TORONTO -- A creditor of Firan Technology Group's largest shareholder will acquire about 48% of the printed circuit board fabricator through a bankruptcy deal.

The acquisition of the shares will bring Oakwest Ltd.'s direct and indirect stake in Firan to 51%, making the private investment holding company the largest owner of the PCB company.

Oakwest is acquiring the shares from Ernst & Young, a trustee in the bankruptcy of Glendale International. Glendale previously owned the stake in FTG.

Upon close of the deal, Oakwest and its director Robert Beutel will or approximately 51.5% of the outstanding common shares of Firan, and 46.8% of the voting shares.

FTG was created by Glendale through a reverse merger by which the Firan bought PCB fabricator Circuit World Corp. Last year however, Glendale filed for bankruptcy protection under Canada's Bankruptcy & Insolvency Act.

Glendale has two sitting directors on FTG's board; it is unclear if and when Oakwest might seek to replace them.

Ed.: Clarifies a previous version of this story which identified Oakwest as the majority shareholder. In fact, Oakwest is the largest shareholder but does not hold a majority of the voting stock.

USHIKU CITY, JAPAN – Nippon Mektron said the Japan earthquake and tsunami brought direct damage to its Okubara and Kashima plants. The printed circuit board fabricator says, however, that its production supply capability has been recovered close to pre-disaster levels.