Warring Nine Entertainment lenders remained intransigent Monday ahead of this morning's crucial meeting, which could result in the appointment of receivers, The Australian reported. Nine chairman Peter Bush and chief executive David Gyngell will host a 9am session at the Sydney offices of law firm Gilbert + Tobin, to be attended by representatives of US hedge funds Apollo and Oaktree, and Goldman Sachs. At issue is Nine's $3.3 billion debt, with $2.3bn in senior debt classified as current ahead of its February maturity.

A weekend gathering of the world's top finance officials deepened conflicts among some of the largest economies, raising fresh doubts about their ability to find big steps quickly to boost the flagging global recovery, The Wall Street Journal reported. At the annual meetings in Tokyo of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, European officials bickered about the damage caused by austerity; this week they head into a major euro-zone summit with no clear rescue plan for Greece.

Two Canadian pork processors are among those expressing interest in Canada's second-biggest hog producer, Big Sky Farms, which is looking for new ownership after soaring feed costs left it unable to pay its bills, the Regina Leader-Post reported. Big Sky, which produces about one million pigs per year and is based near Humboldt, entered receivership in early September. Manitoba-based hog producer Pu-ratone Corp. is also up for sale, after entering court protection from creditors last month. Both Toronto-based Maple Leaf Foods and Quebec-based Olymel L.P.

The global economy risks skidding toward recession just three years after pulling out of the previous one, the International Monetary Fund warned, adding that fighting a renewed world-wide downturn will be much more complex than it was in 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported. "Risks for a serious global slowdown are alarmingly high," said the IMF's World Economic Outlook report, which was released here Tuesday ahead of the fund's annual fall meeting. It was its bleakest assessment of global growth prospects since the 2009 recession.

Vitro SAB, the Mexican glassmaker seeking to salvage its restructuring, urged an appeals court to enforce its bankruptcy plan in the U.S. over opposition from hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. and other creditors, Bloomberg reported. Vitro is facing “legal chaos” with a bankruptcy plan that’s valid in Mexico and unenforceable in the U.S., Vitro attorney Andrew Leblanc told the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans today. “Vitro would be crippled in the United States” if a bankruptcy judge’s decision that denied enforcement of the plan in the U.S. is upheld, Leblanc said.

Belize and its creditors are negotiating a debt restructuring proposal, according to a statement posted to the website of the country's central bank, Dow Jones reported. Belize defaulted in September, a month after it failed to make a payment on its $548.3 million debt. The government and its creditors have been negotiating for several weeks, but the statement, posted Tuesday, was the first public sign of progress. "I think at this point they're getting ready to formalize an offer," said Edward Al-Hussainy, an analyst at Moody's Investors Services.

Shareholders have been quietly shoved aside in the court-ordered restructuring of Sino-Forest Corp. — and they feel a lack of legal counsel is partly to blame, the Financial Post reported. Last week, veteran Bay Street lawyer Joe Groia agreed to take up the case of disgruntled Sino shareholders, who are furious about their treatment during the CCAA process. But he may be too late.

General Motors Co on Friday dismissed claims made in a $3 billion lawsuit filed by Saab's parent that the U.S. automaker deliberately bankrupted the Swedish company by blocking a deal with a Chinese investor, Reuters reported. GM, in a response filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, said the automaker had the legal right to approve Saab's transaction with China's Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. "The nub of plaintiffs' complaint is that GM declined to approve the transaction plaintiffs proposed to enter into with Youngman," GM said in the filings.

Troubled Chinese forestry company Sino-Forest Corp., which has been accused of being a massive fraud, said Thursday that its former chief financial officer David Horsley is no longer employed by the firm, The Canadian Press reported. Horsley, who stepped down as chief financial officer in April after receiving an enforcement notice from the Ontario Securities Commission, had continued to work at the company to help with its restructuring. No reason was given for his departure in the brief statement by Sino-Forest announcing the change.

As banks in Europe and America scrabble to meet stricter capital requirements, made necessary by the failures of their own exotic lending practices, Mexico is offering some a lifeline, The Economist reported. On September 26th Santander, a Spanish bank, plans to list a quarter of its Mexican subsidiary on stock exchanges in Mexico City and New York. It has already listed subsidiaries in Brazil, Chile and Peru, as well as selling its Colombian unit.