Mexico

India's Sterlite Industries and Mexican miner Grupo Mexico squared off in court on Monday and raised their respective bids for bankrupt U.S. copper miner Asarco LLC, which is seeking to end its four-year bankruptcy. Sterlite offered to raise the cash portion of its bid to $1.58 billion, up from $1.1 billion, said Asarco lawyer Jack Kinzie at the start of a court hearing in Texas on Monday. Including a note to creditors with a net present value of $83 million, Sterlite's new bid was worth $1.67 billion, Kinzie told the court.

A flood of objections has come in against the parent company of Asarco LLC, which filed one of three competing reorganization plans for the bankrupt copper mining company, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. The deadline for filing objections to the plan was Wednesday, at which time Asarco told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas that the plan proposed by its parent, Grupo Mexico SAB de CV, was not filed in good faith, not fair and equitable, not feasible, and failed to comply with all provisions necessary to confirm a plan.

A unit of mining giant Grupo Mexico SAB is appealing a ruling that it is on the hook for $1.38 billion in cash and a stake in lucrative Peruvian copper operations to Asarco LLC, in a case alleging Grupo fraudulently shifted the shares, tipping Asarco into bankruptcy, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Asarco first sued Grupo subsidiary Americas Mining Corp. in February 2007, arguing that Grupo Mexico's 2003 transfer of Asarco's 54.2 percent ownership in Southern Copper Corp., formerly Southern Peru Copper Corp., to AMC was fraudulent.

The battle for bankrupt copper miner Asarco LLC continued this week, as the debtor urged creditors to approve a newly filed reorganization plan that reflects a revised offer from India-based Sterlite Industries Ltd., Bankruptcy Law360 reported. The sixth amended Chapter 11 plan filed Monday includes a deal to sell Asarco's assets to Sterlite, a subsidiary of London-based Vedanta Resources PLC, for $1.1 billion in cash and a $770 million promissory note.

Further fattening its offer to reclaim bankrupt mining company Asarco LLC, Grupo Mexico SAB de CV affiliate Americas Mining Corp. has filed another reorganization proposal for Asarco, under which it would make $3.1 billion available to pay back claims — including setting up an asbestos liability trust — and bring the company out of Chapter 11, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. The upped bid is one of three competing plans to reorganize bankrupt Asarco. Under the other plans, Asarco would either be sold to India-based Sterlite Industries Ltd.

Strains in pensions systems, in both private and public provision, threaten to turn the financial crisis of the past two years into a social crisis lasting for decades, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned on Tuesday. In its annual analysis of the health of pensions systems globally, the Paris-based organisation found private pension plans lost 23 per cent of their value last year, while higher unemployment “leaves little room for more generous public pensions”, the Financial Times reported.

Grupo Mexico SAB, Mexico's largest mining company, said Tuesday it is offering $2.9 billion in a new reorganization plan to take its U.S. copper unit, Asarco LLC, out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, where it has languished since August 2005, The Wall Street Journal reported. Grupo Mexico's fight to regain control of the Tucson, Ariz., company--which is being run by an independent board set up by the bankruptcy court--is part of a long-running saga that has played out across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Grupo Mexico SAB was ordered by a U.S. judge to put into escrow $8.84 billion worth of stock in its Southern Copper Corp. while it appeals a decision it lost in a Texas court, Bloomberg reported. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas, ruled yesterday that Grupo’s Americas Mining unit must set aside the stock after losing a lawsuit and being ordered to return 260 million shares of Southern Copper to Asarco LLC along with $1.38 billion in cash.

The tug-of-war over the rights to Asarco LLC continues, with parent company Grupo Mexico SAB de CV protesting a bankruptcy court's apparent protection of Sterlite Industries Ltd.'s $1.7 billion bid to acquire the bankrupt copper mining unit, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. While Sterlite appears to have the edge, Grupo Mexico is not out of the running yet to regain control of the indirect subsidiary. Earlier this month, Judge Schmidt extended until Sept.

Mexico is in “very advanced” discussions to make financing available to local units of U.S. automakers if they need help to keep their Mexican plants operating, an Economy Ministry official said. The loans would be made through Mexico’s development bank, known as Nafinsa, and secured by accounts receivable, inventories and possibly assets such as land and machinery, said Lorenza Martinez, undersecretary for industry and commerce.