Former UK employees of Nortel Networks, the insolvent Canadian telecoms firm, could receive up to two thirds of their long-deferred pension claims after the US and Canadian courts ruled that the company’s remaining assets should be equally divided among all the insolvent parts of the group. Accountancy firm PwC, a financial adviser to the trustees of the Nortel UK Pension Scheme since the company’s 2009 insolvency, said that the unprecedented joint ruling by the courts could set an example in future insolvency cases involving highly integrated multinational companies.

An operationally troubled thermal oilsands project in northern Alberta, built for nearly half a billion dollars, is to be shut down this summer while its insolvent owner tries to find a solution to its money woes, The Calgary Herald reported. Calgary-based Southern Pacific Resource Corp. said Thursday it will “hibernate” its STP-McKay facility by the end of July, turning off all of the equipment for up to three years while it looks for funding to get it going again. “We’re going to be shutting the plant completely but preserving it so that it can be started up again at a future date.

Thirteen Brazilian and international banks filed a lawsuit in New York on Tuesday against two units of ailing engineering and oil conglomerate Grupo Schahin to recover $371 million in overdue principal and interest on loans, Reuters reported. The lawsuit comes weeks after Schahin sought for protection from creditors in Brazil and the United States, and fired 2,500 workers as a corruption scandal at key client Petróleo Brasileiro SA hampered its efforts to refinance up to 6.5 billion reais ($2.1 billion) in debt.

The Canadian and U.S. judges charged with dividing the $7.3 billion from the liquidation of Nortel Networks rejected proposals from former regional businesses and opted for a pro rata split of the money in long-awaited rulings on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Judges on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware and Ontario Superior Court of Justice held an unprecedented joint cross-border trial on the dispute, with the courtrooms linked by video. The legal battle has raged for years through numerous courts, chewing up more than $1 billion in fees for lawyers and other advisors.

U.S. Steel was able to extend its creditor protection deadline to the fall, although previous court filings suggest the restructuring will go beyond the new September deadline, CBC.ca reported. This is the third extension of U.S. Steel Canada's (USSC) bankruptcy protection for its operations north of the border in Hamilton and Nanticoke. The uncontested extension was signed by Superior Court Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel Thursday.

U.S. Steel has issued a thinly veiled threat to shut down parts of its Canadian operations if its claim to be owed $2.2 billion by its struggling Canadian arm is not allowed, The Hamilton Spectator reported. In court documents filed this week, the company says objections to its claims threaten to slow the restructuring process it says must be complete by mid-summer if it is to avoid losing its critical auto contracts. At issue are objections by the Ontario government, the United Steelworkers, retirees and a former Stelco president to the parent company's claims.

Barclays Plc is entitled to $4 billion in assets stemming from the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapse, as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the bankruptcy trustee for the firm’s brokerage business, Bloomberg News reported. The justices left intact a federal appeals court ruling that said Barclays acquired the assets as part of a hastily drafted purchase agreement in September 2008. Barclays bought most of Lehman’s North American brokerage assets in that deal. The trustee, James Giddens, sought to recoup the money, most of which is already in Barclays’ possession.

Swamped by credit card debt, a growing number of seniors and those approaching retirement are filing for insolvency in Ontario, according to a new report released on Monday, The Toronto Star reported. Bankruptcy trustee firm Hoyes, Michalos & Associates Inc. reviewed data from nearly 6,000 personal insolvencies filed in 2013 and 2014. Three in 10 insolvencies were filed by debtors who were 50 or older, the report found. That’s up from 27 per cent in the firm’s previous study, published in 2013.

Mexican homebuilder Geo said on Monday its main creditors have approved its debt restructuring plan, which the firm hopes will allow it to exit bankruptcy proceedings. Shares in the company, formerly Mexico's no. 1 homebuilder, have been suspended since 2013 for not reporting financial statements. Geo went into bankruptcy protection last April. Under the restructuring plan, 88 percent of Geo's share capital will be distributed among its creditors, 8 percent to its current shareholders, and 4 percent to the administration.

Mexican homebuilder Geo has called a meeting to present a debt restructuring plan, which it hopes will be approved by the majority of its creditors, the company said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The meeting will be on May 6 in Mexico City, Geo said in a notice to the Mexican stock exchange. The company, whose shares have been suspended since 2013 for not reporting financial statements, entered into bankruptcy protection last April.