Sino-Forest Corp.'s second-largest shareholder has joined calls for the Canadian-Chinese timber company to make interest payments on outstanding debt, signalling a battle could be brewing between equity and bondholders over the firm's assets, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Davis Advisors, which owns about 17% of Sino-Forest, urged the company to reconsider its decision against making an almost $10 million interest payment that was due Thursday on some of its convertible bonds, given Sino-Forest maintains it's a going concern with real assets.

U.S. hedge fund Elliott Advisers LP is suing Vietnamese state-run shipbuilder Vinashin in the U.K. High Court, according to a filing seen by The Wall Street Journal. Vinashin defaulted on a $600 million syndicated loan last December, when the first repayment of $60 million was due. Other investors in the loan, which was arranged by Credit Suisse AG in 2007, include Dublin-based Depfa Bank PLC and Malayan Banking Bhd., as well as Credit Suisse.

A fight between Vitro SAB and its creditors is heating up, as a New York judge ruled that the Mexican glass maker must honor more than $1 billion in debt obligations to a group of disgruntled bondholders, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The decision by New York Supreme Court Judge Bernard J. Fried, signed Monday, came one day before Vitro announced that creditors holding 74% of its debt have signed off on its restructuring plan in Mexico.

General Motors Co said on Tuesday it would not support a proposed ownership structure for Saab that included a Chinese bank, moving the Swedish auto company closer to liquidation, Reuters reported. "We have reviewed Saab's proposed changes regarding the sale of the company," GM spokesman James Cain said in a statement. "Nothing in the proposal changes GM's position. We are unable to support the transaction." GM has said it would be difficult to support a sale of Saab that hurts GM's competitive position in China and other key markets.

The Supreme Court of Canada will weigh into the high-stakes debate about whether pension plan members have a claim on an insolvent company’s assets to cover shortfalls in their plan, The Globe and Mail reported. The court announced Thursday it has agreed to hear an appeal of a landmark Ontario court ruling that reversed the traditional pecking order for distributing corporate assets when a company goes bankrupt. The April decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal concluded former employees of aluminum processor Indalex Ltd.

The world's major central banks acted jointly on Wednesday to provide cheaper dollar funding to European banks facing a credit crunch as the euro zone's debt crisis drove EU ministers to urge more IMF help to avert financial disaster, Reuters reported. The emergency move by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the central banks of Japan, Britain, Canada and Switzerland recalled coordinated action to stabilise global markets in the 2008 financial crisis after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Oilsands Quest Inc. filed for protection from creditors under Canadian law after an unidentified buyer backed out of an agreement to acquire some of its assets, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The court granted protection under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act until Dec. 21 to allow the company to reorganize its financial affairs while continuing operations, Calgary-based Oilsands Quest said in a statement.

Vitro SAB, the Mexican glassmaker that defaulted on $1.5 billion of bonds, probably won’t conclude its debt restructuring by year-end as the company anticipates, the court-appointed arbitrator in the proceedings said, Bloomberg reported. External creditors, who oppose Vitro’s restructuring proposal, will raise more legal challenges with the judge in the case, arbitrator Javier Navarro-Velasco said by telephone from Monterrey, Mexico. He will present the proposal to the judge by Dec.

General Maritime Corp., the second-largest U.S. owner of oil tankers, can draw $30 million of a $75 million loan that will require it to file a plan of reorganization in 75 days or sell all its assets, Bloomberg reported Friday. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan court today approved the company’s request to borrow funds from Nordea Bank Finland Plc and other lenders. The company, which operates in over 230 ports of call in over 70 countries, filed for bankruptcy yesterday after falling oil demand and a surplus of ships led to two years of losses.

Back in 2003, an investment in Calgary-based Birch Mountain Resources Ltd. seemed like a sure thing. The junior resource company was sitting on a massive limestone deposit in the middle of Alberta’s booming oil sands, where it used for roads and concrete. Despite its promise, by 2007 Birch Mountain had run into trouble as oil sands development slowed, The Globe and Mail reported. The company sought bridge financing (ultimately about $50-million, mostly in debentures that could be converted into shares) from subsidiaries of Brookfield Asset Management Inc.