Canada's Davie Yards reports that it has obtained an order from the Quebec Superior Court extending the stay of proceedings ordered by the court under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act to January 21, 2011, MarineLog reported. The shipbuilder says the extension will allow it to continue discussions with potential industrial investors, to pursue its efforts to qualify for the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy , and to develop and eventually submit a plan of arrangement to its creditors under the CCAA.

Vitro SAB offered to buy back or swap $1.2 billion in debt from bondholders as the company prepares to seek bankruptcy protection before the end of the year. The bonds jumped and shares climbed to the highest in more than two years, Bloomberg reported. Mexico’s largest glassmaker will file for bankruptcy in Mexico and under Chapter 15 in the U.S. within the next two months, Chief Restructuring Officer Claudio del Valle said in a conference call with reporters today. Debt holders may get as much as 73 cents on the dollar under the terms proposed today, the Monterrey-based company said.

The government debt burden shouldered by employees in the rich world will more than double between 2007 and 2015 as an ageing population puts rising strain on welfare and health systems in advanced economies. In new calculations for the Financial Times, Eswar Prasad, a former International Monetary Fund official now at the Brookings Institution and Cornell University, finds that the rich economies will owe a rapidly rising share of public debt worldwide, while contributing relatively less to global growth.

In the spacious quarters once occupied by CanWest scion Leonard Asper sits affable executive Paul Robertson, finally ready to begin his duties at the helm of Shaw Media, The Globe and Mail reported. It’s the final culmination of a process that started just over a year ago, when CanWest’s TV assets entered restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, unable to overcome a crushing debt load. On Wednesday, the broadcasting business emerged from creditor protection under new owners Shaw Communications.

Anglo Irish Bank’s former chief executive David Drumm has until Friday next to file a statement of his assets and liabilities in his bankruptcy proceedings in the US, the Commercial Court in Dublin heard yesterday, The Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Peter Kelly adjourned Anglo’s actions against Mr Drumm and his wife as a result of Mr Drumm’s unexpected decision earlier this month to file for voluntary bankruptcy in the US.

The muddy big 1.33-hectare hole that is the failed $250 million Soho Square development in Auckland's Ponsonby could soon be alive with construction crews, with first mortgagee United States hedge fund Fortress cleared by the High Court to buy the site, Stuff.co.nz reported on a Dominion Post story.

The London-based administrator of Awal Bank BSC said the Bahraini institution filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. in an attempt to wrest back payments made to its creditors in the U.S. before regulators seized the bank, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Awal, which filed for Chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Friday, was placed into administration in its home country in July 2009. The bank gained recognition of its foreign proceeding in U.S. courts, known as Chapter 15 bankruptcy, last year.

Cable company Shaw Communications can proceed with its C$2 billion ($1.94 billion) purchase of the television assets of distressed media company Canwest Global, Canada's telecom and broadcaster regulator said on Friday, Reuters reported. "We are satisfied that this transaction will generate substantial benefits for the Canadian broadcasting system," Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said in a statement.

Bernard Callebaut's bid to keep his company has failed. The high-end chocolate business that bears his name went into receivership in August, with ATB Financial claiming Callebaut owed close to $4 million, CBC News reported. Receiver Deloitte and Touche recommended last week that the company's assets be sold to a numbered company backed by former Callebaut vice-president of operations Brian Beck and a dealer with three stores in Edmonton. Callebaut and his lawyers contested that bid Wednesday, but on Thursday a judge rejected Callebaut's attempt to buy the business back.

Bahrain-based Awal Bank BSC, controlled by Saudi Arabia's Saad Group and Saudi businessman Maan Al-Sanea, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, Reuters reported. According to its Chapter 11 petition filed with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan, Awal has between $50 million and $100 million of assets, and more than $1 billion of liabilities. Saad Investments Co owns a 48 percent stake in the bank and Al-Sanea owns 47 percent, the petition shows.