Bankrupt retailer Joyce Leslie Inc. will hold an auction for its store leases on Feb. 16, NorthJersey.com reported yesterday. The company has a stalking-horse bid from 618 Main Street Corp., which sells clothes under the Mad Rags/10spot name, for a number of the store leases. Joyce Leslie also is seeking bids for the lease on its corporate offices and distribution center, and for the rights to its name and intellectual property. The company is holding liquidation sales at its 42 stores in New Jersey and three other states.
Rig contractor Hercules Offshore Inc. said that it was considering strategic options, including selling itself, three months after emerging from bankruptcy, Reuters reported today. The company filed for chapter 11 protection in August and emerged from bankruptcy in November. Hercules Offshore said the move to explore alternatives was not in response to any proposal received by the company. The company had about $514 million in cash and $450 million in total debt as of Feb. 9.
Lawyers trying to sell California’s Metropolitan Automotive Warehouse Inc., which fell into bankruptcy after saying that it lost money expanding its online auto parts sales, want a bankruptcy judge to set a March 4 bid deadline for potential buyers, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Metropolitan Automotive Warehouse officials told Judge Wayne E. Johnson in court papers that several buyers are interested in purchasing the Los Angeles-area company out of bankruptcy at an auction. The company, combined with affiliate Star Auto Parts Inc., employs about 1,000 people. Metropolitan Automotive Warehouse officials didn’t say how much buyers were offering to pay but proposed to reveal the value of the auction’s opening bid by Feb. 12. One offer is expected to come from New York-based Parts Authority Inc., which called itself one of the largest distributors of automotive and truck parts on the East Coast in a document filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside, Calif.
Samson Resources Corp. is asking a bankruptcy judge to allow it to sell about $16.5 million worth of wells that are no longer in use, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The company isn't asking to sell the wells through a typical bankruptcy auction process. Instead, Samson said in court papers filed on Friday that it plans to sell approximately 1,262 wells and related property at an auction at broker-dealer Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse. The company plans to sell these wells at the scheduled March 9 auction at the Clearinghouse or otherwise hold private sales, according to court papers. Read more. (Subscription required.)
A Tulsa-based firm that has been actively investing in Texas oil and gas fields has agreed to pay $245 million to buy the U.S. assets of Quicksilver Resources, a Fort Worth energy company that became one of the more prominent companies in the Barnett Shale before falling into bankruptcy last year, the Dallas Morning News reported today. BlueStone Natural Resources II emerged as the buyer from a bankruptcy auction last week. BlueStone’s purchase is being backed by Natural Gas Partners, a private-equity firm in Irving that was founded by the late Fort Worth financier Richard Rainwater. Quicksilver announced the sale to its employees on Friday and filed documents in bankruptcy court early Saturday. Quicksilver is selling its assets to help pay off more than $2.35 billion in debt. When Quicksilver filed for bankruptcy in March 2015, it stated that its assets in the United States were valued at $1.21 billion. But volatility in the oil and gas markets in recent months have led energy companies to write down values. The proposed sale will go before a bankruptcy judge in Delaware for approval during a hearing set for tomorrow. Read more.
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Toy giant Mattel Inc. is preparing to take over the bankrupt manufacturer of Nabi children's tablets after winning a bankruptcy auction earlier this week with a $21.5 million bid, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Court papers show Mattel put in the highest offer for the brand of colorful tablets made by Fuhu Inc., which went up for sale after the El Segundo, Calif., company filed for bankruptcy in December. Fuhu has sold more than 4 million tablets through retailers like Target, Best Buy and Toys R Us but struggled after delays at the toy's overseas manufacturer caused it to miss much of the 2014 holiday sales season.
TransCoastal Corp., one of the latest victims of falling oil and gas prices, on Monday won approval from a bankruptcy judge for its reorganization plan, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The pre-packaged plan, for which the Texas oil and gas company secured creditors' support before filing for bankruptcy, calls on its senior lender to swap roughly $21 million in debt for new equity in the reorganized company. When TransCoastal filed for chapter 11 protection on Dec. 8, it sought to reduce its debt by about 85 percent. The restructuring plan also called for TransCoastal to access up to $4 million in new capital. Read more. (Subscription required.)
Rare earths producer Molycorp reached agreements with its junior creditors on Friday that clear the way for the bankrupt company to accept bids for the company and to ask creditors to vote on a plan to exit bankruptcy, Reuters reported on Friday. Molycorp, the only U.S. producer and processor of the rare earth elements that are used in cell phones and military equipment, has been battling its bondholders who have alleged it is doing the bidding of its lender, Oaktree Capital Management. Lawyers for Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Molycorp told a bankruptcy judge that it would allow advisers for the unsecured creditors’ committee and a group of bondholders to join calls and meetings about potential bids. An auction is scheduled for March 4.
