Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. is preparing a bid for the U.S. business of bankrupt Golfsmith International Holdings Inc., challenging an offer by rival retailer Worldwide Golf Shops, Reuters reported yesterday. While bids for Golfsmith, owned by OMERS Private Equity Inc., the buyout arm of one of Canada's largest pension funds, were due earlier on Monday, Dick's was given an extension until today to submit its offer. The bankruptcy auction will the test the value of Golfsmith, which suffered because of competition from discount retailers Wal Mart Stores Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., as well as golf's waning popularity among younger customers. Privately-held Worldwide Golf Shops was preparing to submit a bid for Golfsmith on Monday, in partnership with liquidators from Great American Group LLC. Read more.
Why are U.S. retail reorganizations so hard? Read the cover story of the October ABI Journal.
Hedge fund manager D.E. Shaw and Co. said in a regulatory filing on Friday that it may make a non-binding proposal for SunEdison Inc.’s stake in Terraform Power Inc., Reuters reported. D.E. Shaw and Co. was evaluating various deals with the two companies which could result in a controlling stake in Terraform Power. In August, Reuters reported that the hedge fund manager was weighing a bid for SunEdison's controlling stake in TerraForm Power, the bankrupt company's most valuable asset, according to sources. TerraForm Global Inc. and TerraForm Power Inc., the "yieldcos" of bankrupt solar company SunEdison Inc, said in September that they were exploring strategic alternatives, including a sale of their entire business.
Former telecommunications equipment company Nortel Networks Ltd. reached an agreement with their various business units yesterday to divvy up the $7.3 billion raised from liquidating the failed company, paving the way for pensioners and creditors to get paid after a seven-year wait, Reuters reported. Ontario-based Nortel stumbled from ranking among the world's most valuable companies during the 1990s Internet bubble to bankruptcy in 2009 and liquidation. The cash at the center of the dispute was raised from the sale of Nortel's global businesses, including patents sold in 2011 for $4.5 billion to a group of technology firms led by Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. Under the agreement, Nortel's former U.S. business unit would receive 24 percent or $1.8 billion of the cash, with Nortel estates in Canada and Europe receiving 57 percent and 18 percent respectively, the former company said in a court filing.
Swiss-based ARG International AG, the trading house set up by Glencore Plc's former No. 2 aluminum trader Matt Lucke, is buying a bankrupt smelter in the U.S., its first acquisition since its founding nearly three years ago, Reuters reported on Friday. Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp said on Friday that it sold its 263,000 tonne-per-year New Madrid primary aluminum smelter in Missouri to ARG for $13.7 million in a court-approved auction. Noranda filed for bankruptcy in February after struggling with a sharp downturn in aluminum prices amid a global glut. Lucke founded ARG six months after leaving Glencore in the summer of 2013 alongside chief Gary Fegel, in a shakeup of the world's biggest aluminum trading desk.
TerraForm Power Inc., a yieldco founded and controlled by bankrupt clean-energy giant SunEdison Inc., agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by billionaire David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management LP, Bloomberg News reported today. As part of the settlement, TerraForm agreed to segregate its information technology systems from SunEdison and appoint an additional independent director to its board, it said yesterday. It also said it would grant TerraForm Chief Operating Officer Thomas Studebaker — or a successor in that role — responsibility for its “ordinary course commercial operations” subject to the authority of interim Chief Executive Officer Peter Blackmore. TerraForm, an owner of operating wind and solar farms, has failed to file its 2015 annual report, and has attributed the delays to SunEdison’s struggles. SunEdison, which attributed its own delayed report to “deficient information technology controls” from its reporting system, has provided the systems its yieldcos rely on to complete reports. In January, Appaloosa sued to block SunEdison’s planned $1.9 billion purchase of rooftop solar company Vivint Solar Inc. Under the deal, TerraForm would have bought Vivint assets. The Vivint deal collapsed in March, a little more than a month before SunEdison filed for bankruptcy.
