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U.S. Steel Corp. said that its Canadian arm would apply for relief from creditors under Canada's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act and said it would drop plans to expand two of its facilities, Reuters reported yesterday. The company said its Canadian operations, which have lost about $2.4 billion over the past five years, will be dropped from its financial statements. U.S. Steel said it would provide its Canadian arm with $185 million Canadian dollars ($168.6 million) of secured debtor-in-possession financing (DIP Financing) to support operations through the end of 2015. U.S. Steel Canada, formerly known as Stelco, accounts for about $1 billion of U.S. Steel's consolidated employee benefits liability as of June 30.

NII Holdings Inc, the parent of Nextel operators in Latin America, filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday after struggling for years with debt, fierce competition in Brazil and Mexico, and a dispute with a U.S. hedge fund, Reuters reported yesterday. The decision should allow Reston, Va.-based NII Holdings to restructure debt with creditors by turning them into shareholders. NII Holdings operates in several countries in Latin America under the Nextel brand. NII said in court documents that it had received a notice in March from Aurelius Capital Management alleging that it had defaulted on $500 million of unsecured notes. Aurelius said that it had presented a plan to NII that would convert the company's debt into equity and raise fresh capital by selling new stock in the company, while deferring some disputes until after NII emerged from bankruptcy.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge signed off on New World Resources PLC 's debt-for-equity swap, a key step in the Dutch coal miner's plan to restructure more $1 billion in debt by issuing new shares, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein on Tuesday recognized NWR's bankruptcy filing under chapter 15. Recognition of NWR's U.K. court proceeding paves the way for the company to begin implementing its debt-cutting plan, which was approved last week by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. Under the deal, a group of secured bondholders owed about EUR500 million will split EUR300 of new senior secured debt and EUR115 million of notes that could be converted into equity.

A majority of Argentina's debt investors do not want to take up a government proposal to change the jurisdiction governing their bonds, Economy Minister Axel Kicillof told members of the country's Congress yesterday, Reuters reported. The South American country last month unveiled plans to make payments on its foreign-held bonds locally and offer creditors the possibility of bringing their debt under Argentine law to skirt a U.S. court ruling that led to its latest default. Argentina defaulted in July after a U.S. court blocked an interest payment to holders of its restructured debt governed by U.S. law, ordering the government to settle first with a small group of U.S. hedge funds who spurned previous bond swaps and demand full payment. The frozen coupon payment is still held by U.S. intermediary Bank of New York Mellon.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), which has been in negotiations with lenders over its debt burden, said yesterday that it had hired the consulting firm AlixPartners to supervise its restructuring, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. The assignment will be led by Lisa J. Donahue, the head of AlixPartners’ turnaround and restructuring practice, the PREPA said in an announcement. The authority, which faces a severe cash strain and a mountain of debt, agreed with its lenders to complete a restructuring by next March. PREPA faced payments this summer that it could not pay on $671 million in loans to a group of Wall Street lenders. The lenders, including Citigroup, gave the authority more time to make the payments and restructure its finances. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/puerto-rico-said-to-hire-alixpar… For further analysis of PREPA’s financial distress and Puerto Rico’s Public Corporate Debt Enforcement and Recovery Act, be sure to listen to ABI’s latest podcast: http://news.abi.org/podcasts/151-examining-puerto-rico-recovery-act-and…

China's National Electric Vehicle Sweden, which bought bankrupt carmaker Saab in 2012, won protection from creditors from a Swedish court on Friday while it concludes funding talks, Reuters reported on Friday. The decision gives the company, which has not built any cars since May because of a shortage of money, breathing space from creditors to whom it owes some 400 million Swedish crowns (57.56 million US). Separately, Saab AB, the defense firm from which Saab Automobile was created in 1990, added to loss-making NEVS' troubles on Friday by saying that it had withdrawn its right to use the brand name Saab.

French authorities placed the chief of the International Monetary Fund under official investigation on Wednesday, The New York Daily News reported yesterday. Christine Lagarde is being questioned over her role in a $531 million (400 million euro) payment to business tycoon Bernard Tapie in 2008. At the time, Lagarde was the finance minister under former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whom Tapie supported in the 2007 election. Investigators are looking into whether Tapie’s ties with the conservative politician and other top brass in the government played a role in the controversial payout that critics considered far too generous. Tapie was embroiled in a legal dispute with the now defunct, state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais over the questionable sale of Adidas in 1993. Tapie, the then-majority shareholder, sold his stake but later accused Credit Lyonnais of defrauding him by intentionally undervaluing the company. Lagarde, who has no plans to resign, has been managing director of IMF, which works toward global economic growth and stability, since July 2011.

A group of hedge funds are seeking a 226 million euro interest payment on Argentine bonds from Bank of New York Mellon that was blocked by a U.S. judge last month, The New York Times reported yesterday. In a lawsuit filed in London against Bank of New York, the hedge funds contend that the bank’s London unit must release money that was deposited by Argentina for its euro-denominated bondholders. The money was part of a $539 million interest payment that Hon. Thomas P. Griesa of the Federal District Court in Manhattan prevented the trustee from paying last month. The latest lawsuit poses a challenge to the scope of the ruling and will further complicate what has been a long and drawn out battle between the government of Argentina and a group of New York hedge funds. In a hearing on Friday, Judge Griesa ruled the move “illegal” but stopped short of holding Argentina in contempt of court.

India’s antitrust regulator fined 14 carmakers, including the local units of Honda Motor Co. and General Motors Co., a combined 25.4 billion rupees (US$420 million) for stifling competition in the market for spare parts as the industry faces similar scrutiny in China, Bloomberg reported today. The fines were equivalent to 2 percent of the carmakers’ three-year average revenue in India, according to a Competition Commission of India order dated Aug. 25. The regulator also ordered the companies to provide spare parts and diagnostic tools to independent garages, and honor warranties on cars repaired by them after markups reached as high as 4,817 percent. The Indian penalties come at a time the auto industry’s bracing for the results of a similar investigation by Chinese authorities. At least eight carmakers have recently lowered prices in response to a probe by China’s National Development and Reform Commission.

Argentina’s plan to pay its restructured debt beyond the reach of U.S. courts is illegal, said the judge overseeing litigation stemming from the nation’s 2001 default, while declining to hold the country in contempt, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa said in Manhattan federal court yesterday that the proposal, announced on Aug. 19 by Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is “invalid, illegal and in violation of current court orders and injunctions.” Judge Griesa declined a request by lawyers representing investors holding Argentina’s defaulted bonds that he find the nation in contempt of court. The judge told lawyers for both sides that a contempt finding wouldn’t bolster the prospects for a settlement between Argentina and its creditors.