With assets of just $31.5 million against liabilities of about $399.5 million and running out of cash, Enerkem filed for creditor protection May 12. Repsol, an Enerkem shareholder, lender and business partner, has put up short-term funding to keep the company in business and will lead a takeover unless a solicitation process produces a superior bid. Expressions of interest from other potential bidders are due June 19. (The Logic)

Talking point: Enerkem owes money to Investissement Québec, the labour-sponsored FTQ fund, National Bank and several other creditors. It’s in essentially the same business—turning garbage into fuels that can be burned for energy—as Ottawa-based Omni, which has been through two bankruptcy restructurings, including one this year. Both companies have had problems getting commercial projects started; Enerkem’s been hit by the bankruptcy of a customer building an ethanol plant in Varennes, Que., and delays at a Spanish plant to be operated by, as it happens, Repsol.