Heenan Blaikie, a Canadian law firm well known for its labor and employment practice, said late on Wednesday its partners had voted to dissolve the firm in the face of financial pressures, making it the largest failure of a law firm in Canadian history, Reuters reported on a Canadian Lawyer story. The Montreal-based firm, which traces its roots back to the 1970s, said the move to wind down operations came after an in-depth analysis of its restructuring options in the current legal market.

Hibu, the Reading-based Yellow Pages company, has placed six US subsidiaries into Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection as the firm attempts to restructure its overseas operations, following the firm’s UK restructuring which started last month, IT Pro Portal reported. Hibu filed with the US Bankruptcy Court in New York, listing over $1 billion (£600 million) in assets and liabilities. Just over half of Hibu’s revenue comes from the US, where it operates the “Yellowbook” (the US version of the Yellow Pages directory) across most states. The firm employs almost 5,000 personnel in America.

Grenada’s proposed debt restructuring could take “considerable time,” according to New York-based ratings firm Standard & Poor’s, Caribbean Journal reported. The firm announced Friday that its “SD,” or selective default, rating on Grenada had remained unchanged. Grenada defaulted in March 2013 on its foreign and local currency debt maturing in 2025, ceasing service on $193 million external debt and EC $184 million in local currency debt.

China's onetime solar-power giant Suntech Power Holdings Co. plans to file for bankruptcy protection in U.S. court as its leaders negotiate with the holders of more than $500 million in U.S. convertible bonds, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. Suntech Power Holdings, which was once the world's largest solar panel maker, defaulted on its U.S. debt in March, and financial professionals in the Cayman Islands—where the holding company is incorporated—have been trying to negotiate a repayment plan with bondholders.

Tuscany International Drilling Inc., a Canadian oil-field services company that operates in South America, sought U.S. bankruptcy court protection from creditors, citing heavy competition and slow payments from customers, Bloomberg News reported. The Calgary-based company listed assets and debt of as much as $500 million each in Chapter 11 papers filed today in Wilmington, Delaware. A Houston-based affiliated holding company also filed for bankruptcy.

Management at Bixi and all their employees received a total of $223,000 in salary bonuses in December, one month before the city-controlled bike-sharing service was forced to file for bankruptcy protection. The company is nearly $50 million in debt, most of which — $38 million — is owed to the City of Montreal, which advanced or guaranteed its loans, The Montreal Gazette reported.

A company which transformed a rooftop parkade into a mass-producing vegetable greenhouse — and touted by Mayor Gregor Robertson as an example of Vancouver’s “booming clean tech sector” — has filed for bankruptcy and owes its creditors more than $4 million, the Vancouver Courier reported. Bankruptcy records show Alterrus Systems Inc. and its subsidiary Local Garden Vancouver Inc. declared bankruptcy Jan. 21 after less than two years of operation at 535 Richards St.

Insolvency petition filings in the Cayman Islands spiked more than 30 per cent in 2013 when compared with 2012, resulting in the highest number of filings in the past three years, according to Appleby, Hedgeweek reported. The increase reversed a downward trend in the number of petitions filed in 2011 and 2012 that had followed high numbers in 2009 and 2010 driven by the global financial crisis, according to the firm’s Snapshot report on petition filings in the Cayman Islands going back to 2008.

Bixi has applied for protection from its creditors and the City of Montreal is taking over the local operation of the popular bike-sharing service, CBC News reported. Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre made the announcement Monday afternoon. “If Bixi can be saved, it’s through the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act," Coderre said. The company that owns Bixi — the Public Bike System Company, known in French as the Société de vélos en libre-service (SVLS) — owes $50 million to various creditors, including the City of Montreal.

A Hong Kong businessman intensified his fight for Fisker Automotive, the bankrupt maker of the plug-in hybrid Karma sports car, seeking an immediate appeal of a ruling that had opened the door for China's Wanxiang Group as a bidder, Reuters reported. The legal team of the businessman, Richard Li, filed an emergency motion late Tuesday seeking permission for a fast-track appeal of a ruling requiring some cash bidding, a day after Li raised his bid for Fisker to $55 million. Without cash bids, Wanxiang did not plan to join the auction. The auction could be held as soon as Feb.