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.
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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.
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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.
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Telus Corp. has served notice that it’s dropping a $350-million takeover bid for Mobilicity, ending a drawn-out effort to scoop up the struggling small player and its valuable wireless spectrum, The Globe and Mail reported. This turn of events leaves Mobilicity, now in bankruptcy protection, without a solid bidder to take over its business, recent reports from its bankruptcy monitor would suggest. It also leaves bondholders, who are owed hundreds of millions of dollars, at risk of significant losses.
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With $7.3 billion up for grabs, Nortel's Canadian, U.S. and European divisions began staking out their claims to the cash that is all that's left of the former telecommunications giant, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Courtrooms in Toronto and Wilmington were twinned with some $1 million worth of technology to allow judges in each city to jointly make the call on who gets the money from the going-out-of-business sale of a company that operated in more than 100 countries and left unpaid bills in all of them.
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Canadians are being bombarded with mixed messages on how much debt they should take on, The Wall Street Journal Canada Real Time blog reported. Stimulated by rock-bottom interest rates in place since the financial crisis, Canadians have strapped on a lot of debt in the last few years, and that’s been a big concern for policy makers. Household borrowing was at record highs in the fourth quarter, with the oft-quoted debt-to-disposable-income ratio hitting a record 164.2% in that period.
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Boutique Jacob, a Canadian women's fashion retailer that filed for creditor protection in 2010, is liquidating its inventory and closing its stores after failing to find new financing or return to profitability, the company said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Jacob, whose stylish, business-casual fashion catered to young professional women, said it was hurt by a challenging economy in recent years combined with an influx of international brands into Canada. Canadian retailers have come under increasing pressure from U.S.
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Exports of liquefied natural gas could start as soon as late 2016 if a consortium led by AltaGas Ltd. succeeds in buying the insolvent Douglas Channel LNG project through a court supervised process, investors heard Thursday, the Calgary Herald reported. David Cornhill, chairman and chief executive of the Calgary-based gas and power company, said at its annual general meeting that term sheets to be presented to creditors could be finalized by next Monday.
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Former employees of Nortel Networks in Canada are looking to reclaim their share in the allocation of the company’s global estate, but only on a fair and equitable basis, Benefits Canada reported. Nortel Retirees and Former Employees Protection Canada says the heart of the dispute over the company’s estate is with its current bondholders. The group claims that bondholders are trying to make the U.S. estate solvent, which would force the company to pay interest on the bonds since filing for creditor protection as well as leave less money to go to Canadian creditors.
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