Canada’s Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group said yesterday that it had emerged from bankruptcy, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the famed circus operator to cancel shows and lay off artists earlier this year, Reuters reported. The once high-flying Cirque, which grew from a troupe of street performers in the 1980s to a company with global reach, has slashed about 95 percent of its workforce and suspended shows due to the pandemic. It had filed for bankruptcy protection in June and reached a new purchase agreement with secured lenders shortly after. A group of creditors, led by Catalyst Capital Group, had bid to take control of the Montreal-based circus group in July, replacing a deal with Cirque shareholders that included debt financing from a Quebec government body. As a part of the deal with its creditors, Cirque said it would add the former chief executive officer of MGM Resorts Jim Murren and Gabriel de Alba, a partner at Catalyst Capital Group, to its board.
