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A financial auditor said yesterday that Oi SA's assets are worth 40.8 billion reais ($12.9 billion) but that could drop by more than a half if the indebted Brazilian phone company is forced to sell them in a hurry, Reuters reported. Auditor Ernst & Young LLP estimated the so-called forced liquidation value of assets held by Oi and subsidiaries included in its bankruptcy protection process at 17.9 billion reais, according to a securities filing. That would cover less than 30 percent of the 65.4 billion reais worth of debt under renegotiation. Oi on Wednesday submitted a debt restructuring plan that would limit the debt-for-equity swap demanded by creditors to 25 percent of its capital, far below the 88 percent proposed by a group of bondholders in August. Read more.

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Creditors to Sears Canada have set a deadline of Oct. 7 for the retail chain to enter liquidation agreements for all its assets, leaving the company with just days to reach a deal to continue operations, Reuters reported. That tight deadline presents a challenge and could potentially derail negotiations with the executive chairman Brandon Stranzl, who stepped away from day-to-day operations of Sears Canada to come up with a proposal to keep the 65-year-old company running. Stranzl submitted a revised proposal, lawyers for Stranzl said. Stranzl’s bid presents “significant closing risk and uncertain recovery,” FTI consulting the court-appointed monitor said in a report on its website this week. Sears Canada has steadily lost market and struggled to remain relevant to shoppers who have switched to stores that keep up with fast-changing fashion trends. Sears Canada’s sales have fallen every quarter since it was spun off from Sears Holdings in 2012. Sears must agree to liquidate all its assets by Oct. 7 to receive payments from its creditors to ease a growing liquidity crunch, according to the latest amendment to an agreement between the company and its creditors.

Oi SA’s bankruptcy saga took a new twist this week as Chief Financial Officer Ricardo Malavazi Martins resigned, prompting a rebuke from Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Juarez Quadros, president of the regulator known as Anatel, told reporters yesterday the departure is “worrisome” and said that it worsens an already bad situation for the phone giant mired in $19 billion of debt. Bloomberg reported last week that the government is weighing a potential takeover of the nation’s biggest landline operator because the majority of Oi’s board and management were at odds over a recovery plan. Oi’s management and Nelson Tanure, whose Societe Mondiale is the phone carrier’s second-biggest shareholder, presented competing restructuring plans Sept. 27 at a board meeting. A majority of the board backed his proposal, but the executive team refused to sign on, creating an impasse.

Key Safety Systems has agreed to terms on the $1.6 billion purchase of assets of Takata Corp., stricken by a recall of its faulty vehicle air bags, and final documents will be signed in less than two weeks, a lawyer for Takata’s U.S. unit said on Monday, Reuters reported. Takata and its U.S. unit, TK Holdings Inc., filed for bankruptcy in June and the asset sale to Key Safety Systems, or KSS, is the cornerstone of its plan to raise funds to compensate automakers and drivers. <b>Marcia Goldstein</b>, a lawyer for TK Holdings, told a U.S. bankruptcy judge on Monday that a U.S. deal had been reached and was being reviewed by lawyers in Japan, Germany and elsewhere. The sale must be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, as well as regulators.

Monarch Airlines, a struggling British low-cost carrier and tour operator, collapsed into bankruptcy early Monday, ceasing its flights and forcing the government to step in and bring home more than 100,000 passengers stranded abroad, the New York Times reported. Britain’s aviation regulator called the collapse of Monarch the “biggest ever U.K. airline failure.” The airline is one of many that have struggled to grapple with Europe’s highly competitive airline market. Just this year, the Italian carrier Alitalia went into administration, which is similar to bankruptcy protection in the United States, and is currently seeking a buyer. Air Berlin, a German low-cost carrier, filed for insolvency and has put its assets up for sale. Ryanair, an Irish discount airline, has expressed interest in making a bid for Alitalia’s assets, but it has faced its own public backlash after it was forced to cancel more than 1,000 flights in September and October because of mistakes in its handling of vacation time for pilots. Last week, Ryanair said that it would cancel an additional 18,000 flights on 34 routes between November and March to avoid further cancellations.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. won a temporary reprieve from an investigation into its collection practices leading up to China Fishery Group Ltd.’s bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. During a hearing in New York on Thursday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Garrity Jr. agreed to place the investigation, which he had authorized, on hold while lawyers for HSBC pursue an appeal. William Brandt Jr., a bankruptcy court-appointed trustee currently marketing China Fishery’s Peruvian fishing enterprise, won a court order from Judge Garrity in July allowing him to investigate the bank for aggressive collection efforts that Brandt says may have damaged China Fishery’s business. HSBC says it is being unlawfully burdened by having to litigate in a foreign jurisdiction. The bank says it has no connection to China Fishery in the U.S. and shouldn’t be subjected to a bankruptcy probe by a U.S. court.

Belgian diamond wholesaler and distributor Exelco NV, a De Beers-listed customer, has sought chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., the Wall Street Journal reported today. In court papers filed on Tuesday, the company listed assets of between $10 million and $50 million, and liabilities of between $50 million and $100 million, according to court papers. Judge Kevin Gross will be overseeing the case. A first-day hearing has yet to be set. The firm, based in Antwerp, is still listed as one of De Beers’s customers, according to the De Beers website. Exelco was once considered a diamond-trading-company sightholder, meaning it was on the authorized bulk purchaser list of rough diamonds. Court papers show that Exelco’s ownership is split between Lior Kunstler and Jean Paul Tolkowsky.

Abengoa Bioenergia Brasil SA became the latest Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer to file for bankruptcy protection following the country’s economic crisis and a slump in commodity prices, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company, a unit of Spain’s Abengoa SA, requested judicial protection in a court in Santa Cruz das Palmeiras municipality, Sao Paulo state, it said yesterday. Its bank debt was 837 million reais ($265 million) as of December. The move followed unsuccessful attempts over the last 19 months to attract outside investors and restructure its debt. Abengoa Bioenergia also cited Brazil’s political crisis and a lack of credit as contributing factors to its bankruptcy.