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State-appointed administrators at Alitalia said on Wednesday they had received two binding offers for the Italian airline and one non-binding expression of interest, Reuters reported. They gave no details of the bids, saying only that they would examine the proposals carefully in the coming days. Italy’s state-controlled railways Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) said on Tuesday they would put in an offer for the airline. A source with knowledge of the matter said Delta Air Lines had submitted the second binding offer for Alitalia. The U.S. airline could not be reached for an immediate comment. Earlier on Wednesday, budget airline EasyJet (EZJ.L) said that it had submitted a revised expression of interest for a restructured Alitalia.

Major companies yesterday ruled out involvement in a new rescue of Alitalia, complicating a plan led by Rome in which state-controlled railway Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) will bid for the airline and look to bring in partners, Reuters reported. Alitalia was put under special administration last year, leaving the government once again seeking a buyer to save the carrier. It will be the airline’s third rescue in a decade. FS said that its board had decided to put in an offer to buy Alitalia, but gave no further details. the deal would be completed in two separate steps, with FS picking up Alitalia on set conditions and then, at a later stage, being joined by an Italian partner and a international one, from the airline sector, according to sources.

The developer of Unlockd, a mobile app that sends targeted ads to users when they open their smartphones, has filed for bankruptcy in New York as it hunts for financiers to fund litigation against Google, which the startup blames for its demise, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Australian-based tech startup has accused Alphabet Inc.’s Google of flexing its dominance to kill a potential competitor in the mobile advertising market. Unlockd’s U.S. subsidiaries filed for chapter 11 protection on Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The company also has filed for the equivalent of chapter 11 protection in Australia and the U.K. Founded in 2014, Unlockd’s business model offered an alternative to Google. Users of Unlockd receive credits that can be redeemed for rewards in exchange for viewing targeted ads sent to their Android phones. The startup had been preparing an initial public offering in Australia for early 2018 with an anticipated valuation of between $180 million and $230 million, according to a report prepared by Australian administrators. But interest in Unlockd, the startup says, evaporated after Google threatened to remove the app from its Google Play store and Admob mobile advertising sales tool, saying that the app violated its terms of service.

A bankruptcy judge in New York agreed to back a debt restructuring plan filed by Agrokor Group, a Croatian food and retail giant, in a case he said required grappling with complex and unsettled matters of international insolvency law, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In an order handed down Wednesday, Judge Martin Glenn agreed to recognize and enforce a restructuring plan that retools billions of euros in Agrokor debt. The judge said that the case raised some of the most important and difficult issues arising in cross-border restructurings. In August, Judge Glenn approved Agrokor’s request for chapter 15 recognition, the section of the U.S. bankruptcy code available to help protect foreign businesses from creditors while they restructure abroad. But the judge said that he would reserve judgment on whether to fully enforce the company’s multibillion-dollar restructuring plan. Read more. 

Be sure to register for ABI’s Cross-Border Insolvency Program on Nov. 7 in New York as speakers from several nations will be discussing today’s most relevant cross-border cases and topics. 

A Portuguese court approved on Friday a debt restructuring plan that was passed by creditors in major Brazilian telecom firm Oi SA, marking a step forward in the company’s tortured bankruptcy recovery process, Reuters reported. With the court’s approval, seen by Reuters, bankruptcy courts in all relevant jurisdictions — Brazil, the U.S., the Netherlands, and now Portugal — have signed off on the recovery plan, which was approved by creditors in December. In late July, Oi completed a debt-for-equity swap in which several hedge funds swapped billions of dollars in debt for fresh equity in the reorganized firm. The company, Brazil’s largest fixed-line telecom player, expects to receive a 4 billion-real ($1.1 billion) capital injection in early 2019 to help it boost capital expenditures and shore up its debt profile. Oi is not out of the woods yet, however. Earlier in October, a Brazilian court cleared the way for arbitration talks between Oi and shareholder Pharol SGPS SA overseen by Brazil’s B3 SA stock exchange operator.

Essar Steel India Ltd said that its board and shareholders have offered to pay 543.89 billion rupees ($7.42 billion) to creditors to settle their claims, allowing the company to exit from a bankruptcy process, Reuters reported. The steelmaker, owned by the billionaire Ruia brothers, is one of a group of companies that are among India’s biggest debt defaulters that were pushed into the bankruptcy court last year after a central bank order that was aimed at clearing record bad loans at the country’s banks. Essar Steel’s plan consists of an upfront cash payment of 475.07 billion rupees to all creditors, including a 455.59 billion rupees to the senior secured financial creditors.