North America

The owner of a British Columbia newspaper group has joined the bidding for bankrupt Canwest Global Communications Corp's newspaper assets, Reuters reported on a Globe and Mail story. The bid from David Black, founder of Black Press Ltd, will compete with offers from at least six other bidders for publications including Canwest's flagship National Post, the Ottawa Citizen and Montreal Gazette, the Globe report said. Platinum Equity LLC, a California private equity firm, is the most likely backer of Black's bid, the Globe reported, citing unnamed sources.

Nortel Networks Corp said it received U.S. and Canadian court approval for the sale of its carrier Voice over Internet Protocol and application solutions business to Genband Inc for about $182 million, Reuters reported. The company received orders from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approving the asset sale agreement with Genband, Nortel said in a statement.

New Brunswick's finance minister is cautiously optimistic that a rescue plan can be found for the Atcon group of companies, the Winnipeg Free Press reported on a Canadian Press story. Greg Byrne says he is pleased a court-appointed monitor has been given two weeks to seek a solution to keep the Miramichi-based companies afloat. Scotiabank is seeking creditor protection for three of the Atcon group of companies and a receiver for the rest, but on Monday a judge appointed Ernst and Young Inc. to determine how, or if, the companies can be restructured or sold.

Courts in Canada and the United States have rebuffed a British pension regulator's attempt to drag Nortel Networks Corp. into a separate legal battle in the United Kingdom over a multibillion-dollar claim, a Nortel lawyer said, allowing the company to focus on the liquidation of its global assets, The Globe and Mail reported. The British Pensions Regulator had been trying to argue a $3.4-billion claim on behalf of Nortel's 40,000-plus pensioners in the U.K., where Nortel's collapse triggered a pension crisis.

A Gatineau newsprint mill followed its owner into bankruptcy protection Wednesday, the latest victim of hard times in the newspaper industry, The Ottawa Citizen reported. Papier Masson is one of three mills in Quebec and another in Virginia affected by the decision of White Birch Paper, the parent company, to seek protection from creditor suits in the U.S. and Canada. The Papier Masson mill, formerly owned by James Maclaren Industries and Noranda, had 195 employees when White Birch bought it in 2005.

Signature Aluminum Canada Inc. has until the end of the week to present a viable restructuring plan before its court-appointed stay of proceedings expires, opening the floodgates for creditors looking to force the struggling company into full-blown bankruptcy, American Metal Market reported.

Catania Chile SA, an independent company and a division of M.L. Catania Co. Ltd., has halted operations in Chile and filed for bankruptcy protection, trade publication The Packer reported. Paul Catania Jr., executive vice president of the Toronto-based parent company, confirmed the closing of Catania Chile and the bankruptcy filing. Catania declined to comment until the matter is resolved in Chilean courts. Of the 513,000 cartons of fruit Catania Chile exported during the 2007-08 season, about 25%, 127,000 cartons, went to the U.S. and Canada.

For the second time in less than five weeks, China’s central bank has moved to limit lending to consumers and businesses by ordering big commercial banks to park a larger share of their deposits at the central bank, The New York Times reported. The step, announced late Friday, came earlier than most economists had expected and was aimed at forestalling a rekindling of inflation by controlling a rapid expansion in bank loans. Families, real estate developers and industrial companies have been borrowing heavily and have started paying more for everything from food to apartments.

Nortel Networks Corp. and units that filed for creditor protection in Canada have reached a settlement agreement on certain matters regarding former Canadian employees, including the company's Canadian registered pension plans, Dow Jones reported. Under the agreement, the former Canadian technology icon will continue to administer the pension plans until Sept. 30. After that date, the plans will be transitioned to a new administrator appointed by the Superintendent of Financial Services.

IT firm Zylog Systems today said it has acquired Canada-based consulting and engineering company Brainhunter for 35 million Canadian dollars (around Rs 150 crore), the Business Standard reported. "This acquisition is through Creditors Arrangement Act bidding process where Zylog emerged as the successful bidder," the company said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Brainhunter is into consulting and engineering services in Canada with major presence in government, telecom, BFSI, and oil & pipeline verticals.