CanWest Global Communications Corp.'s efforts to restructure its debt have come up against a series of glitches in the past few weeks that are delaying a deal with bondholders, The Globe and Mail reported. At the top of that list may be the most unlikely of culprits – a television show called MasterChef Australia. The popular cooking program has been a major hit on Australian television this year. That has translated into gains on the Australian stock market.

A group of 1,524 cattle ranchers said they would reject a debt-reduction plan by Brazilian beef processor Independencia to exit bankruptcy proceedings, Valor Economico reported Friday. Independencia, which filed for bankruptcy protection in early March, offered to cap debt payments to ranchers at 80,000 reais (US$43,550), Valor said. That makes up for an estimated 120 million reais in total payments for the ranchers. But they instead are demanding a total 330 million reais be paid as part of any renegotiation accord or will halt supplies to the company, Valor said.

Zinc companies in Peru, the world’s third-largest producer, will look to sell more concentrates overseas after the government said smelter Doe Run Peru may file for bankruptcy, according to a creditor, Bloomberg reported. A bankruptcy may take months to complete, said Carlos Galvez, chief financial officer of precious metals producer Cia. de Minas Buenaventura SA, a Doe Run Peru creditor. Doe Run, a unit of Renco Group Inc., may file for bankruptcy to restructure about $156 million of debt, Energy & Mines Minister Pedro Sanchez Gamarra said yesterday.

Foreign-exchange traders are losing faith that Mexican President Felipe Calderon will push through the tax increases needed to rein in the budget deficit and stem a rout that has made the peso the worst-performing major currency in the past year, Bloomberg reported. Morgan Stanley strategists say Latin America’s second-largest economy is headed for “unsustainable” deficits as oil output declines while RBC Capital Markets advises investors to sell the currency.

A unit of mining giant Grupo Mexico SAB is appealing a ruling that it is on the hook for $1.38 billion in cash and a stake in lucrative Peruvian copper operations to Asarco LLC, in a case alleging Grupo fraudulently shifted the shares, tipping Asarco into bankruptcy, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Asarco first sued Grupo subsidiary Americas Mining Corp. in February 2007, arguing that Grupo Mexico's 2003 transfer of Asarco's 54.2 percent ownership in Southern Copper Corp., formerly Southern Peru Copper Corp., to AMC was fraudulent.

A small, troubled Spanish bank controlled by the Catholic Church is looking for a savior as it comes to terms with the massive loan losses that are shaking Spain's network of small savings banks, The Wall Street Journal reported. Cordoba-based CajaSur, which is headed by priest Santiago Gomez Sierra, said Tuesday it was in merger talks with larger and healthier savings bank Unicaja, which has traditional ties to the Spanish Socialist Party. Both are based in Spain's southern Andalusia region. Any deal would need the Bank of Spain's approval.

The International Monetary Fund approved plans on Wednesday to issue its own debt to strengthen its capacity to fund bail-outs, the Financial Times reported. Meanwhile, the World Bank said it committed a record $59 billion in loans and guarantees to developing countries in the year to June 30.

The chairman of General Motors Argentina, Edgar Lourencon, confirmed that the automaker would not lay off personnel in the country, a day after its mother company in the United States filed for bankruptcy protection, the Buenos Aires Herald reported. Dismissing any rumours about the future of the company, the head of the local branch of GM meanwhile announced that the company is currently developing a new model to be produced in a plant in Santa Fe, which will be exported to the rest of the countries of the Mercosur.

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) recently took over the operations of a rural bank in Cagayan Valley following an order of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Monetary Board for its closure due to P77 million in deposit liabilities, the Business Mirror reported. Ordered closed and placed under receivership was the Banco Agricola Inc., a rural bank in Santiago City and with branches in the towns of Ilagan, Roxas, Cabatuan, Echague, Aurora, Cordon, Alicia and San Mateo, all in Isabela; Maddela in Quirino; and Bambang in Nueva Vizcaya.

BTA Bank, Kazakhstan’s largest lender, began talks with creditors to renegotiate payments on as much as $15 billion of debt in a bid to avert bankruptcy, Chief Executive Officer Anvar Saidenov said. “The viability of the institution will depend on how successful we are in negotiating with our creditors,” Saidenov, who is also chairman of BTA’s management board, said today in an interview in London.