Canada

Noveko International Inc. says its subsidiary Magnum Pharmaceutics Inc. has voluntarily filed for bankruptcy, the Winnipeg Free Press reported on a Canadian Press story. Since its acquisition in 2008, Magnum has generated "considerable losses and debt" due to its inability to carry out its business plan, Montreal-based Noveko said Friday. With no improvement in sight, Noveko said it decided not to inject any more funds in Magnum and will instead focus on its own growth objectives.

Great River Journey, a First Nations tourism venture that sold $1,000-a-day wilderness tours on the Yukon River, has been given more time to come up with a bankruptcy protecton plan, CBC News reported. Yukon Supreme Court Justice Leigh Gower granted Great River Journey, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, 45 more days to work out a plan. The company has more than $10 million in debts, and it is seeking $2.5 million to relaunch, president George Asquith said Monday.

AbitibiBowater Inc, the world's largest newsprint maker, plans to emerge from bankruptcy with a simplified structure so it can take on the challenge of declining demand, its chief executive said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Montreal-based company said on Monday it has the support of unsecured creditors for a reorganization plan that would swap unsecured debt for equity. Post-bankruptcy, the company would have consolidated its debt with the parent company, eliminating debt that was issued by dozens of U.S.

AbitibiBowater Inc. is seeking the green light from a U.S. bankruptcy judge to rework its accounts-receivable securitization facility to take advantage of improving business conditions, a move the company says will save it millions of dollars in the coming months, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The Canadian paper maker, which sought bankruptcy protection more than a year ago to restructure its crushing debt load, says it can save $4 million over the next five months by reworking the securitization program with a group of banks led Citigroup Inc. and Barclays Capital Inc.

Planet Organic Health Corp. is set to be acquired by its principal creditor, the Edmonton-based natural and organic products retailer said Friday. Planet Organic received bankruptcy protection last month under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act when more than $31.1 million in debt was called in by Catalyst Capital Group Inc., the Edmonton Journal reported. The Toronto private-equity firm, which invests in distressed companies, had bought the debt from Ares Capital Corp. in April.

Newfoundland and Labrador struck out for a second time Tuesday in its efforts to force AbitibiBowater to pay for a costly environmental cleanup, The Canadian Press reported. Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Jacques Chamberland denied the province's request for leave to appeal a ruling by Quebec Superior Court Justice Clement Gascon. "It is my view that the province's application raises no issue which satisfies the test for granting leave to appeal under CCAA (Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act)," he wrote.

Fraser Papers Inc. will sell off its remaining assets over the next 18 months as the insolvent company grapples with up to $500 million in claims from hungry creditors, the Telegraph-Journal reported. On Monday, the man pegged with guiding Fraser Papers through its final days detailed the obstacles still facing the company. Glen McMillan, appointed last week as chief restructuring officer, says the company's "key challenge" is selling its remaining assets. At this point, those assets primarily consist of a paper mill in Gorham, New Hampshire and two lumber mills in northern Maine.

The wave of bankruptcies that swept across the country during the recession has seen the government’s unclaimed bankruptcy account leap by about 45% as the feds seized money and assets belonging to insolvent consumers, the Toronto Sun reported. In March 2007, before the global credit crunch started shocking banks around the world, the feds held $9.375 million in their unclaimed bankruptcy fund account. By May 5 of this year that balance had jumped to $13.6 million.

AbitibiBowater Inc., the Canadian paper company that sought bankruptcy protection last year to restructure its crushing debt load, won approval to keep sole control of its Chapter 11 case for another two months, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Judge Kevin J. Carey of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., approved the Montreal-based pulp and paper manufacturer's request for an extension through July 21 of its sole right to file a plan to exit bankruptcy.

Patients will continue to receive their publicly funded knee and hip replacement surgeries at a private medical facility in Calgary until January, but it will come at an additional cost to taxpayers, The Vancouver Sun reported. Alberta Health Services filed an application in Court of Queen's earlier this month in a bid to ward off bankruptcy proceedings caused by a legal dispute between Networc Health — which owns the Health Resource Centre — and one of its creditors, Cambrian Group of Companies.