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Total U.S. commercial bankruptcy filings increased 28 percent in August 2016 over August of last year, according to data provided by Epiq Systems, Inc. Commercial filings totaled 3,199 in August 2016, up from the August 2015 total of 2,491. August is the tenth consecutive month with a year-over-year increase in commercial filings. However, total commercial chapter 11 filings decreased in August 2016, as the 362 filings were 32 percent less than the 534 commercial chapter 11 filings registered in August 2015. Total bankruptcy filings increased 1 percent to 68,495 in August 2016, slightly up from the August 2015 total of 67,777. Consumer filings were 65,296, also slightly up from the August 2015 consumer filing total of 65,286.

Brazil's largest fixed line carrier Oi SA on Monday unveiled a debt restructuring proposal, offering to sell assets and proposing a debt-for-equity swap option that could mean a 70 percent haircut for bondholders, Reuters reported today. Oi filed for protection from creditors on June 20 in the country's biggest-ever bankruptcy case, involving 65.4 billion reais ($19.3 billion) in bonds, bank debt and operating liabilities. In a securities filing yesterday, Oi offered four payment options to unsecured creditors such as bondholders owed approximately 34 billion reais. At the same time, the company said it is willing to repay secured creditors such as the Brazil's BNDES development bank in full over the course of 15 years. Brazil's Oi offered to exchange up to 32.3 billion reais ($9.90 billion) in unsecured debt for equity under the plan, which would give lenders up to 85 percent of the company's capital, according to the filings.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc. reached a deal to continue providing regional flights for its largest customer, completing its third pact with the biggest U.S. carriers and removing an obstacle on the path to exiting bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The agreement with American Airlines Group Inc. is critical because the world’s largest carrier accounts for about half of Republic’s revenue, the bankrupt regional airline said in a court filing on Friday. While the accord will initially reduce Republic’s flying for the airline, there’s an option to increase it with American’s consent. “The comprehensive commercial settlement and claims resolution with American is a major achievement for the debtors that clears the pathway for a successful emergence from chapter 11,” Republic said in the filing. The agreement must be approved by Bankruptcy Court Judge Sean Lane.

South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping Co., one of the world’s largest container shipping companies, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. to protect its vessels from being seized by creditors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Hanjin filed for protection under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code on Friday, days after the company sought protection in South Korea on Wednesday. Hanjin is currently the largest shipping company in Korea, operating approximately 60 regular lines world-wide, with 140 container or bulk vessels, court papers said. It is ranked as the world’s ninth largest container shipping company, transporting over 100 million tons of cargo a year. Its failure would be the largest container-shipping failure in history, dwarfing all previous carrier bankruptcies. Since Hanjin called in the bankruptcy lawyer, the refusal of ports to handle its cargo has stranded 45 ships at sea, according to the company, and more than half a million containers. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Cover all aspects of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency as well as chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code with ABI’s Chapter 15 for Foreign Debtors. 

Horsehead Holding Corp. was cleared to exit bankruptcy on Friday although a U.S. judge acknowledged that allegations by the zinc producer's shareholders that their investment was being unfairly wiped out came very close to derailing the company's plan, Reuters reported on Friday. Horsehead can now proceed with its plan that will eliminate most of its $427 million in pre-bankruptcy debt, cancel its stock and allow the company to emerge from chapter 11 under the control of its noteholders, led by Greywolf Capital Management. Horsehead had to defend its plan during a three-day trial against allegations by an official equity committee that noteholders were enriching themselves at shareholders' expense. The shareholders attacked a valuation by the Lazard investment bank and argued that Horsehead was a "loan-to-own" play by secured noteholders, who bought the company's debt at a discount and then provided a bankruptcy loan with strict provisions. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi said that the noteholders "shot themselves in the foot" by including a "no-shop" provision in the bankruptcy loan. Without it, the company could have tested its value with an auction and avoided this week's trial that largely turned on experts' competing views of valuation. Judge Sontchi said that the evidence showed the company was worth around $650 million, or roughly equal to the claims held by creditors, leaving nothing for stockholders.