North America

India's Sterlite Industries and Mexican miner Grupo Mexico squared off in court on Monday and raised their respective bids for bankrupt U.S. copper miner Asarco LLC, which is seeking to end its four-year bankruptcy. Sterlite offered to raise the cash portion of its bid to $1.58 billion, up from $1.1 billion, said Asarco lawyer Jack Kinzie at the start of a court hearing in Texas on Monday. Including a note to creditors with a net present value of $83 million, Sterlite's new bid was worth $1.67 billion, Kinzie told the court.

Ivan Erceg has appointed Peter Jollands as the receiver for Sensation Yachts after Public Trust placed the company into liquidation late last month, The National Business Review reported. Speaking from the South of France, Mr Erceg told NBR that the full debt of Sensation Yachts would not be known until creditors started filing claims.

A flood of objections has come in against the parent company of Asarco LLC, which filed one of three competing reorganization plans for the bankrupt copper mining company, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. The deadline for filing objections to the plan was Wednesday, at which time Asarco told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas that the plan proposed by its parent, Grupo Mexico SAB de CV, was not filed in good faith, not fair and equitable, not feasible, and failed to comply with all provisions necessary to confirm a plan.

Fraser Papers Inc., a Toronto-based forestry company that's restructuring under bankruptcy protection from creditors, said its net loss for the second quarter narrowed by nearly half as the company booked a currency related one-time gain, The Canadian Press reported. Fraser said it lost US$8 million or 36 cents a share for the quarter ended June 30, down from US$15.6 million or 31 cents a share for the same 2008 period. During the second quarter, Fraser booked a net gain of $12.5 million from unwinding its foreign exchange hedging program.

The Nortel sale, which has emerged as a test of Canadian national economic strategy, will come under the spotlight tomorrow when MPs hold an emergency hearing on the auctioning of the bankrupt company's prized wireless equipment business, The Toronto Star reported. The scene is set for a day of tense, high-stakes exchanges as the Commons industry committee questions executives from Nortel Networks Corp. and Ericsson, the Swedish company that bid $1.13 billion (U.S.) for Nortel assets.

Bankrupt telecommunications giant Nortel Networks Inc. reportedly won approval from courts in Canada and the U.S. on Tuesday to sell off its enterprise solutions business for $475 million, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Avaya and Nortel announced the agreement in July, but the courts had yet to approve the move for an auction. Under the deal Avaya would purchase Nortel's enterprise solutions business for $475 million as part of Avaya's effort to broaden its reach and strengthen its position in the telecommunications industry, the company said in a July statement.

Lossmaking Montreal diagnostics specialist Adaltis Inc. said Tuesday it has filed for bankruptcy in Canada to effect an orderly liquidation of assets, property and operations, The Montreal Gazette reported. The filing is voluntary and does not include its Chinese operation. The move also ends the July 3 court-granted protection from creditors, Adaltis said. The position of creditors and other stakeholders won't be known until the liquidation procees is completed, the company added. The directors have resigned and RSM Richter Inc. has been named trustee.

Cuba suspended plans on Friday for a Communist Party congress and lowered its 2009 economic growth projection nearly a full percentage point as its economy struggled through what President Raúl Castro called a “very serious” crisis, The New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. The gathering was expected to chart Cuba’s political future after Mr. Castro and his brother Fidel are gone. Instead, the nation’s leaders will try to pull their country back from the economic brink.

Air Canada has secured a $1-billion lifeline with help from the federal government, giving the carrier a crucial infusion of cash to help it survive the recession and avoid another trip through bankruptcy protection, The Globe and Mail reported. The centrepiece of the financial package is a $600-million loan from a syndicate of lenders.

Canada will not make a decision on whether to review Nortel Networks' $1.13 billion sale of wireless assets to Sweden's Ericsson until after a 21-day appeal period is complete, Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. "We have to first consider whether the Investment Canada Act applies, that's what we're reviewing right now," Clement told reporters in Ottawa. The sale to Ericsson got the blessing of U.S. and Canadian courts on Tuesday. Losing bidders and Nortel creditors can now appeal the ruling.