Canada

Essar Steel Algoma Inc. will have sufficient liquidity to complete capital improvements and buy enough raw materials to get it through the winter after the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved its restructuring plan, The Globe and Mail reported. “This plan provides for a comprehensive capital infusion, a substantial deleveraging of our balance sheet and the refinancing of all of Algoma’s senior secured debt,” Kalyan Ghosh, chief executive officer of the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-based company said in a statement.

Small base metals miner Mercator Minerals Ltd said on Tuesday it had filed for protection from its creditors in Canada and the United States, and the Toronto Stock Exchange suspended trading of its shares and began a delisting review, Reuters reported. The Vancouver-based company, which was hurt by a 2013 drop in copper and molybdenum prices and problems at its Mineral Park copper mine in Arizona, warned last week that it could be forced to file for creditor protection.

Retailers Bombay & Co. Inc., Bowring & Co. Inc. and Benix & Co. Inc. are operating under court protection from creditors while their owners look for a buyer or partner to help them survive a severe cash shortage and overwhelming debt, The Toronto Star reported. Bombay has 55 furnishings stores and Bowring has 57 housewares stores across Canada, employing about 1,240 people in total. Benix closed its final store in June.

Canadians from 35 to 44 years old added the most relative to other age groups to their debt loads as rising home prices led them to take out larger mortgages, according to a report by Royal Bank of Canada, Bloomberg News reported today. People in that age bracket had liabilities equal to 49 percent of their net worth in 2012, up from 31 percent for the same group in 1999, the report by Royal Bank economists Paul Ferley and Nathan Janzen said. The figures compare with 9 percent and 12 percent for people aged 55 to 64.

Bombardier Inc's unexpected aerospace restructuring announcement last week casts an uncomfortable light on the division's ongoing struggles, with credit rating firms uncertain about its longer term prospects. The restructuring, which was announced July 23, eight days before the release of second-quarter results on Thursday, is the latest bad news for the beleaguered unit, bruised in recent years by multiple delays in its cash-draining CSeries program and by shrinking market share for its existing aircraft portfolio.

Ponderosa Golf and Country Club in Peachland has money woes, again. The original Ponderosa fell into receivership years ago and was revived by Ponderosa Peachland Development, The Daily Courier reported. The new Ponderosa calls for a $1 billion master-planned community with an 18-hole course designed by Greg Norman (already open) surrounded by 2,300 homes. Showhomes are open and construction was under way on other homes. But work has halted with the new Ponderosa reaching an impasse with Toronto-based Romspen Investment Corp. over the $34.4 million Ponderosa owes Romspen.

A damning report by the monitor overseeing the League group of companies’ restructuring efforts cites inexperienced, inept management and the poorly executed Capital City Centre in Colwood as the reasons for the death of Victoria-based League, the Times Colonist reported. In his 120-page report, Mike Vermette, a vice-president at monitor PricewaterhouseCoopers, noted League will be winding down all operations, liquidating all assets and cease to exist after the first quarter of 2015. The blame for that appears to rest on the shoulders of League founders Adam Gant and Emanuel Arruda.

Mobilicity has received another extension of court protection from creditors, this time until Sept. 26, saying it has sufficient resources to maintain service to its wireless phone customers until at least that date, The Toronto Star reported.

The Quebec government is adding its name to a list of creditors seeking money from the insolvent railway company at the heart of the Lac-Megantic train disaster, CTV News reported on a Canadian Press story. The government said Monday that it is seeking $409 million from the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway for expenses incurred and yet to come that stem from the tragedy. The Justice Department said it filed a claim on June 13.

Veris Gold Corp., which owns Jerritt Canyon, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday in the U.S. and Canada after the Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch claimed the company was in default, the Elko Daily Free Press reported. These filings also follow Veris Gold laying off nearly 60 people at the Jerritt Canyon complex last week. Veris Gold said the Supreme Court of British Columbia issued an order Monday granting “the company’s application for creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.” Veris Gold has its headquarters in Vancouver.