A federal appeals court has resolved a split among judges in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan that could help determine when recognition as a foreign main proceeding should be granted in Chapter 15 bankruptcy petitions, Thomson Reuters News & Insight reported. The ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also helped clarify that liquidators of investment funds chartered offshore will not be precluded from U.S. courts under Chapter 15.

When Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister and war horse of European politics, celebrated his 70th birthday at a theater in Berlin last September, two of the most powerful women in the world offered warm words in his honor, the International Herald Tribune reported. One was Chancellor Angela Merkel. The other, delivering the keynote speech, was Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Ms. Lagarde’s presence reflected her close, longtime friendship with Mr. Schäuble. But it also was a confirmation of the enormous stature that Ms.

Calgary-based oil field services firm Poseidon Concepts Corp. filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection Friday in Colorado bankruptcy court, three days after petitioning for creditor protection in Canadian court and nearly two months after announcing it would have to restate its earnings for three quarters of 2012, Law360 reported.

U.S. units of Canadian telemarketer iMarketing Solutions Group Inc. entered Chapter 15 in Delaware bankruptcy court Friday and sought immediate recognition of the insolvency proceedings commenced by its parent in a Toronto court earlier in the day, Law360 reported. Counsel for Xentel Inc. and seven other IMSG subsidiaries appeared in Wilmington hours after the Chapter 15 filing and asked the Delaware court to officially recognize the foreign proceedings as the company was “gravely concerned” that U.S.

Suntech Power Holdings Co., forced to put its Chinese solar unit into bankruptcy last month, began that slide into insolvency in 2009 when customers linked to the founder couldn’t pay their bills and the company booked the sales as revenue anyway, regulatory filings show, Bloomberg reported. Seven buyers backed by an investment firm funded by Suntech and its founder, Shi Zhengrong, accounted for 29 percent of Suntech’s uncollected bills as 2009 ended, according to correspondence between the solar company and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Argentine officials say their plan for paying $1.4 billion in defaulted debt is fully within the spirit of U.S. court rulings, the Associated Press reported. But Wall Street analysts say the offer looks nothing like the letter of the law as the appellate court sees it. They say the mix of new bonds to be paid out over the next 25 years boils down to just one-sixth of what Argentina was told to hand over in cash.

Property developer Sean Dunne has listed several of the country's main banks as creditors in a bankruptcy filing made in the state of Connecticut in the United States, the Irish Times reported. The former property tycoon names State-owned AIB, Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank among more than 30 creditors listed in the court records filed late on Friday. Mr Dunne estimated his liabilities at between $500 million (€390 million) and $1 billion (€780 million) and his assets at $1 million and $10 million in the court bankruptcy filing.

A US bankruptcy judge has approved a $US45 million ($43.3m) settlement between Lehman Brothers Holdings' Australian unit and a group of insurers over claims the bank misled a group of councils, charities and churches into buying risky securities backed by US mortgages, The Australian reported. Judge James Peck, of the US Bankruptcy Court in New York, yesterday signed off the settlement between 10 US insurance companies and the liquidators of Lehman Brothers Australia to settle the matter over collateralised debt obligations, or CDOs.

Suntech, one of the world's biggest solar panel manufacturers, said Monday it has defaulted on a $541 million bond payment in the latest sign of the financial squeeze on the struggling global solar industry, the Associated Press reported. Suntech Power Holdings Ltd.'s announcement was a severe setback for a company lauded by China's Communist government as a leader of efforts to make the country a center of the renewable energy industry.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. said it didn't make a required payment on $541 million of bonds that matured Friday. It wasn't clear what the Chinese solar-panel company's plans were for repaying investors, The Wall Street Journal reported. A Suntech spokesman declined to comment. Suntech said last Monday that it had reached a "forbearance agreement" with about 60% of its foreign bondholders, who agreed to push back the date for repayment to May 15, allowing more time to negotiate a new repayment deal.