The Ontario government is considerably downsizing a proposed super pension fund that would manage the retirement savings of public-sector workers, The Globe and Mail reported. The government was planning to create a pooled fund to manage the pension plans for employees in community colleges, many universities and the province's largest public sector union. But under a new accord with the government, two of the pension plans have been exempted from becoming part of the proposed fund.

D&M Publishers has announced that it is restructuring and has filed for creditor protection under the provisions of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. The Vancouver-based publisher, which publishes under three separate imprints including Douglas & McIntyre, Greystone Books and New Society Publishers, says it will be working with financial advisory services company the Bowra Group to locate an investor or purchaser for its assets, The Globe and Mail reported. New Society Publishers Inc. is a separate legal entity and its business activities will continue as usual.

Ontario has the greatest risk of defaulting on its debt payments in the next 20 years, while energy-rich Alberta places a surprisingly close second in a ranking of provinces seen as most vulnerable to suffering a Europe-style financial crisis, The Globe and Mail reported. “In the medium to long term, public finances in several provinces are unsustainable, raising the spectre of debt crises, damaged credit ratings and federal bailouts if corrective steps are not taken,” according to a report released Thursday by the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Nine Entertainment has avoided receivership, with the company's warring lenders reaching an agreement in principle this afternoon, The Australian reported. The US hedge funds Apollo and Oaktree, which are the biggest holders of Nine’s $2.28 billion in senior debt, conceded some extra ground, giving investment bank Goldman Sachs’ mezzanine debt funds a 4.5 per cent stake in a recapitalised, debt-free Nine. Previously, the funds were only prepared to concede a 4 per cent stake.

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.

An indirect subsidiary of financially troubled real estate company Homburg Invest Inc. has received US$24 million from the sale of some of its U.S. assets, The Gazette reported on a Canadian Press story. Homburg Invest, which is under creditor protection in Canada, said Monday that Homburg Holdings (U.S.) Inc. stands to make up to an additional US$1.5 million on the sale of holdings related to its joint venture arrangements with Cedar Realty Trust Inc. if certain conditions are met. Homburg said that on Oct.

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.