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Eagle Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust has gotten bids of more than $480 million for 14 of its properties, but the bankrupt hotel chain doesn’t yet have a buyer for its lease for 1930s ocean liner the Queen Mary, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Heading into a Thursday auction, Monarch Alternative Capital LP was the lead bidder for Eagle Hospitality’s properties, with a $470 million offer for all 15 properties that set the floor price. The distressed-debt investor ended up having the best offer for 10 of 14 Eagle Hospitality properties, for a total proposed purchase price of roughly $360 million, according to auction records filed late Thursday. A hearing to approve the proposed sales is scheduled for May 28 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Proposed buyers for the other four properties are Beach Point Capital Management LP, Solid Rock Ventures LLC, Taconic Capital Advisors LP and FullG Capital Ltd, documents show. As of late Thursday, however, “there is no purchaser for the Queen Mary Hotel,” Eagle Hospitality said in a court filing.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. won bankruptcy-court approval to hand control of the rental-car company to Knighthead Capital Management LLC, Certares Management LLC and other investors that won a bidding war over the company, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. While shareholders typically receive nothing in corporate bankruptcies, the winning bid for Hertz will provide a distribution of more than $7 and as much as $8 a share to the company’s current owners, according to Hertz’s estimates. The winning bid reflected a dramatic rise in Hertz’s prospects in recent weeks as investor groups competed to buy the company out of bankruptcy. Earlier offers from potential bidders offered nothing for Hertz’s equity, and, as recently as mid-April, the company said its shareholders would come away empty-handed in the chapter 11 proceedings. Hertz filed for bankruptcy last May, fighting for survival as its revenue plummeted during the pandemic. “Today we’re on the verge of a remarkable recovery,” company lawyer Tom Lauria said at a virtual hearing Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. COVID-19 vaccinations and a rebound in consumers’ eagerness to vacation are expected to reinvigorate the travel business and ease Hertz’s path out of chapter 11. Hertz’s creditors will be paid in full, and shareholders will see a substantial return, Lauria said. Rachel Strickland, a lawyer for bondholders that were outbid for control of the company, said they would fight to ensure that they would have everything paid to them that was due, including accrued interest.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hertz-gets-court-approval-for-bankruptcy-d…

Elliott Investment Management, the owner of Barnes & Noble, said on Tuesday that it will acquire gift and stationery retailer Paper Source, CNBC.com reported. The acquisition will provide Paper Source with the funding it needs to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy. Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt will oversee both companies. While the two businesses plan to operate independently, it hinted at possible partnerships in the future. Paper Source plans to operate 130 stores in the U.S. as well as its website and wholesale division, Waste Not Paper by Paper Source. The stationery chain filed for bankruptcy on March 2 and was forced to close stores, cut jobs and reduce the pay of senior managers. Like many retailers, Paper Source’s sales fell last year after Covid pandemic shutdowns, capacity restrictions, and a wave of canceled weddings and events hurt sales of invitations. Paper Source had purchased 30 new stores from its competitor Papyrus just weeks before the pandemic hit in March 2020. At the time of its bankruptcy filing, Paper Source had 1,700 employees, 158 stores, and $100 million in debt and leases that cost $36 million annually.

Subscription streaming video pioneer Roku on May 11 submitted a $5 million bid for the intellectual assets of bankrupt MobiTV, the Emeryville, Calif.-based company providing software for on-demand programming, live TV, catch-up TV, network DVR and content recommendations without the need of a set-top box, Media Play News reported. On March 1, MobiTV filed for chapter 11 protection, citing $10 million to $50 million in assets and $50 million to $100 million in liabilities. Roku, which co-started the streaming video on-demand (SVOD) market more than 10 years ago with Netflix, joined RPX, a patent license aggregator, in the bid. U.K.-based IPTV software provider Amino joined the companies, contributing another $10 million bid for the “going concern” of the MobiTV business. That consortium was then edged to the sidelines when TiVo Xperi upped its original $13 million bid to $15.5 million, and is now seen as the frontrunner for MobiTV assets — in an auction process that continues today.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., the once mighty shale explorer that exited bankruptcy earlier this year, is seeking to sell oil-producing assets in South Texas for as much as $2 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The Oklahoma City-based producer is working with a pair of advisers to offer the assets in the Eagle Ford shale. Once known for its aggressive growth through acquisitions during the shale boom, Chesapeake joined other producers in filing for bankruptcy protection last year after the pandemic devastated demand for energy. When the company exited restructuring in February, CEO Doug Lawler declared it was “a new era for shale.” The potential sale comes at a time when the company has announced Lawler departed on April 30, after eight years with the company. In 2018, Lawler oversaw a deal to buy 420,000 acres of leases from Houston-based Wildhorse Resources in the eastern end of the Eagle Ford, known as the Brazos Valley. The shale driller also owns and operates 220,000 acres of oil and natural gas leases in the western end of the Eagle Ford.