Richard Chandler, the New Zealand billionaire and biggest shareholder of Sino-Forest, has hired a team to plan a rescue restructuring of the Chinese timber group after it filed for bankruptcy protection last week, the Financial Times reported. Richard Chandler Corporation, his investment vehicle, said on Monday that it had assembled a group including David Walker, an expert in the Asian forestry sector, to lead its proposal for the restructuring of Sino-Forest. “Sino-Forest faces a range of complex problems,” Mr Walker said.

Sino-Forest Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection as part of a plan that may see the Chinese timber grower company sold to bondholders, nine months after it was accused of fraud by short seller Carson Block, Bloomberg reported. The company obtained an initial order for creditor protection in the Ontario Superior Court under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, Sino-Forest said yesterday in a statement.

The parent of an aircraft maintenance company spun off by Air Canada is expanding in El Salvador even as its Canadian arm liquidates its assets after terminating more than 2,600 employees, Reuters reported. Aveos, which shut its doors in Canada earlier this week, has corporate ties with El Salvador's Aeroman, with Aero Technical Support & Services Holdings, a closely held company domiciled in Luxembourg, owning both of them. While Aveos may count the Salvadoran unit as part of its network, the two operations are independent of each other, said Ernesto Ruiz, chief executive of Aeroman.

Air Canada is obliged by law to keep operations going at facilities that service its planes in the Canadian cities of Winnipeg, Mississauga and Montreal, Canadian Transport Minister Denis Lebel said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Lebel said the government was receiving advice about Air Canada's legal obligations with regards to Aveos, once part of the carrier's own maintenance unit. Aveos obtained bankruptcy protection on Monday, but it has since ceased all operations in Canada.

Nortel Networks Inc, a former telecoms company that is liquidating in bankruptcy, won a dismissal of some claims by European affiliates that were seeking a large chunk of the company's $9 billion cash pile, Reuters reported. Nortel's British, Irish and French affiliates had sought more than $3 billion, claiming Nortel Networks Inc has breached its fiduciary duties to the European businesses by stripping them of cash and leaving them insolvent. A Delaware bankruptcy court dismissed those claims in part because Nortel Networks, or NNI, was not a director of the European affiliates.

Cash-strapped Aveos Fleet Performance Inc., reeling after its contracts to repair planes were scaled back by Air Canada, says it will be liquidating assets and shutting down, The Globe and Mail reported. Aveos said Tuesday it had rejected an offer of $15-million in emergency financial aid made late Monday by Air Canada. The aircraft maintenance company initially filed for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, seeking to restructure and salvage a portion of its business.

Aveos Fleet Performance sought bankruptcy protection Monday, saying a sudden drop-off in aircraft maintenance work for Canada's flag carrier, its biggest client, had forced it to shutter operations, Agence France-Presse reported. As a result, up to 2,600 workers have been locked out of maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities across Canada, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

A judge affirmed packaged ice company Arctic Glacier International Inc.'s right to receive the benefits of Chapter 15 protection in the U.S. as its restructuring plays out in Canada, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported. Judge Kevin Gross of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., Friday signed off on the company's petition for protection under Chapter 15, which allows companies to seek the U.S. court's recognition of a foreign bankruptcy case.

The steady climb in housing prices over the past decade has made it easier for Canadians to borrow against the value of their homes, leaving many families vulnerable to “a significant shock” if prices were to snap back, the Bank of Canada is warning. Governor Mark Carney and his policy team have long pointed to record levels of household debt as the chief domestic risk to the financial system and the wider economy, urging borrowers to resist the lure of ultra-low mortgages unless they can afford them once rates inch up, The Globe and Mail reported.

Arctic Glacier Income Fund said Wednesday it will file for a court supervised restructuring under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act that the ice maker said could result in a sale or recapitalization of the business, The Globe and Mail reported on a Canadian Press story. The process has the support both of Arctic Glacier's secured lenders and two of its unitholders, Coliseum Capital Management and Talamod Asset Management, the fund said.