 | | Featured Premium Content | | | | | BankruptcyData: 2024 Public Company, Private Equity and Direct Lending Bankruptcy Report
In FY24, 103 public companies filed for bankruptcy, accounting for 14% of total filings. Additionally, 64 public companies scored bankruptcy plan confirmation, representing 26%. During the same period, five private equity-backed companies declared bankruptcy, representing 7% of the total, while 30 private equity-backed companies achieved bankruptcy plan confirmation, accounting for 13% of the total. | | | | |  | | Editor's Picks | | | | | Los Angeles Fire Damage Likely to Be Costliest Blaze in U.S. History
The Los Angeles wildfires are set to be the costliest blazes in U.S. history, analysts said Thursday, as the first initial estimates of damage from the infernos soared with their unchecked spread, the Wall Street Journal reported. Total economic losses from the fires are now pegged at close to $50 billion, double the estimate of a day earlier, according to JPMorgan analyst Jimmy Bhullar. That includes insured losses which he estimated at more than $20 billion and “even more if the fires are not controlled.” (Subscription required.) | | New York Governor Wants to Limit Hedge Funds from Buying Up Homes
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday said she will push for new laws to make it harder for hedge funds to purchase large numbers of single-family homes in the state, the Associated Press reported. In a statement, Hochul said she would propose legislation this year that would require a 75 day waiting period before large investment firms could place bids on new homes hitting the market and limit certain tax benefits when the firms purchase homes. | | U.S. Mortgage Rates Climb to Highest Since July
U.S. mortgage rates are back at their highest level since last summer, frustrating home buyers waiting for a break from some of the steepest borrowing costs in more than a decade, the Wall Street Journal reported. Home sales have shown signs of a rebound in recent months, but those gains have come despite costlier financing, a weight economists say is continuing to drag on a full-fledged housing recovery. (Subscription required.) MORE NEWS BELOW | | |  | | Upcoming Events | | | | | | | | | | | |  | | Daily Roundup | | | | | FTX Disputes Sale of EU Assets to Ex-Employees as Complete
The question of who owns the European unit of Sam Bankman-Fried’s former crypto enterprise appeared to be settled: Dubai-based Backpack Exchange said it had purchased FTX EU after months of wrangling, Bloomberg News reported. Backpack, a crypto trading platform founded by one-time employees of Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda Research businesses, said the $32.7 million acquisition would expand its derivatives offerings in the region. | | Twin Peaks Franchisee in Florida Files for Bankruptcy; Faces $12 Million Litigation Claim
DMD Ventures — a Davie, Fla.-based franchisee of Twin Peaks, Papa Johns, Candlewood Suites, and other non-hospitality ventures — has filed for chapter 11 protection, Nation's Restaurant News reported. The company has filed simultaneous bankruptcy petitions for its two affiliated businesses, DMD Florida Development 2, LLC and DMD Florida Restaurant Groups C and D LLC, which own and operate separate Twin Peaks restaurants. The company is facing a $12 million lawsuit from one of its largest creditors, Florida Restaurant Franchise Group, a commercial real estate development and holding company and affiliate of Jafrejo Holdings. | | Nigerian Logistics Startup Gokada Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Amid Mounting Financial Challenges
Gokada, Nigeria’s largest-mile logistics delivery startup, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in 2024, Tekedia.com reported. The filing highlighted significant financial difficulties, with liabilities exceeding $5.4 million against assets valued at just over $564,000. | | Analysis: The U.S. Has More Fancy Apartments Than It Is Able to Fill
America has a serious housing shortage, but not for the type of apartments that real-estate investors have been building in record numbers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The national vacancy rate for multifamily apartments reached 8% in the last quarter of 2024 — higher than it was before the pandemic. Rising numbers of empty apartments seems odd considering the U.S. housing market is undersupplied by anywhere from 1.5 million to seven million units, depending on estimates. (Subscription required.) | | | | |
