Canada

A Canadian public-sector pension fund has joined a forestry management firm in a C$415 million (A$415 million) acquisition of Australian timber lands, capitalizing on a failed government investment scheme, the companies said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Alberta Investment Management Corp and a fund run by Australia's New Forests Pty Ltd are buying the timberland assets of Great Southern Plantations, which include more than 2,500 square km (965 square miles) of land in forestry and agricultural regions in six states. The pair are buying the assets out of receivership.

Reorganized newsprint maker AbitibiBowater Inc. filed a motion to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of subsidiary Bowater Canada Finance Corp, Bloomberg reported. Although affiliates implemented their U.S. and Canadian reorganizations in December, the BCFC affiliate was dropped out because creditors of the subsidiary voted down the plan. It was agreed at the time with BCFC noteholders that the subsidiary’s U.S. Chapter 11 case would be dismissed, as would the arrangement proceeding in Canada.

It's the end of the line for the dream of building a world-class metakaolin plant in the Wood Mountain area of south-central Saskatchewan. Last month, Whitemud Resources was ordered into receivership by its major lender, Canadian Western Bank, and $67 million of the company's assets were put up for sale to the highest bidder, The Star Phoenix reported. The Calgary-based company had suspended operations in November after a financing proposal by Werklund Capital Corp. was withdrawn.

Canadian telecommunications-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. disclosed a change in accounting would result in a noncash charge of over $2 billion in the fourth quarter, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The company said the charge is primarily related to the recognition of intercompany liabilities between the Canadian and U.S. units that previously were eliminated upon the consolidation of financial results. Nortel on Thursday said it determined the company's U.S.

Pensioners of insolvent forestry company Fraser Papers Inc. voted Monday to strike down the company's restructuring proposal, saying they could not accept a clause that would absolve the company from any legal wrongdoing, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, which represents about 1,900 active and retired employees in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, says it and other major creditors, including the Superintendent of Pensions for New Brunswick, voted to reject the plan at a meeting Monday in Toronto.

Canada's Superintendent of Bankruptcy issued a warning to Canadians about the dangers of high household debt Friday, adding his voice to the chorus from officials concerned about the amount of leverage the average resident now has, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.

When Maritime Steel and Foundries Ltd. closed its doors on New Year's Eve, it may have been the final time, The News reported. The century-old New Glasgow foundry was forced into receivership last week when its parent company called in a $17.75 million loan and the subsidiary couldn’t repay it. Cameron Corp. Ltd. went before the Supreme Court in Halifax Thursday and filed bankruptcy papers against Maritime Steel. BDO Canada Ltd. was appointed as receiver for the facility.

Royal Bank of Canada is withdrawing from a lawsuit against MBIA Inc. over the insurer’s restructuring in 2009, the third bank this week to drop out, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada joined JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Barclays Plc in withdrawing from the case, according to a filing today in New York State Supreme Court. The discontinuance orders for Barclays and JPMorgan were filed Dec. 29, according to court papers.

Canada is poised to cut its corporate-tax rate to 16.5 percent on Jan. 1, part of a decade-long campaign that some experts say is making the country one of the most cost-effective places to do business, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Canada's government says that the cuts and other business-attracting measures should bring more investment to the country.

Several Canadian banks are taking advantage of their solid balance sheets as well as the current revamping and consolidation of the American banking system to again look south for expansion, the New York Times reported today. Last week, the Toronto-Dominion Bank agreed to pay $6.3 billion for Chrysler Financial. Bank of Montreal earlier this month bought Marshall & Ilsley, a bank based in Milwaukee, for $4.1 billion.