Pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond (A&B) is in rescue talks with its banks after an attempted rights issue failed on Wednesday, The Guardian reported. Britain's second-biggest pawnbroker admitted that after four months of talks it had been unable to persuade its biggest shareholder, US pawnbroker EZ CORP, to underwrite the proposed £35m cash call. The company is now close to breaching its banking covenants and is "focusing its efforts on constructive discussions with the banks".

The receiver for an Abaco-based resort/marina development, recently appraised at $50 million, yesterday said he was “at the beginning of a long road” in trying to recover debts owed to a $27 billion US bank and other creditors, Tribune 242 reported. Paul ‘Andy’ Gomez, managing partner of Grant Thornton (Bahamas), told Tribune Business he was ultimately looking at selling the 203-acre Orchid Bay Marina and Resort, located on Great Guana Cay, to a new owner.

Tesco's US chain Fresh & Easy has filed for bankruptcy as the next step of the British supermarket's retreat from across the Atlantic, The Guardian reported. The retailer, which is due to reveal its half-year trading figures on Wednesday, has agreed to sell the majority of its US stores to billionaire Ron Burkle, lending his Yucaipa investment vehicle £80m to take on about 150 stores. A further 33 will close while another 20 remain under negotiation.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday took no action on an appeal by the government of Argentina in a closely watched sovereign-debt case, The Wall Street Journal reported. The high court added eight new cases to its docket Tuesday but made no mention of Argentina's appeal. The court could indicate as soon as next Monday what it plans to do with the case. At issue is Argentina's legal fight with holdout creditors that refused to accept the country's debt-restructuring offers after its historic default in 2001.

Small wireless carrier Mobilicity says it has been granted creditor protection by the courts while awaiting a ruling from Industry Canada on an unspecified transaction, CBC News reported. Mobilicity, which has been looking for a buyer, said Monday that creditor protection would give it the necessary time and financing to complete the transaction now before the federal body for review and approval. The Toronto company, which launched in 2010, provided no details about the transaction, but said it was in the best interests of its stakeholders.

The U.S. company whose runaway oil tanker train exploded and killed 47 people in a small Quebec town in July can operate trains through Oct. 18, Canadian regulators said on Thursday in a ruling that prolongs a temporary extension by about two weeks, Reuters reported. But the Canadian Transportation Agency said it had not yet decided whether to grant a request from Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway and its Canadian subsidiary for permission to continue operations until Jan. 15, 2014. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in August, just weeks after the Lac-Megantic disaster.

Bermuda's Supreme Court ruled for the liquidation of Brazilian private-equity firm Laep Investments Ltd, in response to a reuqest by an investment fund, according to a securities filing on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Laep, which is based in Bermuda but mostly operated from its offices in São Paulo, has been under strain in recent years after some of its main investments - including milk producer LBR Lácteos do Brasil SA and high-end luxury retailer Daslú - failed to produce the expected returns.

Long-suffering shareholders of debt-laden junior gas producer Lone Pine Resources Inc. will be left with nothing under a deal struck with its noteholders to trade debt for stock, The Calgary Herald reported. The agreement announced Wednesday, which requires court approval, would result in shareholders having their stock cancelled without compensation while holders of the Calgary company’s debt instruments will wind up in full control.

The slew of objections filed this week in the US bankruptcy proceedings of Irish Bank Resolutions Corporation (IBRC) has delayed by several weeks its bid to protect up to $1 billion of its assets from potential seizure by creditors, the Irish Times reported. Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson of KPMG, the special liquidators of IBRC, had originally sought an emergency hearing at a Delaware court yesterday for Chapter 15 protection. This would protect its US assets from a litany of lawsuits brought against it by US creditors, until the bank’s Irish wind-down was completed.

Belgian financial group Dexia has entered into exclusive talks with New York Life Investments to sell its asset management unit, it said late on Thursday. The group, which has to sell Dexia Asset Management as part of a deal with European regulators in exchange for state aid it received in recent years, did not say how much New York Life Investments planned to offer. Dexia had initially agreed to sell the asset management arm to Hong Kong-based GCS Capital for 380 million euros ($507 million), but that deal fell through in July.