Headlines

Lupatech SA, a Brazilian offshore oil industry products and services provider, in a securities filing Tuesday said its board has approved a debt-for-equity swap designed to help it push past a series of missed payments to creditors, Reuters reported. Lupatech said it would renegotiate some of its debt with lenders and that holders of perpetual bonds and debentures would be offered an option of swapping 85 percent of their debt for new equity.

Distressed debt investor Centerbridge has bought hundreds of millions of euros of Apcoa Parking's leveraged loans in a bid to gain control of Europe's biggest parking management firm, banking sources said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Lazard and Rothschild are advising Apcoa on a debt restructuring which has to take place before the company's 650 million euros ($875.85 million) of buyout loans mature in April 2014.

Kalnai Sports GmbH - SRAM’s exclusive distributor for Austria - applied for insolvency on October 31, Bike Europe reported. This is announced by the national creditor protection association AKV Europa. According to AKV the Innsbruck based lawyer Dr. Wolfgang Offer has been appointed receiver. A first detailed examination hearing and possible recovery plan is said to be ready on December 13. Kalnai Sports is foremost known as SRAM's exclusive Austrian distributor.

Bondholders, followed by oilfield-service companies, are the biggest creditors of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's oil company OGX, which made Latin America's biggest-ever bankruptcy filing last week, according to a list obtained by Reuters. The No. 2 creditor after bondholders is OSX Brasil SA, the Batista-controlled shipyard and ship-leasing company that built three offshore oil production platforms for OGX. OSX is owed at least 2.45 billion reais ($1.1 billion) or about 21 percent of the oil company's obligations.

The Texas-based developers of a proposed liquefied natural-gas export terminal in Canada have sought a court-sanctioned reorganization to resolve disputes with other investors in the project, including a Chinese energy company, according to court documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. While the proposed Douglas Channel LNG project is much smaller than other LNG projects planned for the Pacific coast, the filing in Canada under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act—which is analogous to a Chapter 11 filing—by one of the project's key backers comes as western Canada aims to b

The Co-op has unveiled a radical restructuring of its banking arm – both in terms of its ownership structure and strategy – to raise fresh capital to fill a £1.5bn hole on its balance sheet, the Financial Times reported in a Q&A. How will the restructuring work? The Co-op Group will hand over 70 per cent of the equity in the bank to its most senior bondholders – known as the lower tier two group – in exchange for about £940m of their debt and an additional £125m cash injection.

Japanese restaurant chain Wagamama has gone into voluntary administration, and its Southbank venue in Melbourne has been shut down, The Age reported. Administrator KPMG took control of the business on Tuesday. Staff at the restaurant chain received news that the company behind Wagamama had gone into administration on Thursday and Friday. KPMG partner and administrator Ian Hall said the Southbank restaurant had been closed soon after the business was taken over. "The reason being was that it was not profitable," he said.

Debt-laden Titan Petrochemicals Group, controlled by partially state-owned fuel and metals trader Guangdong Zhenrong Energy, plans to present a new debt restructuring proposal to creditors to whom it owes more than US$400 million, the South China Morning Post reported. Titan executive director Patrick Wong Siu-hung said the board believed the debt restructuring plan would be "final", but he would not divulge the proposed "hair cut" - or the repayment discount it proposed on amounts owed.

The management team at Irish retailer Arnotts is believed to have secured a backer willing to bid for the retailer’s loans with Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which are up for sale, the Irish Times reported. It is unclear who the backer is but informed sources said it was a party “knowledgeable of retail”. Ulster Bank, which jointly controls Arnotts with IBRC, is understood to be supportive of this bid, although this could not be confirmed with the British lender last night.

Officials from cash-strapped Italian flagship carrier Alitalia SpA. will travel to Moscow next week to sound out Aeroflot's about an alliance, a person close to Alitalia said on Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed local news reports about the visit but didn't elaborate. Aeroflot wasn't immediately available for comment. Alitalia is looking for partners and Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said the government will consider others apart from Air France-KLM, AF.FR -3.80% which has a 25% stake in the carrier.