AbitibiBowater took another step towards ending 18 months of court protection from creditors when its restructuring plan won the required support from a majority of its U.S. creditors, the Canadian Press reported. As was the case last week with votes in Canada, creditors of Bowater Canada Finance Corp. failed to approve the plan. Aurelius Capital Management and Contrarian Capital Management opposed the plan as noteholders of the special purpose subsidiary which has no operating assets. BCFC will be excluded from the Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S.

Several U.S. airports, including New York's John F. Kennedy International, said Compania Mexicana de Aviacion has failed to make a promised Sept. 15 payment to them, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In papers filed Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, the airports demanded additional protections for the amounts owed to them, including the right to tap certain letters of credit and to take back space assigned to Mexicana in their facilities, after the Mexican airline reneged on a promise to pay fees.

Canadian newsprint maker AbitibiBowater Inc. said Tuesday that a majority of its unsecured creditors have approved its plan for reorganization under Canadian bankruptcy law, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported. The Montreal-based company filed for bankruptcy protection more than a year ago and has been soliciting votes from creditors. The company's plan will require creditor approval and confirmation by the U.S. and Canadian Courts. AbitibiBowater said it has received the votes it needs, except with respect to Bowater Canada Finance Corp., a special-purpose subsidiary with no operating assets.

Riviera Marine (Int.) Pty Ltd., part of a group of Australian companies that manufacture and sell luxury boats, is seeking bankruptcy protection in the U.S., Trade Only Today reported. Riviera CEO John Anderson said in a statement that the filing is not a new proceeding, but "merely a request that the U.S. courts recognize the [Deed of Company Arrangement] process, which was officially completed by Riviera in June 2010 and that allows us to complete our restructure of both our Australian and U.S. operations." The U.S. filing follows a voluntary administration in Australia.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Goldman Sachs as the investment bank was today handed down a multimillion-pound fine by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), LegalWeek reported. The regulator has ordered the investment banking giant to pay £17.5m as a penalty for neglecting to inform it that its executive director Fabrice Toure was subject to a fraud investigation by US financial authorities when he became an FSA-approved person upon relocating to the UK in 2008.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is challenging AbitibiBowater Inc. over Chapter 11 plan provisions he says violate the Bankruptcy Code and rob taxing authorities of the rights to recoup past taxes, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., Abbott invoked a March U.S. Supreme Court ruling that he says puts the court under a duty to reject AbitibiBowater's Chapter 11 plan. The high court's decision came in a case involving student-loan debt.

A judge has granted bankruptcy protection to ailing Mexicana airline, which indefinitely suspended all its flights last month, judicial sources said Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported. The group has one year to restructure and avoid bankruptcy, judge Felipe Consuelo Soto, from the Federal Judicial Council, said in the ruling late Monday. The judge called for the Communications and Transportation Ministry to name a new administrator to deal with the airline's creditors within five days.

Mexico's government is hopeful that the troubles of grounded airline company Mexicana will be resolved in time for the December travel season, when millions of local and foreign tourists will flock to resorts such as Cancun for holidays, a government official said. "Our goal must be that Mexicana returns to the skies by the December high season," Labor Minister Javier Lozano said at a press conference Wednesday, according to a transcript from the ministry, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.

A Barclays PLC accounting executive said Thursday that the $45.5 billion price placed on Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collateral was a fair-market number reached after valuing Lehman assets, not an agreed upon discount price to sweeten the deal for Barclays, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Gary Romain, head of technical accounting for Barclays, testified Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan in Lehman's lawsuit accusing Barclays of arranging a "secret" $5 billion discount when it purchased Lehman's broker-dealer unit in September 2008.

Metrofinanciera SA, a closely held provider of mortgage loans in Mexico, sought bankruptcy court protection from U.S. creditors, Bloomberg reported. The company, based in Monterrey, Mexico listed both debt and assets of more than $500 million in Chapter 15 documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi, Texas. Chapter 15 protects foreign companies from U.S. lawsuits and creditor claims while a company reorganizes abroad.