Canada

Representing the largest settlement ever by an auditor in a Canadian securities class-action case, Ernst & Young Canada agreed to pay $117-million to investors of Sino-Forest Corp., the Chinese timber firm whose shares collapsed in 2011 amid sensational fraud allegations, The Globe and Mail reported. The precedent-setting agreement, which still requires court approval, already marks the largest compensation payment ever in a securities class-action case involving a company listed solely in Canada.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court decision that ranked indemnity claims by the auditors and underwriters of Sino-Forest Corp. with other equity claims in the company's restructuring, The Canadian Press reported. Several class-action lawsuits have been filed against the company, its auditors and its underwriters. The company's auditors and underwriters made indemnity claims against Sino-Forest under its Companies Creditors Arrangement Act restructuring for any damages they may have to end up paying if the class-action lawsuits are successful.

After scratching out a faster recovery than the U.S. and most developed nations, Canada is facing its strongest economic headwinds in years, including falling commodity prices and ballooning personal debt, the Wall Street Journal reported today. While the recession laid global peers low, Canada's strong bank balance sheets funded continued consumer spending during the recovery. Years of that easy credit in turn helped give rise to a housing boom that has underpinned an economy already benefiting from another surge—in commodity prices.

Statistics Canada said today that Canada's annual inflation rate remained subdued in October although a touch higher than expectations, as higher prices at gas stations and for meat were offset by a decline in natural gas costs, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The all-items consumer price index in October, on a year-over-year basis, was up 1.2 percent, matching the previous month's rate but slightly above market expectations of 1.1 percent, according to economists at Royal Bank of Canada.

The Ontario government is considerably downsizing a proposed super pension fund that would manage the retirement savings of public-sector workers, The Globe and Mail reported. The government was planning to create a pooled fund to manage the pension plans for employees in community colleges, many universities and the province's largest public sector union. But under a new accord with the government, two of the pension plans have been exempted from becoming part of the proposed fund.

D&M Publishers has announced that it is restructuring and has filed for creditor protection under the provisions of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. The Vancouver-based publisher, which publishes under three separate imprints including Douglas & McIntyre, Greystone Books and New Society Publishers, says it will be working with financial advisory services company the Bowra Group to locate an investor or purchaser for its assets, The Globe and Mail reported. New Society Publishers Inc. is a separate legal entity and its business activities will continue as usual.

Ontario has the greatest risk of defaulting on its debt payments in the next 20 years, while energy-rich Alberta places a surprisingly close second in a ranking of provinces seen as most vulnerable to suffering a Europe-style financial crisis, The Globe and Mail reported. “In the medium to long term, public finances in several provinces are unsustainable, raising the spectre of debt crises, damaged credit ratings and federal bailouts if corrective steps are not taken,” according to a report released Thursday by the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

An indirect subsidiary of financially troubled real estate company Homburg Invest Inc. has received US$24 million from the sale of some of its U.S. assets, The Gazette reported on a Canadian Press story. Homburg Invest, which is under creditor protection in Canada, said Monday that Homburg Holdings (U.S.) Inc. stands to make up to an additional US$1.5 million on the sale of holdings related to its joint venture arrangements with Cedar Realty Trust Inc. if certain conditions are met. Homburg said that on Oct.

Two Canadian pork processors are among those expressing interest in Canada's second-biggest hog producer, Big Sky Farms, which is looking for new ownership after soaring feed costs left it unable to pay its bills, the Regina Leader-Post reported. Big Sky, which produces about one million pigs per year and is based near Humboldt, entered receivership in early September. Manitoba-based hog producer Pu-ratone Corp. is also up for sale, after entering court protection from creditors last month. Both Toronto-based Maple Leaf Foods and Quebec-based Olymel L.P.

Shareholders have been quietly shoved aside in the court-ordered restructuring of Sino-Forest Corp. — and they feel a lack of legal counsel is partly to blame, the Financial Post reported. Last week, veteran Bay Street lawyer Joe Groia agreed to take up the case of disgruntled Sino shareholders, who are furious about their treatment during the CCAA process. But he may be too late.