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Private equity-owned stationary and gifts retailer Paper Source Inc. filed for bankruptcy, planning to permanently close some stores and sell itself to an affiliate of asset manager Apollo Global Management Inc. in exchange for debt relief, subject to better offers, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Chicago-based Paper Source filed for chapter 11 protection Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Va., becoming the latest retail chain pushed into bankruptcy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paper Source said its business was strong and growing until it was forced to temporarily close all of its nearly 160 stores last March in response to COVID-19. Revenue then dropped from canceled weddings and lost sales during the Mother’s Day and Easter holidays. The company closed stores weeks after Paper Source acquired additional locations from a competitor, Papyrus Inc., which itself was in chapter 11 at the time.

Specialty retailer Francesca’s Holdings Corp. has won court approval to sell its remaining business out of bankruptcy to a group of buyers that plan to keep open about half of the chain’s roughly 550 stores, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Brendan Shannon of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., said on Thursday he would approve the sale of substantially all of Francesca’s assets to an affiliate of investment firm TerraMar Capital LLC and appraisal and liquidation firm Tiger Capital Group LLC, one of Francesca’s lenders. “This is a frankly very, very welcome result,” Judge Shannon said during a hearing Thursday held by video. “This is an extraordinarily challenging environment and to come up with competing, going concern sales and the opportunity for a robust auction, that would not have been anyone’s likely prediction at the outset of this process.” Los Angeles-based TerraMar, which served as the lead bidder along with Tiger, agreed to a purchase price of $18 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments, plus a promissory note for $1.25 million and the assumption of about $7.74 million in liabilities. The deal, which could close by next week, will preserve the business as a going concern with at least 275 Francesca’s boutiques. As of Tuesday, Francesca’s operated 551 locations, mostly in malls across the U.S. About 140 stores were shut before Francesca’s filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in December.

Restaurant franchisee NPC International Inc. won court approval to sell more than 1,300 Pizza Hut and Wendy’s restaurants for about $800 million, six months after the coronavirus pandemic pushed the company into bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Under two deals approved yesterday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones, Flynn Restaurant Group will take over 951 Pizza Hut locations and nearly 200 Wendy’s stores, according to court filings. Wendy’s Co. will take over another 200 of its namesake restaurants and then turn them over to a group of its franchisees. The agreements won the support of Pizza Hut and Wendy’s, which were involved in negotiating terms of the sales, attorneys for the two restaurant companies said in court. When NPC filed for bankruptcy last year, it operated more than 1,200 Pizza Hut locations and nearly 400 Wendy’s restaurants. In November, NPC called off auctions for its Pizza Hut and Wendy’s restaurants because the offers were too low, an NPC lawyer said last month. Instead, the company entered into settlement talks that ultimately led to the current deal.