A unit of Bahrain investment house Arcapita has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, the company said in a statement, Reuters reported. Falcon Gas Storage Company, a non-operating subsidiary of Arcapita, also intends to file a motion for joint administration with its parent company for the ongoing Chapter 11 restructuring, it said in the statement late on Monday. In March, Arcapita became the first Gulf entity to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U. S. after it was threatened with legal action if it did not repay a hedge fund in full.
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When Maclaren USA entered bankruptcy in December, its Chapter 7 filing made for a lot more questions about what the company was doing in bankruptcy than it provided answers—questions that have remained largely unanswered since, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported. Why did sales drop so drastically in 2011, to $34,251 from over $20 million in 2010? Does Maclaren, the U.K.-based company that manufactures the strollers and other products, plan to continue selling in the U.S.?
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International Monetary Fund staff said Tuesday governments should consider mandatory debt restructuring for systemically important banks as part of a policy tool set to prevent new financial crises, Dow Jones reported. By instituting a so-called bail-in rule, governments could prevent the type of excessive risk-taking and market disruptions that fueled the 2008-2009 global financial meltdown, senior IMF economists said in a new discussion paper.
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Elpida Memory Inc.’s bankruptcy is fueling concern the company could be a burden to an acquirer, with shares of SK Hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. declining on takeover speculation, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Investors aren’t keen on a full or partial takeover by Hynix or Micron because “they would need funds to buy Elpida’s assets, and even after an acquisition, they would need a lot of money to keep operations going,” said Yuichi Ishida, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co.
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Toshiba Corp has decided to join the bidding race to sponsor Elpida Memory Inc's turnaround from bankruptcy, setting stage for a battle with U.S.-based Micron Technology, the Nikkei business daily said, Reuters reported. Toshiba, which believes adding Elpida's cell-phone-use DRAMs to its offerings is crucial for its survival in the chip industry, might seek financial assistance from the government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan, the newspaper said. Elpida Memory will soon stop accepting applications for the first round of bidding, Nikkei said.
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Singapore's privately held PhillipCapital Group said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy a majority stake in defunct broker MF Global's Indian unit, Reuters reported. PhillipCapital, which runs brokerage and asset management business across 13 countries, said it would plan to rename the business Phillip Securities India. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed and the transaction is still subject to regulatory approval. PhillipCapital said it will buy a majority stake in the joint venture between Sify Technologies and MF Global and has also agreed to buy the rest of the bankrupt U.S.
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A new wave of scandals involving Chinese companies listed overseas could hit New York and Hong Kong in the coming weeks as the annual results season get under way with auditors on high alert for fraud, the Financial Times reported. Auditors are under great pressure this year to detect discrepancies in their clients’ results, having faced embarrassment and legal action in 2011 following dozens of accounting scandals at Chinese companies listed in North America.
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Bahraini investment house Arcapita's move to file for bankruptcy protection in the United States, while a milestone for debt restructuring in the Gulf, is unlikely to prompt other regional firms to follow suit, Reuters reported. Arcapita became the first Gulf Arab firm to file for Chapter 11 in the U.S. on Monday, under pressure from hedge funds which demanded full repayment ahead of the maturity of a $1.1 billion Islamic finance facility on March 28.
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Humpuss Sea Transport Pte Ltd., a Singapore-based unit of an Indonesian shipping company, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., Bloomberg reported. The unit of Jakarta-based PT Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi is already under the control of liquidators in Singapore, where it was incorporated in 1996, according to Monday’s filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Debt and assets were listed at more than $100 million.
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A judge affirmed packaged ice company Arctic Glacier International Inc.'s right to receive the benefits of Chapter 15 protection in the U.S. as its restructuring plays out in Canada, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported. Judge Kevin Gross of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., Friday signed off on the company's petition for protection under Chapter 15, which allows companies to seek the U.S. court's recognition of a foreign bankruptcy case.
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