Compania Mexicana de Aviacion is unlikely to resume operations after grounding all its flights over the weekend, four weeks after filing for bankruptcy protection in Mexico and the U.S., UBS AG said, Bloomberg reported. That will initially curb air traffic and hurt airport operators, including Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste SAB, Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico SAB and Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte SAB, UBS analysts Tomas Lajous and Luis Galvez wrote today in an e-mailed note. “We expect this should be permanent,” the analysts wrote.
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Mexicana Airlines shut down all flights on Saturday, marking at least a temporary disappearance from the skies of one of the world's oldest air carriers, the Economic Times reported. Some airlines offered preferential deals to Mexican passengers scrambling to find alternatives, but many were baffled by how to get home. The loss of Grupo Mexicana flights eliminated much of the air service to many Mexican cities.
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Truvo Group's unsecured creditors say the European directory publisher's proposed plan to hand control of the company to its senior lenders is a "sham," Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In papers filed Thursday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, the creditors allege that the Chapter 11 filing by Truvo USA and four other holding companies at the top of Truvo Group's corporate structure is a scheme to sever unsecured bondholders' liens against the company's operating assets and push through a debt-for-equity swap with secured lenders.
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The largest single shareholder of Onco Petroleum is trying to pry the troubled company’s affairs out the hands of a court-appointed receiver, The London Free Press reported. Terri Ramage, wife of Onco founder and former president Robert Vanier, said Onco officials and the receiver are acting without the consent of Onco’s 1,441 shareholders. She wants the receivership halted and a shareholder meeting convened. “Shareholders will suffer irreparable harm if the annulments are not granted,” she said Thursday in Windsor court.
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Insolvent Nortel Networks Corp. has a preliminary agreement to sell its Multi Service Switch business for US$39 million in cash, The Canadian Press reported. The former Canadian technology giant, which is being dismantled and sold under court protection, said the bid was submitted by PSP Holding LLC, an entity formed by Ottawa-based Samnite Technologies Inc. and Marlin Equity Partners. The Multi Service Switch business provides non-optical equipment and as of last fall employed about 300 people. Nortel did not provide current employee numbers in its announcement.
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AbitibiBowater Inc., the world’s biggest newsprint maker by capacity, won court approval to borrow as much as $1.35 billion to help fund its exit from bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey gave the company permission to obtain the funds after no objection to the financing proposals was filed, according to court documents filed yesterday in Wilmington, Delaware. Units of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc. will be the agents for a $600 million asset-based loan and each will contribute $100 million, court papers show.
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Mexican auto-parts company Sanluis Corporacion SAB said Wednesday that its unit Sanluis Co-Inter has filed for bankruptcy protection as it seeks to restructure its debt, Dow Jones reported. At the end of June, Sanluis Co-Inter defaulted on $88.1 million in notes that were issued in 2002 under a debt refinancing, prompting holders of around $132 million in mandatorily convertible debentures due June 2011 to accelerate payment, demanding cash. The default of the June 2010 notes came after Sanluis rescheduled $146 million in bank debt, to which the Co-Inter notes are subordinate.
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Canada agreed Tuesday to pay newsprint maker AbitibiBowater more than $100 million to settle the company's claim over what it said was an illegal seizure of its assets, the Associated Press reported. The forestry giant had sought $500 million under the provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement after Canada's Atlantic-coast province of Newfoundland expropriated some of its assets.
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A potential "white knight" offer has emerged for Tagish Lake Gold Corp., which has been fending off a takeover by New Pacific Metals Corp, The Canadian Press reported. Tagish Lake said Monday it has been approached by YS Mining Company Inc. and its two shareholders, Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. and Northwest Nonferrous International Investment Company Ltd. They are proposing the formation of a new company to own Tagish's Mt. Kukum property and YNG's Ketza River gold property.
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