Canada

Sears Canada Inc was granted court approval on Thursday to proceed with a sale process that would allow the retailer to consider a range of potential deals, according to court documents. A report by the court-appointed monitor FTI Consulting posted on its website on Wednesday said that more than 20 parties have signed non-disclosure agreements with Sears Canada as part of the planned sale process, Reuters reported.

Sears Canada Inc majority shareholders including Edward Lampert, ESL Investments Inc and Fairholme Capital Management LLC are seeking access to internal documents related to its restructuring, according to a notice of motion posted on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The court motion, which will be made on Thursday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, comes as the court-appointed monitor FTI Consulting said more than 20 parties have signed non-disclosure agreements with Sears Canada. The retailer was still negotiating non-disclosure agreements with ESL and Fairholme.

Eddie Lampert’s efforts to keep his crumbling Sears Holdings Corp. empire out of bankruptcy court may be running out of time. Sears Canada Inc., which operates more than 200 stores, has hired advisers and is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection in Canada, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. Sears Canada is expected to seek protection from creditors under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, the equivalent of chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. A Sears Canada spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Mr.

Canadian mortgage growth is slowing as the country’s policy makers step up efforts to cool overheated housing markets in Vancouver and Toronto. With four of Canada’s biggest banks reporting second-quarter results, the trend shows decelerating growth in home loan portfolios and, in some cases, shrinkage, Bloomberg News reported. It’s a welcome sign for officials struggling to curb house prices in two of the nation’s largest cities.

Canada’s biggest banks are this week set to post returns that again put their US peers in the shade, even as rapidly rising house prices and consumer debt levels have raised concerns about potential threats to financial stability north of the border, the Financial Times reported. The big five, which together control almost C$4.5tn worth of assets, will seek to reassure investors that Canada’s banking system remains in good health when they post quarterly net income forecast to be between 5 and 30 per cent higher than a year ago.

The oil industry in Canada's resource-rich Alberta will be on the hook for a C$235 million ($172.7 million) government loan to clean up a rising number of oil wells abandoned by owners who have gone bankrupt, the province said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The loan, repayable over 10 years, will go to the government-run, industry-funded Orphan Well Association (OWA), which cleans up wells for which no party is legally responsible, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said at a news conference.

Moody’s downgrade of Canada’s biggest banks beat down assets in a market already rattled by woes of mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc, Bloomberg News reported. Yet analysts say this isn’t evidence of an impending crisis. “The weatherman just warned us about a storm that already came and went,” said Derek Holt, head of capital markets economics at Scotiabank.

Canada's Hudson's Bay Co has hired a debt restructuring adviser to review potential options for combining its business with debt-laden U.S. department store operator Neiman Marcus Group, according to people familiar with the matter. The move is the clearest indication yet that Neiman Marcus' $4.7 billion debt pile poses significant challenges to a merger between Hudson's Bay, owner of the Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue retail chains, and private equity-owned Neiman Marcus, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

The world is suddenly paying attention to Home Capital Group Inc., the tiny Canadian mortgage lender that’s on the ropes. The stock is plunging, it faces a run on deposits and regulators are probing management’s disclosure of fraudulent mortgages, Bloomberg News reported. Its troubles are raising questions: Is this an isolated case of a struggling mortgage company, or early signs of cracks forming in Canada’s red-hot housing market? It started in 2014 when the company, formed 31 years ago by Gerald Soloway, failed to screen a pile of questionable mortgages brought in by outside brokers.

A Canadian court on Monday upheld a decision to grant lenders priority over environmental clean-up costs in oil-and-gas bankruptcies, raising chances disused wells from defunct companies could become a government responsibility, Reuters reported. That could further strain the government-run, industry-funded Orphan Well Association (OWA), which cleans up wells for which no party is legally responsible. The group has said it needs extra funding and upping levies for producers is an option.