Judges in Canada and the U.S. on Thursday approved materials explaining Nortel Networks Corp.’s creditor-repayment plan, inaugurating the beginning of the end of one of the priciest bankruptcies on record, The Wall Street Journal reported. Thursday’s court hearings launched the formal process of polling creditors on the bankruptcy plans that will end Nortel’s corporate life after eight years in bankruptcy, and divide the $7.3 billion in proceeds from its global going-out-of-business sale.

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy exit plan by Abengoa SA's main U.S. subsidiary, Abeinsa Holding Inc, violates the law by shielding the Spanish renewable energy parent from lawsuits, according to the U.S. government's bankruptcy watchdog, Reuters reported. The objection by the U.S. Trustee, which typically oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases and polices them for conflicts, threatens to derail Abengoa's high-stakes debt restructuring plan to avoid its own bankruptcy in Spain.

Sales of second-hand ships used to haul commodities such as iron ore, coal, grain and fertilizer have hit a seven-year high in 2016 as the industry creeps out of an eight-year downturn that has sunk several fleets of shippers, Reuters reported. Seaborne transport, which accounts for 85 percent of global trade, has seen a tentative recovery in the rates shippers charge to carry dry-bulk cargoes, which has encouraged buyers to jump at the bargain prices for second-hand vessels.

After struggling to pay its debts while oil prices tumbled, Calgary’s Lightstream Resources Ltd. emerged from a “painful” restructuring with a $1.35-billion deal that will clear the way for new production in 2017, the company says, The Calgary Herald reported. Two New York-based debt holders, private equity firm Apollo Global Management and credit-focused investor GSO Capital Partners, will own Lightstream following the deal, which includes swapping their debt for equity. The transaction, expected to close Dec.

Spanish renewable energy and engineering firm Abengoa SA has asked a U.S. bankruptcy court to enjoin legal action and future claims by creditors who are unsatisfied with a high-stakes plan to restructure $10 billion of debt, Reuters reported. Abengoa, a Sevilla-based company with a global renewable energy footprint, put its U.S. subsidiaries in Chapter 11 protection this year and filed for Chapter 15 protection from creditors of non-U.S. businesses while it thrashed out a refinancing deal to avoid becoming Spain's largest-ever corporate failure.

Elevated house prices and record-high debt levels are contributing to worries about Canada’s future economic growth, the head of the country’s national housing agency says, The Wall Street Journal reported. Speaking at the Bank of England on Friday, Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. President Evan Siddall said high house prices in the cities of Vancouver and Toronto have spread to other markets. At the same time, household indebtedness has grown and the concentration of Canadians’ net worth in real estate is near historic highs.

A severe and prolonged economic depression could result in a 25% decline in Canadian house prices by 2021, Canada’s national housing agency says, The Wall Street Journal reported. The estimate was included in a report on stress testing conducted by the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation and released publicly on Thursday. While the agency’s base case scenario is for Canadian house prices to rise about 9.0% between 2017 and 2021, it said several extreme situations could result in price declines over the same period.

The Ontario government is planning a major intervention in Essar Steel Algoma's recovery from insolvency, the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corp. learned today. News of the funding was disclosed this afternoon at a meeting of the EDC board by James Caicco, a local director of Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. (NOHFC), the provincial government's crown corporation and development agency. "We're working on a major, major funding from NOHFC to help in the restructuring," Caicco said.

Mexico's embattled construction firm ICA said on Thursday it has named Guadalupe Phillips as its new chief executive officer, tasked with its ongoing financial restructuring. ICA, struggling under a high dollar-denominated debt load and a dwindling stream of projects, is in the process of restructuring its debt through several of its subsidiaries for about 7.5 billion pesos ($391 million). Phillips, who formerly served as Grupo Televisa Vice President, was named ICA's restructuring director in January. She will report to Bernardo Quintana, president of the ICA board of directors.

Canada Finance Minister Bill Morneau pledged Tuesday to spend additional billions of dollars in infrastructure for the remainder of this decade and beyond as the Liberal government presses ahead with fiscal policy to lift moribund growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. The finance minister issued the details in the government’s fall economic update. The expenditures are necessary to mitigate the fallout from a slow-growth global environment and the hit to Canadian incomes from the commodity-price swoon, he said.