South America

Argentina's national gas regulator, Enargas, has again extended its intervention in Transportadora de Gas del Norte SA, or TGN, one of Argentina's leading gas distribution companies, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The extension will last for another 45 days, according to a statement TGN sent to the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange late Tuesday. Last year TGN said it would restructure $347 million in debt.

Peru's government bankruptcy agency, Indecopi, said Tuesday it has officially opened an investigation into Doe Run Peru's financial situation, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. An Indecopi spokeswoman said creditors have 30 days as of Monday to file credit recovery paperwork. The government has taken a hard line against the company in recent weeks, saying it would start the legal and regulatory process of removing Doe Run's ownership of the plant in the town of La Oroya.

Youth unemployment across the world has climbed to a new high and is likely to climb further this year, a United Nations agency said Thursday, while warning of a “lost generation” as more young people give up the search for work, The New York Times reported. The agency, the International Labor Organization, said in a report that of some 620 million young people ages 15 to 24 in the work force, about 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009 — the highest level in two decades of record-keeping by the organization, which is based in Geneva.

Peru's Ministry for Mining and Energy said Tuesday it will begin the process of winding down Doe Run Peru's management of the country's only polymetallic smelter. Doe Run, a unit of U.S.-based Renco Group Inc., could also face insolvency and environmental proceedings against it by Peru's regulatory bodies, Osinergmin and OEFA, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Osinergmin supervises energy and mining investments, while OEFA is charged with the evaluation of environmental affairs.

Argentine highway operator Autopistas del Sol SA, or Ausol, has again extended the closing date for a restructuring offer as many creditors continue to turn up their noses at the deal, Dow Jones reported. The restructuring offer was set to end on June 17, but has been extended again until July 16, Ausol said in an exchange filing. The offer was first made in January, and has been extended several times. So far, only 42% of the company's bondholders, representing almost $130 million, have accepted the proposal, virtually unchanged from the acceptance rate seen last month.

Argentina's government on Thursday stepped in to run the country's biggest natural gas distribution company, Metrogas SA, after Metrogas said it doesn't have enough cash to make debt payments and filed for bankruptcy protection in a local court, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Argentina's Planning Ministry rejected Metrogas' pleas for a tariff increase, instead blaming the company's heavy debt load undertaken prior to an economic collapse of 2001, and which it said "bears no relation" to Metrogas' investments.

Argentina’s new 2017 bonds sank in their first day of trading as the government began turning over the securities to investors as part of its restructuring of defaulted debt, BusinessWeek reported on a Bloomberg story. The 8.75 percent notes tumbled to 80.85 cents on the dollar from their issue price of 90.11 cents, Stone Harbor Investment Partners said. Argentina began issuing $738 million of the bonds today to institutional investors who participated in an early tender period.

Argentina extended the deadline for a debt swap aimed at helping the nation recover its credit standing to June 22 at the request of Italian banks, Economy Minister Amado Boudou said. The official said Italian banks had asked for the extension at a time when global financial markets are in turmoil over debt issues in Europe, Agence France-Presse reported. So far, officials said around 45 percent of holders of more than 50,000 dollars in debt have accepted the swap, and the government hopes to get 60-percent participation.

The Argentine government says it will offer $20 billion in new debt starting Monday in a long-awaited effort to resolve its default, BusinessWeek reported on an AP story. The debt swap comes as Greece struggles to avoid a default that could damage economies all across the European Union. After Greece, the two countries that bond market analysts consider to be most at risk of a default are Argentina and Venezuela.

Some of the world's biggest banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG, are fighting Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s plan to spin off an asset management unit, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The banks say the proposal, which Lehman will use to repay creditors owed hundreds of billions of dollars, is being rushed and appears to be unfair to certain Lehman creditors. The objection to the plan, filed Monday afternoon with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, comes as Lehman is set to go to court next week to ask a judge to sign off on the proposal.