Montreal, Maine and Atlantic

Hearings are to be held simultaneously Thursday in Sherbrooke and in Bangor, Maine, to approve the sale of the Canadian and U.S. operations of Montreal, Maine and Atlantic to New York-based Fortress Investor Group for $15.7 million.

A second bid for the Maine portion of MMA was made by Saint John, N.B.-based J.D. Irving Ltd. That bid was not accepted, according to a statement issued by the company.

The bankrupt railway owes $27.5 million to the U.S. government for a 2005 loan, a further $6 million to a U.S. railway company related to a line of credit and $3.5 million more to other creditors, according to documents filed in MMA’s bankruptcy proceed- ings.

When it filed for bankruptcy, MMA’s Canadian operations said it had $17.9 million in assets and $48.1 million in liabilities. The U.S. company listed assets of $50 to $100 million and said it had more than 200 creditors.

The company is also facing lawsuits from families of people killed in LacMégantic on July 6. A motion has also been filed in Quebec court to proceed with a classaction lawsuit against MMA and nearly three dozen other companies.

MMA’s bankruptcy monitors and trustee have proposed a deadline of March 31 for claims related to the July 6 accident to be filed against MMA’s Canadian and U.S. operations. MMA’s Canadian bankruptcy monitors aid several thousand claims could be made against the two companies.