A U.S. judge ordered that 10 units of Mexican glassmaker Vitro SAB de CV be put into U.S. bankruptcy and he found that several of them had taken secret steps to prevent creditors from collecting money owed to them, Reuters reported. Several U.S. hedge funds led by Aurelius Capital Management and Elliott International hold defaulted notes issued by the subsidiaries and sought to put the units into bankruptcy.
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A US appeals court has rejected a request from defaulted creditors led by Elliott Associates, a US fund, to require Argentina to post security of at least $250m by Monday to demonstrate its willingness to pay any judgment in their favour, the Financial Times reported. The ruling from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals means there will be no change to a schedule it laid down last week for the thorny case, which has pit the government against funds it decries as “vultures” and sparked fears of a new Argentine default.
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Vitro SAB, the Mexican glassmaker that has been fighting hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. and other creditors over its restructuring, lost an appeals court bid to enforce its bankruptcy plan in the U.S., Bloomberg reported. The U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled against Vitro today and upheld a bankruptcy court ruling that denied enforcement of the reorganization, a result that Vitro had warned would create “chaos” for the company.
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British aero engineer Hampson Industries Plc, which has been struggling with a heavy debt load, on Monday said it planned to appoint administrators, less than four months after it terminated a sale process, Reuters reported. The company, which supplies tools and components to planemakers Airbus and Boeing Co, put itself on the block in February but warned that the sale process was likely to result in little or no value to the company's shareholders.
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Centrais Eletricas do Para SA, a Brazilian utility know as Celpa that was acquired this month by Equatorial Energia SA, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York, Bloomberg reported. The company, based in Belem, Brazil, listed both debt and assets of more than $1 billion in documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Chapter 15 protects foreign companies from U.S. lawsuits and creditor claims while a company reorganizes abroad. Celpa is asking the U.S.
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Bahrain-based Arcapita Bank gained court approval on Wednesday for a $125 million bankruptcy loan from Fortress Investment Group, believed to be the first such loan consistent with sharia, Islamic law, Reuters reported. The loan, approved by Judge Sean Lane in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, New York, will fund Arcapita as it tries to restructure debt after filing for bankruptcy in March. Wednesday's hearing was delayed two hours as Arcapita, its creditors and Fortress negotiated over the price of the deal, Dennis Dunne, a lawyer for Arcapita's creditors' committee, told the judge.
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Micron Technology's plan to acquire Japanese memory chipmaker Elpida took a big step toward completion after a Tokyo court approved the agreement and dismissed a rival plan promoted by a group of bondholders, Reuters reported. A district court in Tokyo said on Wednesday it was referring bankrupt Elpida's plan to be bought by U.S. chipmaker Micron to creditors for approval, according to a news release on Elpida's website.
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Ruling Raises Fears Of Argentine Default

An unexpected New York court decision has raised the spectre of an Argentine government default, causing a rise in the cost of insuring against a payment failure and rattling the country’s bond market, the Financial Times reported. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York late last week ruled that Argentina was legally barred from prioritising payments to bondholders that participated in debt exchanges in 2005 and 2010.
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A U.S. judge told Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc he was "troubled" by the firm's inadequate efforts to keep creditors informed about its bankruptcy process, and warned he may upend its proposed sale to U.S. rival Micron Technology Inc. Elpida's main bankruptcy proceeding is being handled by a district court in Tokyo, but Christopher Sontchi, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing Elpida's parallel U.S. case, said the company was taking a risk by not keeping creditors better informed.
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Nine Entertainment has avoided receivership, with the company's warring lenders reaching an agreement in principle this afternoon, The Australian reported. The US hedge funds Apollo and Oaktree, which are the biggest holders of Nine’s $2.28 billion in senior debt, conceded some extra ground, giving investment bank Goldman Sachs’ mezzanine debt funds a 4.5 per cent stake in a recapitalised, debt-free Nine. Previously, the funds were only prepared to concede a 4 per cent stake.
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