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Ligado Networks LLC on Monday asked investors to supply $4.3 billion in debt financing, offering lofty interest rates to compensate for risks surrounding the company’s efforts to develop a swath of radio frequencies amid opposition from the Pentagon, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankers at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Jefferies LLC are marketing $3.26 billion in senior bonds for Ligado at an initial offer of 13 percent annual interest and a 4 percent discount off face value. Ligado also is seeking to raise more than $1 billion in junior debt at 16 percent interest, entirely paid in-kind, meaning only at maturity, the people said. The spectrum venture needs the bond proceeds to refinance debt coming due in December that could otherwise tip Ligado into its second bankruptcy since 2012. Moody’s Investors Service deemed the bond offering a speculative investment, citing the “significant execution hurdles and uncertainties” to the company’s ambitions to develop wireless applications for its spectrum license holdings. Yet the company is angling for capital as corporate debt issuance has surged during the coronavirus pandemic, fueled by sweeping interventions by the Federal Reserve that opened up access to credit markets even for troubled or risky borrowers.

Bankrupt shale fracker Sable Permian Resources LLC has agreed to sell itself to bank lenders, all but wiping out more than $700 million of debt held by secured bondholders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The bid from lenders, led by agent JPMorgan Chase & Co., was the only qualified offer that Sable Permian received for its assets, according to a filing on Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Under the bank’s offer, the lenders would take 100 percent ownership of the Houston-based company, plus their share of a $315 million exit loan that would help fund Sable Permian’s way out of bankruptcy. The lenders were owed $650 million in bankruptcy loans and reserve-based loans they had extended, court papers said. If approved in bankruptcy court, the proposal would mark the latest instance in which, when the borrower went bankrupt, the oil reserves that banks lent against turned out to be worth less than the loans made. Other examples have included shale driller Alta Mesa Resources Inc. and Gulf of Mexico operator Arena Energy LP. Even before the pandemic, Sable Permian had struggled for years, narrowly avoiding bankruptcy in 2019 through an out-of-court restructuring deal. But JPMorgan reined in the company’s financial lifeline in April as banks reassessed the size of credit lines backed by oil and gas underground.

The XFL, which was acquired over the summer by Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital Partners, says it will not play in 2021 but plans to return in 2022, Deadline.com reported. “It’s an uphill battle,” Johnson wrote in a tweet, “but we’re hungry, humble and no one will outwork us.” The upstart off-season rival to the NFL, a reanimated version of the one created by NBC and wrestling magnate Vince McMahon two decades ago, got a few weeks into its season before COVID-19 struck the U.S. McMahon funneled some $200 million into the effort to revive the league, but it declared bankruptcy in the spring. The new owners picked it up for just $15 million. In addition to the pandemic, which has limited fan attendance at football games and created logistical complications for teams and leagues, emerging from bankruptcy is a tall task for the new owners. Many former coaches and league employees are listed as creditors in the bankruptcy proceedings, presenting challenges in terms of ramping back up quickly. Former commissioner Oliver Luck has filed a $23.8 million wrongful termination lawsuit against McMahon. 

Remington Outdoor Co., the 200-year-old gun maker that filed for bankruptcy again in July, has been auctioned off in court, Bloomberg News reported. Seven bidders will each purchase a portion of the company’s businesses, according to a filing in the northern district of Alabama. The development caps a hunt for buyers to bring in funds to pay off creditors. Cerberus Capital Management had acquired Remington in 2007, and the firearms and ammunition giant accumulated nearly $1 billion in debt. The company said previously that it had $437.5 million in sales last year, about half the business it did in 2016. Here are the details on the successful bidders and the Remington businesses they are buying: Vista Outdoor Inc. for its Lonoke ammunitions business and certain IP assets; Roundhill Group LLC for its non-Marlin firearms businessSierra Bullets LLC for its Barnes ammunitions business; Sturm, Ruger, & Co. for its Marlin firearms business; JJE Capital Holdings LLC for DPMS, H&R, Stormlake, AAC and Parker brands; Franklin Armory Holdings Inc. for Bushmaster brand and some related assets; and Sportsman’s Warehouse Inc. for Tapco brands. 

Sycamore Partners LLC made a preliminary bid to buy assets of bankrupt Ascena Retail Group Inc. including the Ann Taylor brand, Bloomberg News reported. The private equity firm is offering to buy the Ann Taylor, Loft and Lane Bryant labels from Ascena. After a string of acquisitions starting in 2009, Mahwah, N.J.-based Ascena was struggling with dated brands and declining revenue even before the coronavirus froze much consumer spending. The company shut its shops in mid-March as the coronavirus outbreak spread, and began to re-open locations in early May as state authorities lifted restrictions. Like other retailers, Ascena’s business was thrown into disarray by COVID-Related closures. The company filed for bankruptcy in July with plans to cull its 2,800 stores to just 1,200. 

Bankruptcy Judge Alan Trust approved a roughly $133 million sale of Rubie's Costume Co. yesterday that aims to bring the retailer out of bankruptcy and save 400 jobs, Newsday reported. "There's really no dispute that this sale is in the best interest of these estates, their creditors and their employees," said Judge Trust, who is presiding over the bankruptcy of Rubie's and five affiliated companies in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York. "The sale is approved with the modifications." Attorneys for Rubie's and the retailer's creditors told Trust they were close to negotiating through concerns and would file paperwork finalizing modifications to the sale agreement by the end of yesterday. A new company called Rubies II, LLC, is slated to purchase the retailer, which has corporate headquarters in Westbury and sales headquarters in Melville. Rubies II is a collaboration between Joel Weinshanker, chairman of the National Entertainment Collectibles Association Inc.; the investment advisory firm Atalaya; and the primary owners of the current company, the Beige family, court papers show. Rubie's president Marc Beige noted in an affidavit — or written statement — that the sale would save about 400 jobs. He said the alternative would have involved selling Rubie's property and using the proceeds to pay its bills. Liquidation would have given creditors less compensation than the sale, which is expected to pay creditors about 55 percent to 60 percent of what they are owed, according to court filings.

Wendy’s Co. and Pizza Hut LLC are raising concerns over their largest franchisee’s effort to sell its assets, including the franchise agreements, in bankruptcy court, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. NPC International Inc., which operates 392 Wendy’s and 1,200 Pizza Hut restaurants, filed for bankruptcy in July with a plan to find buyers for its assets. The company’s franchisee agreements with the restaurant operators are the most valuable assets it is marketing in its sale process. Both Wendy’s and Pizza Hut have recently warned in filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston that they are uneasy about any sales of the franchise pacts to third parties. Wendy’s said that the company doesn’t have enough say at an early stage over which interested bidders can participate in the sale process. Meanwhile, Pizza Hut claims NPC can’t sell its Pizza Hut restaurants to a third party since it has failed to keep up performance at a level required by its franchise agreement. Binding bids for the Wendy’s and Pizza Hut restaurants are due on Oct. 20 and Nov. 5, respectively. Bids for all of NPC’s assets are also due Nov. 5, court filings show.

Ascena Retail Group Inc., the parent company of Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant, won bankruptcy-court approval to sell its plus-size brand Catherines to FullBeauty Brands for nearly $41 million, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin R. Huennekens of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Va. said that he would approve the sale of Catherines’ intellectual-property assets and e-commerce business to FullBeauty Brands Operations LLC, which was named the winning bidder following a multiple-round bankruptcy auction. As part of the deal, New York-based FullBeauty Brands has also agreed to assume certain liabilities, including honoring gift cards. Last week, FullBeauty emerged the victor at a bankruptcy auction for Catherines’ assets after outbidding plus-size women’s apparel retailer City Chic Collective Ltd. When Ascena filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, City Chic had been named the lead bidder, or stalking horse, with an original $16 million offer for the assets. The starting bid at the auction was FullBeauty Brands’ offer of about $17.1 million, court records show.

A Delaware Chancery Court justice yesterday agreed to fast-track Tiffany & Co’s lawsuit against French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH for trying to back out of its $16 billion deal to acquire the U.S. jeweler, Reuters reported. Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights said he would set a four-day trial beginning Jan. 5, 2021, which is after the Nov. 24 “drop-dead” date for the biggest luxury merger deal to close but before antitrust approvals begin to expire. The U.S. jeweler had pushed for a November trial before the drop-dead date of Nov. 24. The French luxury goods conglomerate argued for a trial beginning in March or April of next year. The decision is Slights’ first time weighing in on the broken deal, the most high-profile of a series of abandoned transactions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. LVMH’s acquisition of Tiffany hit the rocks in September after the Louis Vuitton owner said it could no longer complete the purchase, citing an intervention by the French government and the U.S. jeweler’s weakening performance.