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Singapore is seeking to enhance its position as a center for debt restructuring by giving its insolvency law some of the powers of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code’s Chapter 11, just as companies worldwide default on bonds at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The government has “broadly accepted” 17 recommendations submitted by a committee after a yearlong review, the Ministry of Law said in a statement. Those include offering automatic stay of legal and enforcement actions for debtors, creating a bench of specialist judges for its bankruptcy court and increasing rescue-financing capital by enticing distressed-debt funds and private equity firms to set up shop in the city-state. “We have all the basic building blocks for dealing with restructuring and we see that Singapore will be able to fill this space,” Indranee Rajah, senior minister of state for law, told reporters on Wednesday. “Singapore should not just be a debt restructuring place for Singapore companies and businesses but a global debt restructuring center much in the way as New York and London. We should be playing that role to the region and beyond.”

Alvarez & Marsal, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte & Touche are pursuing a mandate to administer the bankruptcy protection process for Brazilian telecommunications group Oi SA, Reuters reported on Friday. Oi filed last month for court protection from creditors on 65.4 billion real ($19.9 billion) of bonds, bank debt and operating liabilities, Brazil's biggest filing ever of its kind. The judge in charge of the case has asked telecom watchdog Anatel to propose candidates for the role, and on Friday the regulator extended the deadline for applications to July 11. The Oi saga took another twist on Friday when a minority investor called for the replacement of most of its board, underscoring deep divisions among major shareholders that derailed recent negotiations with creditors. Alvarez & Marsal submitted a formal bid with Anatel on Friday and received confirmation from the regulator that the bid was received. The timing of the Price and Deloitte bids is unclear.

China Fishery Group Ltd. sought U.S. bankruptcy protection four months after defaulting on $300 million of bonds amid investigations by market regulators in Singapore and Hong Kong, Bloomberg News reported today. The Hong Kong-based company yesterday filed its chapter 11 petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, listing as much as $50 million of liabilities and more than $500 million of assets, according to court documents. Its Singapore-listed parent company Pacific Andes Resources Development Ltd. filed a separate chapter 15 petition for companies reorganizing outside the U.S. The filings allow the group to fend off creditors and bondholders from seizing its assets, primarily the fishery business in Peru it acquired from Oslo-based Copeinca ASA in 2013. China Fishery said that efforts this year to sell the Peru fishery assets were not successful amid enforcement threats from some creditors. It received two undisclosed proposals in December that valued the business at $1.7 billion. The companies in the group “have been facing severe financial stress and encountered extreme challenges in their efforts to resuscitate and revive the business” after going in and out of provisional liquidation, it said in the court petition.

A Brazilian court yesterday accepted Oi SA's bankruptcy protection petition, allowing the country's largest phone company to move ahead with plans to reorganize operations and restructure 65.4 billion reais ($20.2 billion) of debt, Reuters reported. The decision was made by judge Fernando Viana of the 7th Commercial Branch of Rio de Janeiro's Justice Tribunal who will supervise the reorganization on behalf of Oi and creditors, the court said in a statement. Viana said that he accepted the petition because of the company's importance to the Brazilian economy, to ensure an organized restructuring of Oi's debts and to protect its suppliers, 70 million clients, 140,000 employees and taxes Oi pays to the Brazilian government, the statement said.

A bankruptcy judge in New York balked on Friday at authorizing the questioning of Caribbean banking officials about $175 million deposited in the accounts of a private offshore bank in Anguilla, Dow Jones Newswires reported. At a court hearing in the newly filed chapter 11 bankruptcy of National Bank of Anguilla (Private Banking & Trust) Ltd., Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn called for legal arguments on whether he has the power to order Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, National Bank of Anguilla and the new National Commercial Bank to answer questions put by William Tacon, the court appointed administrator of the private banking operation. Tacon is in charge of returning money to some 819 depositors with the private bank, an offshore institution that catered to wealthy Americans, including some that "have or had" vacation homes on the tiny island.

A group representing holders of Oi SA's bonds not guaranteed by unit Telemar Norte Leste SA is growing, underscoring the challenges facing Brazil's largest fixed-line phone carrier as it enters bankruptcy protection proceedings, Reuters reported yesterday. New York-based investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc and Metrica Investments LLC have stepped up talks with owners of $6.4 billion worth of euro- and U.S. dollar-denominated Oi bonds in the wake of the largest bankruptcy protection filing in Brazilian history. The Houlihan-Metrica group is one of the few gearing up for tough bankruptcy talks with Oi, which succumbed to a heavy debt burden and mounting competition after years of shareholder disputes. At 65.4 billion reais ($19.4 billion), Oi's petition is fraught with challenges due to a complex capital structure and wide creditor base, analysts said.

Lawyers seeking to recover $175 million for clients of a bankrupt Caribbean offshore bank are asking a U.S. judge to grant those customers the same confidentiality protections a court extended to people claiming clergy sex abuse, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn today will weigh the matter when he considers whether the private-client unit of the National Bank of Anguilla can keep its customers’ names secret while it tries to get their money back. The National Bank of Anguilla’s private banking and trust division of filed for chapter 11 protection on Wednesday. It’s asking for permission to investigate its parent, as well as the National Commercial Bank of Anguilla, which took over its banking business, and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. A hearing is set for today in Manhattan on the requests for the probes and client confidentiality.