 | | Featured Premium Content | | | | | ABI Insolvency Symposium Materials: Strategic Use of Chapter 15 and Its Intersection with § 363
Access materials from the "Strategic Use of Chapter 15 and Its Intersection with § 363: Can a U.S. Court Sell a Foreign Debtor’s Assets Free and Clear?" session at the 2025 ABI International Caribbean Insolvency Symposium. READ MORE | | | | | SPONSORED CONTENTThe Pervasive Repricing Wave of 2024 Will Likely Continue Into 2025What role will investors play? What is the impact on lenders? Will declining interest rates end the trend? SRS Acquiom explores the dynamics driving the wave of repricings and equips you with the insights you need to determine whether a repricing strategy is right for your loan. DOWNLOAD THE INSIGHTS | | |  | | Editor's Picks | | | | | Hooters in Talks for Potential Bankruptcy in Coming Months
Hooters of America is working with creditors on a plan to restructure the business through bankruptcy court in the coming months, Bloomberg News reported. The casual dining chain is working with law firm Ropes & Gray to ready a filing, said the sources, who added the plans are not final. The court process would likely begin within the next two months. Hooters has faced liquidity issues as foot traffic has declined and has shuttered several locations. The chain sold about $300 million in asset-backed bonds in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. READ MORE | | Judge Weighs Options to 'Jump-Start' Stalled Albany Diocese Bankruptcy
A federal bankruptcy judge in Albany, N.Y., is weighing whether to allow multiple child sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to go to trial in order to “jump-start” what many attorneys for hundreds of alleged victims have said is a languishing attempt to reach a global settlement with the church and its insurers, the Albany Times Union reported. “The only thing I’ve produced in the last 13 months is millions of dollars in professional fees,” Judge Robert E. Littlefield Jr. said during a conference last month. “It is getting somewhat frustrating that all I’m doing is approving fees. I’m not approving anything of substance. We’re just languishing on the sidelines. We need to jump-start the process or the case is heading to failure.” READ MORE | | New Orleans Archdiocese Sells Properties and Plans for a Smaller Church as Bankruptcy Case Drags
In the five years since Archbishop Gregory Aymond placed the New Orleans archdiocese under federal bankruptcy protection, the church has closed or consolidated 11 of its more than 100 parishes and sold off at least $15 million in real estate, including a Howard Avenue office tower and a former school on Freret Street, NOLA.com reported. Aymond is also in the process of shedding Christopher Homes, a charity that provides housing to low-income seniors, and indicated earlier this month that he may part ways with Second Harvest of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, the food bank that’s been embroiled in controversy since he fired its CEO. The sales and reorganizations have taken place as church officials prepare for another set of high-level mediations with representatives for the hundreds of clergy abuse survivors who have made claims against the church. READ MORE
MORE NEWS BELOW | | |  | | Upcoming Events | | | | | Alexander L. Paskay Memorial Bankruptcy Seminar Tampa Marriott Water Street
February 27-28 | Tampa, Fla. | | ABI Annual Spring Meeting Marriott Marquis
April 24-26 | Washington, D.C. | | | | |  | | Daily Roundup | | | | | A Florida Hospital Was Sold in a Bankruptcy Deal. Now, the New Owner Will Shut It Down
After surviving a bankruptcy saga, a Florida hospital will be shut down and demolished by its new owner, the Miami Herald reported. Orlando Health, a Central Florida hospital network, spent millions last year to buy three Florida Space Coast hospitals owned by Steward Health Care System. Steward, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, put all of its hospitals in Florida and elsewhere up for sale to thin debt. READ MORE | | Great American, lenders Win Bid for Joann Inc. Assets in Bankruptcy
A partnership among West Coast asset-disposition firm Great American Group LLC and Joann Inc.'s lenders has won the bid for the Hudson, Ohio-based fabric and crafts retailer's assets in an auction ordered by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the Cleveland Business Journal reported. GA Joann Retail Partnership's ending bid won over the ending bid of the stalking-horse entity, Gordon Brothers Group of Boston, which set a floor for the auction price and terms of Joann's asset sale during its second bankruptcy filing in a year. READ MORE | | Greenpeace Is Going to Trial in $300 Million Suit That Poses Bankruptcy Risk
Greenpeace is set to go on trial on Monday before a North Dakota jury in a bombshell lawsuit that, if successful, could bankrupt the storied group, the New York Times reported. The Dallas-based company Energy Transfer sued Greenpeace in 2017, accusing it of masterminding raucous protests over the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation nearly a decade ago. The activists say that the lawsuit is a thinly veiled tactic to suppress free speech and set a chilling precedent for protest groups, and that Greenpeace played only a supporting role in demonstrations that were led by Native Americans. READ MORE | | Trump’s Tariff Wars Leave US Small Business With Nowhere to Hide
American companies of all sizes are on edge over President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but it’s arguably small business that is most exposed, Bloomberg News reported. Many smaller firms say they’re having to hike prices, freeze expansion plans or absorb a hit to already-thin profit margins as import bills climb. Such businesses employ half the US workforce, so how they cope with Trump’s ramped-up trade war will be crucial to the wider economic impact. READ MORE | | SEC Dropping Crypto Lawsuit, Coinbase Says
The largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange said Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission would drop its lawsuit against it, a signal that the Trump administration plans to take a friendlier approach to the broader crypto industry, NBCNews.com reported. In a release it titled "Righting a major wrong," the exchange, Coinbase, said SEC staff had agreed in principle to dismiss a suit filed during the Biden administration. The suit accused Coinbase of acting as an unregistered securities broker. READ MORE | | U.S. Existing Home Sales Fall More Than Expected in January
U.S. existing home sales dropped more than expected in January after three straight monthly increases as high mortgage rates and house prices stifled demand, Reuters reported. Home sales decreased 4.9% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.08 million units, the National Association of Realtors said on Friday. READ MORE | | Ginnie Mae, Stalwart of Mortgage Market, Squeezed by DOGE
Ginnie Mae, a $2.7 trillion stalwart of the US home mortgage market, is the latest Washington agency targeted by Elon Musk, Bloomberg News reported. Over the past week, as much as a quarter of the agency’s 270-or-so employees have either resigned or been dismissed. The departures have raised concern that Ginnie Mae — a relatively small agency that turns a profit — might have trouble doing its job, particularly if the financial markets or the US housing market take a turn for the worse. READ MORE | | | | |
