A federal bankruptcy judge yesterday said that she would approve an $82 million sale of Atlantic City's Revel Casino Hotel to Florida developer Glenn Straub, Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Court Judge Gloria Burns said that she would sign off on the deal, the third one she has approved. The previous two agreements failed. The offer, from polo club owner and distressed real estate mogul Straub, is a far cry from the $2.4 billion it cost to build the gleaming casino complex. Revel opened in 2012 to much fanfare, but it never turned a profit and went bankrupt twice. Judge Burns delayed the approval in part to see if other interested buyers could finalize deals, but none did. The judge noted that Revel's estate was losing money every day as it waited.
The owners of Atlantic City's former Revel casino hope to sell it "soon," even as they seek an extension through the end of June to wrap up its bankruptcy case, the Associated Press reported yesterday. In a court filing made on Monday, Revel AC said that it is working toward finalizing the $82 million sale to Florida developer Glenn Straub's Polo North Country Club. A bankruptcy court judge is scheduled to consider the sale tomorrow.
The judge overseeing RadioShack Corp.’s bankruptcy said he will approve the sale of about 1,700 stores to the chain’s biggest shareholder, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Yesterday’s decision ensures the survival of the 94-year-old electronics retailer, for now, and saves thousands of jobs that might have been lost if the stores were liquidated. The buyer, Standard General LP, has said that it plans to run the business in a co-branding arrangement with Sprint Corp. During four days of sometimes contentious hearings in bankruptcy court, creditors fought the company and each other over how much the stores were worth and how proceeds of the sale should be used.
Hedge fund Standard General was declared the winner of an asset auction last week with a bid worth about $145.5 million.
A hearing on RadioShack Corp.’s plan to sell about 1,700 stores to its biggest shareholder is set to continue today, with the prospect of thousands of job losses if the deal falls through, Bloomberg News reported today. Standard General LP’s bid to take over the stores and run them in a co-branding arrangement with Sprint Corp. has met opposition from some creditors and been threatened by infighting among lender groups. Standard General said that jobs will be preserved if its plan is approved. Otherwise, the assets will be liquidated and stores closed. “There are over 7,000 jobs and very large business at stake,” Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon said yesterday. A key issue in court is who shall be liable if lower-ranking creditors including Salus Capital Partners LLC successfully sue lenders for pre-bankruptcy actions. The unsecured creditors’ committee is investigating whether some RadioShack lenders could be held responsible for the electronics retailer’s bankruptcy.
Kanye West and Dame Dash may be coming to the rescue of Karmaloop, the online streetwear retailer that recently filed for bankruptcy restructuring, Billboard reported on Friday. The pair announced their intention to buy the company in a series of Instagram posts on Thursday following talks with Karmaloop founder Greg Selkoe. It was announced last week that the 15-year-old Karmaloop would be restructuring after filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy due to debt. In response to rumors of West and Dash's interest, Selkoe confirmed on Tuesday that the three were "talking" and on Thursday tweeted that it was "good speaking" with West. Following concern that he would be leaving the company he told one fan on Twitter that "I am here to stay no matter who we join forces [with]." While the Boston-based company's core business of online retail remains strong, it accumulated a "bunch of debt" from the launching of recent business startups, Selkoe told the Gearbottle website.
A lender to bankrupt RadioShack Corp. told a U.S. judge on Friday it was prepared to present a new offer that was a "significant improvement" over a rival proposal that was selected as a winning bidder at an auction last week, Reuters reported on Friday. Anthony Clark, an attorney for Salus Capital Partners, said the lender was working on the bid and called it "a significant improvement over anything in front of the court right now." Clark's announcement came at the end of two days of hearings to consider the sale of the company to Standard General, a hedge fund. RadioShack's advisers declared that Standard General had outbid Salus, RadioShack's largest creditor, at a four-day auction that concluded on Thursday. Salus has challenged that, arguing that its bid included $271 million in cash, compared with just $16 million offered by Standard General. The hedge fund's proposal also included $112 million of debt forgiveness.
As the 11-month mark of its chapter 11 filing approaches, Energy Future Holdings’ (EFH) campaign to get out of bankruptcy court probably remains at least another a year away, the Dallas Morning News reported yesterday. The creation of Energy Future Holdings — through the $45 billion buyout of the former TXU Corp. in 2007 — brought together some of the biggest names on Wall Street on a bet that electricity prices would rise. Almost a year after executives sought financial protection in the courts, there is little if any public indication progress has been made on determining how to divide the company’s assets, spread across subsidiaries Luminant, TXU Energy and Oncor. Negotiations are continuing between EFH and the various creditor groups, say attorneys in the case, who declined to comment publicly due to the sensitivity of the proceedings. But that process has been held up as interest spirals around the sale of power transmission company Oncor, which counts 10 million customers in Texas. When EFH filed for bankruptcy last April the plan was that Oncor would be taken over by a group of creditors aligned with Hunt Consolidated, the Dallas energy and real estate conglomerate run by billionaire Ray L. Hunt. But then NextEra Energy, a Florida-based power company with considerable assets in Texas, raised its hand with a bid later valued at $18 billion, and EFH had to scrap its restructuring plan. Now U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi has approved an auction process scheduled to conclude in August. With companies including Houston utility Centerpoint Energy and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reportedly having explored bids, some are speculating the sale price could reach $20 billion.
A RadioShack Corp. lender asked a bankruptcy judge to intervene in the auction of the electronics retailer and said it had submitted a bid to liquidate the chain that was "materially superior" to one favored by RadioShack, Reuters reported yesterday. Salus Capital Partners said in a court filing yesterday that it had submitted a bid jointly with three liquidators to offer $271 million in cash at the auction that began on Monday. The lender said, however, that RadioShack favored a proposal from hedge fund Standard General, even though its bid included only $16.4 million in cash. Standard General planned to keep open about 1,740 RadioShack stores, many in conjunction with wireless operator Sprint Corp.
