With global demand for fishmeal on the rise, quotas for the Peruvian fishery -- the largest single source of fishmeal on the planet -- are attractive. How attractive, though, is the question lenders stung by the bankruptcy of Pacific Andes-owned China Fishery Group are eager to find out.

Hopes have already dimmed significantly throughout the process. The court-appointed trustee handling the sale of the Peruvian harvesting giant on Nov. 6 put a “sale threshold” on the group of $1.2 billion (€1 billion) -- a whopping $500 million (€422.8