%1

Bankruptcy Judge Judge Tamara O. Mitchell authorized a settlement that allows Walter Energy Inc. to avoid a showdown with unsecured creditors over the coal-mining company's looming sale, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Judge Mitchell said yesterday that she would approve the deal among Walter, the official committee representing its unsecured creditors and the senior lenders angling to buy Walter's core Alabama mining operations. The deal pledges the unsecured creditors' support for the sale, in which lenders are offering to forgive $1.25 billion of the debt they hold in exchange for Walter's assets, subject to higher bids. The deal also ensures the unsecured creditors wouldn't challenge the claims that form the basis for the lenders' bid.

Coal operator Alpha Natural Resources has expanded to nearly two dozen the number of mine properties it plans to sell as part of its bankruptcy case, the Associated Press reported on Friday. A notice filed by the company’s lawyers this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond listed 23 properties to be sold, up from 16 listed in an October filing. Fourteen properties are active operations while the others are closed or are being closed. Some properties have several mines. Fifteen properties are in West Virginia, including Bandmill Coal Corp., which has four mines, and the Twilight Surface Mine. Other properties to be sold include the Coalgood Surface Mine, the Process Energy and EMC No. 9 mines, and Martin County Coal Company in Kentucky; the Tiller No. 1 Mine in Virginia; Tennessee Consolidated Coal in Tennessee; and Wabash in Illinois.

The future of Doctors' Hospital of Michigan in Pontiac will remain uncertain for at least another week after creditors failed yesterday to reach a conclusive vote on competing bankruptcy reorganization plans for the long-struggling hospital, the Detroit Free Press reported today. None of the three rival plans for buying the hospital out of bankruptcy attracted enough votes from the hospital's nearly 700 creditors to win confirmation by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit. Judge Walter Shapero said that the creditors had questions about the feasibility of all three plans that will need hearings to resolve. A tightly packed series of court dates is scheduled for next week in hopes of confirming one of the two still-competing plans by Christmas Eve. The backer of a third reorganization plan backed out yesterday because of the plan's low vote tally.

Molycorp Inc. has failed to attract any offers for the entire company as a first-round bidding deadline approaches, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The potential buyers, mostly rare-earths producers and processors based outside the U.S., are instead looking to take on part or all of the bankrupt rare-earths miner’s overseas business. Those bids do not include its idled Mountain Pass mine in California, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Offers could still emerge in a later round. The sale, which was announced on Nov. 3 and is part of a reorganization plan, has been tumultuous, with Molycorp’s lower-ranking creditors accusing the company of running a “specious sale process.” The contending creditors, which are negotiating with the company in mediation sessions ordered by the judge, argued that the proposal gives veto power to Oaktree Capital Management LLC, Molycorp’s senior lender, and makes it impossible to persuade potential buyers to join an auction. The company, which is advised by Miller Buckfire & Co. and AlixPartners LLP, said last month that it would sell the entire company or certain assets, or reorganize the business if a sale doesn’t take place.

Tribune Publishing Co. says that it is working to put together an offer for Freedom Communications Inc., one that would top a bid from the existing owner of the Orange County Register publisher, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Tribune is performing due diligence that will ultimately lead to “a stalking-horse offer that Tribune Publishing is optimistic will be viewed as the highest and best offer” for Freedom, the company said in a document filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana, Calif. The court filing, a term sheet for a bankruptcy loan, was made public as part of an objection from Tribune, which publishes the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers, to Freedom’s currently proposed bankruptcy financing. That financing, from hedge fund Silver Point Capital LP, provides $3 million to Freedom but also refinances an additional $19 million in pre-bankruptcy debt owed to Silver Point.

Wireless venture LightSquared LP said it reached a settlement yesterday with Deere & Co. over spectrum use that will provide support for the company as it emerges from bankruptcy, Reuters reported yesterday. The agreement could potentially lead to further settlements with other GPS providers over interference between LightSquared's spectrum and GPS signals. LightSquared officially exited chapter 11 protection on Monday after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) agreed to allow the transfer of its valuable wireless spectrum into a newly-formed company, ending one of the longest and most litigious chapter 11 cases in recent years. The company was planning to build a nationwide wireless network when the FCC proposed to suspend indefinitely its terrestrial spectrum authorizations, pushing it into bankruptcy in May of 2012 and bitter litigation with stakeholders vying for control of its valuable spectrum. Under the new deal with Deere, LightSquared will reduce out-of-band emissions and forego terrestrial use on parts of its spectrum closest to GPS.

CBRE Capital Markets is working to sell the shuttered Forest Park Medical Center San Antonio, and the final price tag could hover around $100 million, the San Antonio Business Journal reported today. Parties interested in acquiring the real estate have until Dec. 18 to submit offers. On Oct. 7, it was reported that FPMC San Antonio Realty Partners LP, which owns the real estate and improvements where Forest Park Medical Center San Antonio was located, had filed for chapter 11 protection. FPMC reportedly defaulted on a loan of more than $68 million from Texas Capital Bank, which has requested that the property be sold. CBRE is working on behalf of FPMC San Antonio Realty Partners and Texas Capital Bank to secure a buyer for the real estate. The plan is to get a deal closed by early February, according to Scott Herbold, first vice president of CBRE Capital Markets.

Axion International Holdings Inc. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday with plans to sell its assets, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Zanesville, Ohio-based company, which makes railroad ties, construction mats and other building materials, said in court papers that it has a bid lined up from one of its investors, which it aims to put to the test in an auction process. Investor Allen Kronstadt has agreed, through a credit bid, to forgive at least $3.2 million of the approximately $5.2 million he has lent Axion in exchange for its assets. The publicly traded company blamed its bankruptcy filing and need for a sale on liquidity issues and recurring operational losses. It has sought to right the ship by curtailing production, liquidating available inventory and seeking new investors, but these efforts have been “largely unsuccessful,” the company said in court papers.

Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi will announce today whether he will approve a chapter 11 exit plan for Energy Future Holdings Corp., Texas's biggest power company, Reuters reported today. Judge Sontchi must consider whether the plan by Energy Future is fair to creditors. Under the plan, Energy Future will sell its Oncor power distribution business to a consortium led by Hunt Consolidated. That deal has been valued at $19 billion. Energy Future's power plants and retail utility will be spun off to senior creditors, which are owed $24 billion.