Mexico

A Mexican provider of tourism services at a beachfront hotel in Cozumel filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported. Cozumel Caribe SA blamed its bankruptcy filing on the “drastic” drop in foreign tourists visiting the Hotel Park Royal Cozumel, from where the company operates.

Retailer Comercial Mexicana said Wednesday that it has submitted its prepackaged $1.54 billion debt-restructuring agreement to a Mexican court with 98% of its creditors on board, Dow Jones reported. Comercial Mexicana said in a press release that the restructuring agreement, which was announced in late May, has the support of all of its derivatives counterparties and bank creditors, and 88% of its bond creditors. The restructuring already has been approved by the company's shareholders. Under the agreement, the company will issue new debt in pesos and U.S.

Mexican retailer Comercial Mexicana said on Monday that its shareholders have approved a plan to restructure its debt, moving a step closer to the end of a lengthy battle with creditors, Reuters reported. The company, known by analysts as Comerci, is Mexico's No. 3 supermarket operator and defaulted on its obligations after its derivatives bets on the peso soured at the height of the financial crisis in late 2008. Last month, the company, which is controlled by insiders, reached a deal with creditors to pay back around $1.5 billion over seven years.

Mexican home-finance company Metrofinanciera SA said Wednesday that a court has approved its pre-packaged bankruptcy plan after it defaulted on debt early last year, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. "In the coming days, Metrofinanciera will start the process to exchange securities in the period and terms outlined in the bankruptcy agreement, giving way to the creation of a new shareholder structure," the lender said in a filing with the Mexican Stock Exchange.

Mexico's No. 3 retailer Comercial Mexicana SAB on Thursday said it will seek investor approval at an extraordinary shareholders meeting on June 11 to restructure its debt under bankruptcy protection, Dow Jones reported. In a filing with the local stock exchange, the company said it will file for bankruptcy protection under Mexican law if the measure is backed by shareholders. Comercial Mexicana also said it will seek shareholder approval of the terms and conditions under which it will restructure its debt. The company didn't give further details in the filing.

Supermarket operator Controladora Comercial Mexicana could soon become the first major test of Mexico's overhauled insolvency laws as it readies to file a "pre-pack" debt restructuring that would end months of negotiations with creditors. As shoppers filled their carts at the company's stores around Mexico, behind the scenes its creditors were hammering out a deal to resolve more than $2 billion of derivatives losses the country's No. 3 supermarket operator suffered at the height of the financial crisis.

Corporate debt restructuring in Mexico has jumped over the past few years as companies struggled with bad bets on derivatives as well as the effects of the global recession. While large Mexican companies rarely use the country's insolvency law, some major debt deals have been reached in the past year. Cemex S.A.B. de C.V., the world's No. 3 cement maker, which was hurt by a poorly timed $16 billion purchase of Australia's Rinker in 2007 and loaded up on debt just before the global financial crisis crippled its sales. Comercial Mexicana S.A.B. de C.V., the country's No.

Vitro SAB, the Mexican glassmaker that defaulted on $1 billion of bonds last year, will delay making a second debt-restructuring offer until it receives proof that a group of creditors owns a quarter of the securities, said investor relations chief Adrian Meouchi, Bloomberg reported. A bondholder group that requested Vitro accelerate payments earlier this month failed to provide documentation showing it held at least 25 percent of the defaulted debt, Meouchi said in Jan. 25 telephone interview from Mexico City.

A four-year bankruptcy battle for control of Asarco finally ended Wednesday when the Tucson-based mining company emerged from Chapter 11 and into the arms of its long lost parent, Grupo Mexico, The AmLaw Daily reported. It was the largest environmental claims settlement in bankruptcy history--and probably worth more than $200 million in billable hours to legions of lawyers. The matter entered its final stage last month in the border city of Brownsville, Texas, when U.S. district court judge Andrew Hanen approved a $2 billion plan by Grupo Mexico to reacquire Asarco out of bankruptcy.

Grupo Mexico SAB de CV said on Wednesday it completed its deal to regain control of U.S. copper miner Asarco LLC, bringing to an end Asarco's four-year bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Asarco, based in Tucson, Arizona, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2005 amid a strike and more than $1 billion of asbestos and environmental claims. Last month, a U.S. federal judge approved a more than $2 billion plan by the Mexican miner to take control of Asarco. Grupo Mexico first acquired Asarco in a leveraged buyout in 1999, but lost board control of the subsidiary due to the bankruptcy.