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Canadian movie theater chain Cineplex Inc. has approached lenders to its bankrupt rival Cineworld Group PLC about reviving a potential merger with the U.K. company’s Regal Entertainment Group franchise, the Wall Street Journal reported. Cineplex has started early talks with Cineworld’s lenders about taking over the company’s U.S.-based Regal movie theater chain and handing them debt and stock backed by the merged business in return. Cineplex would need to garner broad-based lender backing for the merger and Cineworld hasn’t signaled support for merging its crown-jewel Regal chain with Cineplex in a bankruptcy deal. Cineworld doesn’t have a clear path out of chapter 11 yet, but it has the right to make its own restructuring offer to creditors before other alternatives can be proposed. Cineworld, which bought Regal for around $4 billion in debt and around $2.3 billion in stock in 2017, filed for bankruptcy with about $5 billion in debt. Its lenders are keeping it afloat through the chapter 11 process and have a significant say in the company’s postbankruptcy future.

Voyager Digital said yesterday that crypto exchange FTX, whose bailout proposal the bankrupt lender had rejected earlier this year, has won its assets in a $1.42-billion bid at an auction, Reuters reported. The FTX bid comprises a fair market value of all Voyager cryptocurrency, at a to-be-determined date, which is pegged at about $1.31 billion at current market prices and an additional $111 million in incremental value, Voyager said in a statement. The company added that its claims against hedge fund Three Arrows Capital will remain with the bankruptcy estate, which will distribute any available recovery on such claims to the estate's creditors. Voyager issued a notice of default to the Singapore-based hedge fund in June, for its failure to make required payments on a loan of 15,250 bitcoin.The company in July spurned a proposal from FTX, founded by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, as a "low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue" and alleged the plan would disrupt its bankruptcy process.

Crypto exchanges FTX and Binance have made the leading bids for the assets of bankrupt crypto-lender Voyager Digital Ltd., but neither bid has been accepted yet, the Wall Street Journal reported. The current bid from Binance is about $50 million, slightly higher than the competing bid from FTX. Voyager, founded in 2019, operated a crypto lending platform that took in customer deposits, paid them interest and lent out the assets to other parties. It went public via a reverse merger in 2019. At the stock’s peak in 2021, the company’s market capitalization was $3.9 billion. At the time of its bankruptcy filing in July 2022, Voyager said it had total assets of $5 billion and total liabilities of $4.9 billion. FTX and Binance have emerged among the few winners in the crypto meltdown. Both have managed to increase their share of the trading market. FTX, owned by Sam Bankman-Fried, has been aggressively acquiring distressed assets during the downturn.

Troubled EV startup Mullen Automotive Inc. has emerged as the leading bidder for the assets of bankrupt competitor Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc., including a now-idle former Hummer SUV factory in Indiana, Bloomberg News reported. Mullen agreed to a stalking-horse bid of “almost $100 million in total consideration,” according to a Sept. 16 filing by the trustee in Electric Last Mile’s chapter 7 case. Competing bids are due by Oct. 3, and an auction will be held Oct. 7. Details of the offer come after Mullen, which aims to bring electric vehicles to market including a compact SUV and a sports car, announced it was acquiring a majority stake in rival Bollinger Motors in a cash-and-stock transaction. Mullen didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The firms are among a number of EV startups struggling to break through in a market dominated by Tesla Inc. at a time of overstretched supply chains and high costs. One day after the Bollinger deal was announced, Mullen, whose stock has declined about 90% this year, revealed it had fallen out of compliance with Nasdaq’s minimum share price requirements. The trustee has said that as many as 245 potential strategic or financial parties were solicited for the assets of Electric Last Mile, which filed for bankruptcy in June, and that 39 of those have executed non-disclosure agreements to perform due diligence and potentially make a bid. Securing Mullen as a stalking horse bidder “represents a tremendous benefit to the debtors’ estates and creditors,” he wrote in Friday’s filing.

Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network on Thursday, filed a request for sale of its stablecoin holdings, in a bid to generate liquidity to fund its operations, Reuters reported. The New Jersey-based company intends to sell their current and any future stablecoins it may receive, as needed, to fund its chapter 11 cases, according to a court document. The request was filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York and a hearing is scheduled on Oct. 6 to discuss the proposed sale, the document showed. Celsius had filed for bankruptcy in New York in July, after it froze withdrawals, citing "extreme" market conditions. Celsius currently owns 11 different forms of stablecoin, for a total of about $23 million.

Insolvent crypto lender Voyager Digital Ltd. has drawn enough interest from potential buyers to necessitate an auction, Bloomberg News reported. The auction will be held at 10 a.m. on Sept. 13 in the New York offices of Voyager’s investment bank Moelis & Co., according to a notice filed in bankruptcy court on Tuesday. A court hearing to approve the results is scheduled for Sept. 29. The need for an auction means Voyager received more than one acceptable bid for its assets and no bid was clearly the best. That could be good news for Voyager customers still locked out of their accounts: a higher final price tag for Voyager may result in better recoveries for customers. Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda publicly disclosed a joint bid for Voyager in July, but Voyager called it a “low-ball” offer.

Clarus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. said it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, the Northbrook Daily Herald reported. Clarus has also filed a motion seeking authorization to pursue an auction and sale of its sole commercial asset, JATENZO, a drug approved for use by health care providers to treat testosterone deficiency in men with certain medical conditions. Clarus has filed a series of motions with the court seeking to ensure the continuation of normal operations while on this path. Clarus believes it has sufficient financial resources to meet its operational and financial obligations to patients, health care providers, suppliers and employees through the chapter 11 process, the company said. In addition, scaled-back efforts will continue to support commercialization of JATENZO. "After thoroughly exploring our strategic options in a robust process conducted by the Capital Structure Advisory team at Raymond James, and in light of the extremely challenging financial markets, Clarus' board of directors and its senior management team have unanimously concluded that a structured sale process represents the best possible solution for Clarus and its stakeholders," said Dr. Robert Dudley, CEO of Clarus.