Japanese private-equity fund Advantage Partners LLP is in talks with creditors about giving up board seats at Tokyo Star Bank Ltd. and control over the eventual sale of the lender, a person familiar with the matter said, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Dallas-based investor Lone Star Funds and other lenders are discussing with Advantage Partners restructuring the roughly Y160 billion in loans, worth $1.9 billion at current exchange rates, that the Japanese fund took out to buy Tokyo Star, according to people familiar with the matter.

Industrial parts maker NN Inc. said Thursday that it is halting operations at its German manufacturing plant, which has filed for local bankruptcy protection, Bloomberg reported. NN said the global recession and rising cost of operating in Germany forced it to close the Kugelfertigung Eltmann factory, which makes precision steel balls for industrial and aerospace customers. "Unfortunately, we cannot forecast an improvement in the operations of Eltmann to reverse this condition for the foreseeable future," said Chairman and CEO Roderick Baty said in a statement.

Airline Mexicana de Aviacion, grounded last year amid bankruptcy proceedings, carried out two test flights Thursday in what authorities hope to be a harbinger of the company's eventual relaunch, Dow Jones reported. Two Airbus A320s, operated by Mexicana, flew to Acapulco from Mexico City and back to re-certify their engines, Labor Minister Javier Lozano said in a posting on his Twitter account. "Next week there will be more Mexicana flights for the company's certification," he said.

It's the end of the line for the dream of building a world-class metakaolin plant in the Wood Mountain area of south-central Saskatchewan. Last month, Whitemud Resources was ordered into receivership by its major lender, Canadian Western Bank, and $67 million of the company's assets were put up for sale to the highest bidder, The Star Phoenix reported. The Calgary-based company had suspended operations in November after a financing proposal by Werklund Capital Corp. was withdrawn.

Aviacsa is expected to receive authorization from IFECOM, Mexico’s insolvency regulator, and the Ministry of Communications and Transport (SCT) to exit bankruptcy this week, ElEconomista.mx reported. According to figures that have been released, the airline has debts of 1.7 billion pesos, including a 950 million peso liability to Mexico’s tax authority, Servicio de Administración Tributaria (SAT). In August 2009, a federal judge granted Aviacsa entry to concurso proceedings, weeks after the SCT suspended flight operations for safety violations.

Canadian telecommunications-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. disclosed a change in accounting would result in a noncash charge of over $2 billion in the fourth quarter, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The company said the charge is primarily related to the recognition of intercompany liabilities between the Canadian and U.S. units that previously were eliminated upon the consolidation of financial results. Nortel on Thursday said it determined the company's U.S.

Pensioners of insolvent forestry company Fraser Papers Inc. voted Monday to strike down the company's restructuring proposal, saying they could not accept a clause that would absolve the company from any legal wrongdoing, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, which represents about 1,900 active and retired employees in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, says it and other major creditors, including the Superintendent of Pensions for New Brunswick, voted to reject the plan at a meeting Monday in Toronto.

Canada's Superintendent of Bankruptcy issued a warning to Canadians about the dangers of high household debt Friday, adding his voice to the chorus from officials concerned about the amount of leverage the average resident now has, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.

Kathleen Dwyer, the court-appointed trustee for David Drumm’s estate, trawled through his Irish and US bank accounts yesterday, at the former Anglo chief executive’s third bankruptcy hearing in Boston, the Irish Times reported. Yesterday’s hearing highlighted the awkward duty of Ms Dwyer to maximise the amount of Mr Drumm’s estate so it can be distributed to his creditors, while at the same time suing his main creditor, Anglo.

When Maritime Steel and Foundries Ltd. closed its doors on New Year's Eve, it may have been the final time, The News reported. The century-old New Glasgow foundry was forced into receivership last week when its parent company called in a $17.75 million loan and the subsidiary couldn’t repay it. Cameron Corp. Ltd. went before the Supreme Court in Halifax Thursday and filed bankruptcy papers against Maritime Steel. BDO Canada Ltd. was appointed as receiver for the facility.