Furniture Brands International Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday and said that it plans to sell most of its business, which includes names such as Thomasville, Drexel Heritage and La Barge, Reuters reported yesterday. The St. Louis-based company said that it agreed to sell all of its brands except Lane Furniture to Oaktree Capital Management, an investment firm that specializes in buying assets from bankrupt companies. The sale agreement will be subject to higher bids and a court-supervised auction. The money from the auction will be used to repay Furniture Brands creditors. Oaktree also committed to providing a $140 million debtor-in-possession or DIP loan to finance the bankruptcy case.
