North America

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in orders and enough public support and goodwill to sink a ship, Canada's oldest and most prestigious shipyard, Davie Yard, is once again floundering. And it risks going under for good if a major financial or strategic investor isn't found by Sept. 15, The Montreal Gazette reported. "We're looking for a third party to invest or to buy assets," said Pierre Laporte, a chartered accountant and bankruptcy trustee with Samson Belair Deloitte Touche, who has been in charge of the file since Feb.

Peru's Ministry for Mining and Energy said Tuesday it will begin the process of winding down Doe Run Peru's management of the country's only polymetallic smelter. Doe Run, a unit of U.S.-based Renco Group Inc., could also face insolvency and environmental proceedings against it by Peru's regulatory bodies, Osinergmin and OEFA, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Osinergmin supervises energy and mining investments, while OEFA is charged with the evaluation of environmental affairs.

Canada's BCE Inc. has agreed to pay $40 million cash and drop $500 million worth of claims to settle litigation over the collapse of Teleglobe Communications Corp., a failed subsidiary, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., set out terms of the pact, which caps five years of litigation in courts in the U.S. and Canada. The deal means cash for bondholders of Teleglobe and a smaller pile of debt in the bankruptcy case, a product of the telecommunications industry meltdown of 2000 and 2001.

Bankrupt Canadian newsprint producer AbitibiBowater Inc said it repaid $166 million of its debtor-in-possession loan following an improvement in market conditions and operational performance, Reuters reported. In regulatory filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it now had $40 million outstanding under the loan. AbitibiBowater also extended the DIP loan to Dec. 31, 2010, and modified certain covenants. It now has the ability to retain the proceeds from asset sales without triggering a mandatory prepayment. The amendment fee amounted to about $1 million.

AbitibiBowater Inc. is seeking to keep control of its restructuring for an extra three months so it can stay on track to emerge from bankruptcy early this fall, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The giant pulp-and-paper manufacturer is urging the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., to extend the time in which it alone has the right to file a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization, which AbitibiBowater has already filed but is continuing to negotiate the terms of with its creditors. If the court doesn't agree to extend its exclusive plan-filing rights through Oct.

Mexico's third-largest retail chain, Comercial Mexicana, aims to resume modest expansion next year with a handful of new stores once it completes its $1.54 billion pre-packaged debt-restructuring agreement, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Growth at Comercial Mexicana, which runs 231 stores and 73 restaurants, has been virtually on hold since October 2008 when blowout losses on foreign exchange derivatives - wrong-way bets on the Mexican peso - led to a debt default and the restructuring process, which is expected to be concluded within months.

Almatis Group said it has lined up $592 million to fund a potential restructuring plan that would see it exit bankruptcy under the ownership of Dubai International Capital, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In court papers filed Monday, the aluminum company said it expects to ask the bankruptcy court shortly for permission to strike a deal with various firms that are willing to back the Chapter 11 plan of reorganization that current Almatis owner Dubai International Capital wants to sponsor.

A Mexican provider of tourism services at a beachfront hotel in Cozumel filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported. Cozumel Caribe SA blamed its bankruptcy filing on the “drastic” drop in foreign tourists visiting the Hotel Park Royal Cozumel, from where the company operates.

Online reservation company 1800Hotels has continued to make “numerous” holiday bookings even after seeking bankruptcy protection last Tuesday, a leading US travel company has claimed to a Florida court, The Irish Times reported. Mark Travel, which handles reservations for major tour operators, said the firm’s Dublin-based parent company was trying to compel it to take these bookings without showing any ability to pay. The bankruptcy laws were supposed to act “as a shield, not a sword.

The future of BP PLC has shifted in recent days from a death-watch discussion to a debate about how valuable the British oil giant will be after it finishes paying for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, the Associated Press reported. BP gained temporary control of its broken well in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday and is counting on shutting it off permanently within weeks. Its shares have regained more than a quarter of the value lost in the wake of the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.