning whether our neighbors to the north will be looking out for the U.S. taxpayers in a Canadian pharmaceutical company’s insolvency case, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported. The National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services objected last week to Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s request to gain U.S. courts’ recognition of its case in Canada. The Vancouver drug maker sought that recognition through its Chapter 15 bankruptcy filing with the Wilmington, Del., bankruptcy court.

Struggling Laval custom drug researcher LAB Research Inc. said Monday it has been informed by a U.S. private equity firm that it has longer any interest in acquiring LAB and the company has been forced into bankruptcy by its principal lender, The Montreal Gazette reported. LAB said in a statement the directors have resigned and a receiver has been appointed. The principal lender wants to solicit or entertain offers for LAB and its modern pre-clinical testing facilities in Laval, and in Denmark and Hungary.

Fraser Papers' restructuring plan, and the sale of its U.S. subsidiaries to Brookfield Asset Management, appear to be in the final stages of a painful journey that began nearly two years ago, The Canadian Press reported. Under an amended plan, worked out early this year after the original restructuring was rejected, will see Brookfield — Fraser Paper's majority shareholder — continue to have a major stake in the remaining operating assets. Fraser Papers said Tuesday its creditors will receive about US$44 million in unsecured notes issued by Twin Rivers Paper Company Inc.

Four officials of Concrete Equities, a now-defunct Calgary company that raised $118 million to buy commercial real estate, are under scrutiny as the Alberta Securities Commission tries to determine whether they misled investors, the Calgary Herald reported. Monday, lawyers for the ASC outlined the case they hope to prove, which includes investors who were promised returns of more than 600 per cent and told the investments were risk free, as well as those who weren't told of marketing commissions of between seven and 10 per cent being paid to Concrete Equities.