Headlines

The Dubai government set out sweeping new laws on Monday that would allow its debt-laden conglomerate Dubai World and any subsidiaries to file for insolvency, the Financial Times reported. The new bankruptcy framework, which Dubai’s ruler issued by decree, was broadly welcomed as the creation of a regime based on “internationally accepted standards for transparency and creditor protection”, as the government described it.

Dubai, the recipient yesterday of a $10 billion bailout from Abu Dhabi, has yet to convince investors it will meet all of its obligations, Bloomberg reported. Debt from Dubai state-controlled entities DP World Ltd., Dubai Commercial Operations Group LLC and Nakheel PJSC remains as much as 28 percent lower than before the emirate said on Nov. 25 it was seeking a “standstill” from creditors. Standard & Poor’s said it won’t automatically reverse downgrades made to ratings on state entities since the announcement.

Three aircraft parts companies have filed an involuntary Chapter 11 petition for U.K.-based aircraft maintenance and inventory management company Aero Inventory (UK) Ltd., claiming the company is too heavily invested in the U.S. to proceed under the bankruptcy laws reserved for foreign companies, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

Cash-strapped Canadian biotech company Ambrilia Biopharma Inc. said it closed its manufacturing facility and cut jobs as part of its cost-cutting measures, Reuters reported. The company said it will relocate to smaller and less expensive facilities and that its cost saving actions will result in further reduction in cash consumption, helping preserve cash into 2010. Ambrilia, whose head office, research and development and manufacturing facilities are located in Montreal, said it is terminating its lease agreement for its Verdun facilities, effective Dec. 31.

Impax Energy Services Income Trust, a Calgary based oil and gas services company, plans to sell three companies to its former president and CEO and partners under a bankruptcy restructuring plan, the Winnipeg Free Press reported on a Canadian Press story. The pricetag of the purchases is C$12.5 million. Impax shares were halted on the TSX Venture Exchange pending the news.

The directors of listed investment company Mahogany Capital has been forced to place the company in voluntary administration after its funds were depleted by legal action relating to the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, SmartCompany.com.au reported. Mahogany, a special purpose company that aims to help investors access alternative asset classes, raised $125 million from retail investors via issues by Grange Securities, a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers. The money raised was then invested in notes issued by British company Saphir Finance.

Brian Clegg, the director of failed finance company Clegg and Co Finance was sentenced in the Auckland District Court today for six offences against the Companies Act and the Securities Act, The New Zealand Herald reported. "A number of these charges relate to false and misleading statements made in the company's 2005 and 2006 prospectuses and to the company's Trustee," said the Registrar of Companies, Neville Harris. The National Enforcement Unit of the Companies Office began its investigation after the matter was referred to it by the Securities Commission.

The European Commission Tuesday approved Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, or LBBW's, restructuring plan, saying the troubled German regional restructured bank will have long-term viability, Dow Jones reported. The commission also cleared toxic asset relief measures provided to the state-controlled bank by the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, its home state. Under the restructuring plan, LBBW will change its business model to focus on its regional core banking businesses while reducing capital market activities and proprietary trading, the commission said.

Alliance Bank, Kazakhstan’s second- biggest lender to default this year, said creditors approved a plan to restructure 677 billion tenge ($4.5 billion) of debt, Bloomberg reported. The restructuring plan was backed by 95.1 percent of the bank’s creditors and will reduce Alliance’s debt to about 150 billion tenge, the London-traded lender said today in an e- mailed statement. Under Kazakh law, a restructuring plan is approved when it’s supported by creditors who hold two-thirds of the debt a bank seeks to restructure, Alliance said.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said that European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Oil-rich Abu Dhabi on Monday provided $10 billion to help pay off some of the debts of an ailing property company owned by the government of neighboring Dubai, at least temporarily averting a crisis over the finances of the high-flying desert sheikhdom, The Washington Post reported.