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Chinese coal company Winsway Enterprises Holdings Ltd. has filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. as part of a proposed plan with its bondholders to restructure more than $349 million in debt, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Hong Kong-listed company filed for chapter 15 protection in the U.S. yesterday, a day before the bonds are set to mature. Winsway, formerly known as Winsway Coking Coal Holdings Ltd., is an importer, trader and processor of metallurgical coal, primarily for China’s steelmakers. It operates a number of logistics park and coal-processing plants along the China-Mongolia border. The company, whose operations are centered in China and Hong Kong and is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, has been losing money for several years as its coal operations suffered in the wake of cooling demand for Chinese steel. In the first half of last year the company lost about $204 million on revenue of $438.2 million, according to a declaration filed by Winsway Chief Executive Cao Xinyi. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Gain a better understanding of 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. 

A federal judge in Delaware is scheduled to hear arguments over how to split up some $7 billion Nortel raised from the sale of its patents and other assets, which has pitted U.S. bondholders against creditors of the Canadian parent company and U.K. pensioners who say they’re owed $3 billion to shore up their underfunded plans, Forbes.com reported today. The multinational bankruptcy proceedings will have amassed nearly $2 billion in legal fees to date. British law firm Herbert Smith Freehills appears to be the biggest winner, billing for some $400 million to advise Ernst & Young on the administration of Nortel’s European bankruptcy estate. Ernst & Young comes in second at around $335 million. The high fees reflect the vexing complexity of Nortel’s bankruptcy, which is taking place across three countries and two continents and features the increasingly common clash of bondholders against pensioners. In Nortel’s case the big unsecured creditor is the company’s U.K. pension plan, which administrators there claim is underfunded to the tune of $3 billion. Unfortunately for those pensioners, Nortel’s U.K. operations were dwarfed, in terms of revenue and earnings, by its U.S. business. According to one analysis the U.S. operation held 70 percent of Nortel’s patents — a key measure in a company whose assets are mostly intellectual property — and would get 73 percent of the bankruptcy assets on a pure revenue basis. The U.S. divisions also issued more than half of Nortel’s debt.

Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey agreed to extend the shield of U.S. bankruptcy law to Abengoa SA while the Spanish renewable energy company works to secure creditors’ support for a restructuring plan, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Judge Carey yesterday agreed to preliminarily shield Abengoa SA and a host of affiliates from any creditor actions in the U.S., extending a protection that Abengoa has already secured from a Spanish court. Abengoa this week sought protection under chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, which is available to foreign companies, after 75 percent of its financial creditors signed on to a standstill agreement that gives Abengoa until the end of October to reach a comprehensive restructuring agreement without the threat of its creditors interfering with those efforts. 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. 

Argentina’s Senate today approved a plan to end a long-running legal dispute with U.S. hedge funds, handing President Mauricio Macri his first big victory in a Congress dominated by the opposition, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Senate voted 54 to 16 to let Macri issue $12 billion in bonds and use part of that to pay $4.65 billion to the hedge funds, which had sued Argentina for not paying out on bonds they bought after the country defaulted on its debt 15 years ago. The vote, the last domestic hurdle Macri faced in making a deal, allows Argentina to tap global credit markets for the first time since 2001. Assuming there are no additional legal obstacles in U.S. courts, a settlement would bring almost immediate relief to cash-strapped provincial governments and companies that for years were effectively cut off from international credit markets.

Spanish energy company Abengoa SA has filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. as it continues talks with its banks and bondholders to agree on its plan to restructure billions of dollars in debt, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The renewable energy company, which operates around the world, on Monday night filed for chapter 15 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The bankruptcy filing comes after Abengoa struck a deal with key creditors that gives it more time — through Oct. 28 — to continue negotiations on restructuring its debts, which court papers show total more than €14.6 billion ($16.48 billion). The company hopes the U.S. bankruptcy will provide extra breathing room for these talks.

Skymark Airlines Inc. exited bankruptcy administration and forecast its first operating profit in three years after reducing its fleet, cutting routes and getting new funding, Bloomberg News reported today. The carrier expects to report 1.5 billion yen ($13 million) in operating profit and sales of 70 billion yen for the year ending March 31, Skymark said today. Skymark also said it’s targeting an “early relisting” of its shares after filing for bankruptcy protection last year. Private equity firm Integral Corp. took a 50.1 percent stake in the company as part of its turnaround, while ANA Holdings Inc. owns 16.5 percent and is supporting the airline in areas including aircraft maintenance and code-sharing.

The United States government has weighed in on the legal battle between Argentina and a group of New York hedge funds, lending its support to the struggling country and dealing a setback to the investors, the New York Times reported today. In an amicus curiae brief filed on Wednesday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, the Justice Department said that it supported an American federal judge’s decision to lift an injunction that had prevented Argentina from raising new money in the bond markets or paying its creditors. “The United States has significant foreign policy interests in support of a swift resolution of this long-running litigation,” the Justice Department said in the brief. It is a move that will increase the pressure on a group of holdout bondholders that refused to take part in two debt restructurings by Argentina after it defaulted on $100 billion of debt in 2001.

Spain's Abengoa is seen winning more time for talks aimed at avoiding bankruptcy as more creditors have agreed to back debt restructuring plan and inject new emergency liquidity, Reuters reported yesterday. The engineering and energy company, struggling with a 9.4-billion-euro ($10.6 billion) debt pile, is in pre-insolvency talks with lenders and has until March 28 to win their backing and avoid becoming Spain's largest ever bankruptcy. Sources said that more than 60 percent of the firm's creditors were now expected to sign off on the debt agreement by next Monday while Abengoa said yesterday that it would receive a new credit line of 137 million euros from creditors.