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GNC Holdings Inc. got legal permission to sell itself to Chinese sponsor Harbin Pharmaceutical in bankruptcy court despite recent resistance from U.S. political figures, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Court Judge Karen Owens approved the health and wellness company’s plan to sell its assets to its largest shareholder and original bidder, Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Holding Co., for $770 million. The deal was also supported by GNC’s landlords and creditors, GNC’s lawyers from Latham & Watkins said at a virtual hearing yesterday. “The market has spoken. The Harbin bid was the highest, best bid” that emerged during the marketing process and is “better than any alternative plan,” including liquidation, Latham’s Caroline Reckler said on behalf of the company. The sale also provides $4.5 million to GNC’s unsecured creditors who supported the sale as part of a global settlement with the company. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) voiced concerns last week over the company’s plans to sell to Harbin, citing risk of GNC customers’ personal data being exposed to the Chinese government. GNC continues to stand by Harbin’s bid and doesn’t believe there are any legal issues related to the sale, Reckler said in court, noting that “access to consumer data” is protected through quarterly audits that “will not change in any way.” The deal also calls for the assumption of 1,400 retail locations, saving thousands of jobs while closing under-performing storefronts, GNC’s lawyers said.

GNC Holdings Inc. is moving ahead with a sale to China’s Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Co. after no other offers emerged, even as the deal drew scrutiny from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The vitamin retailer said yesterday that it was canceling a bankruptcy auction and proceeding with a sale of its assets to Harbin for $760 million. Rubio last week asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for a review of the deal by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Known as Cfius, the Treasury-led panel vets acquisitions of American companies that might put national security at risk. The senator argued that through the deal, the Chinese government could gain access to sensitive health data about U.S. consumers. Harbin, one of China’s largest drugmakers, is already GNC’s biggest shareholder, with a stake of about 40 percent. A GNC spokesperson said Harbin’s 2018 acquisition of the stake was reviewed by Cfius and the panel made no objections then. GNC filed for bankruptcy in June, slammed by plummeting sales as a result of coronavirus-related store closures and facing debt payments. The company had planned to either sell itself or reorganize in bankruptcy under the ownership of its lenders. Harbin’s $760 million offer for GNC will cover only part of the company’s $903 million in bank and bond debt.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) asked for a national security review of plans by General Nutrition Centers, or GNC, to sell itself to Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd., Reuters reported. Rubio, who had also urged a probe of TikTok’s ownership by another Chinese firm, made the request in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The department leads the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). GNC, a health and nutrition products retailer, has said it has agreed in principle with many lenders to sell itself to an affiliate of its largest shareholder, Harbin Pharmaceutical, for $760 million in a court-supervised auction, subject to higher bids. Harbin’s controlling stake was reviewed by CFIUS and approved in 2018, a GNC spokesperson said, adding that no consumer data was available to any foreign national. 

Firearms maker Remington Outdoor Co. has agreed to sell its ammunition business out of bankruptcy to South Carolina-based investment firm JJE Capital Holdings LLC for $65 million plus the assumption of liabilities, subject to better offers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The JJE offer came in the form of a stalking-horse bid, setting a floor on the sale price for Remington’s ammunition business, which the company has been marketing while in chapter 11. Remington filed for bankruptcy protection in July and has been open to selling its ammunition and firearms operations to pay off its debt. The proposed deal outlined in papers filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Decatur, Ala., covers the design and manufacturing of ammunition sold under the Remington and Barnes Bullets brands and includes production facilities in Arkansas and Utah. The proposal must be approved by a bankruptcy judge. It could be opposed by Remington creditors and is subject to potentially higher offers at a chapter 11 auction.

Security First Corp., a cybersecurity software company that counts major Donald Trump supporter Robert Mercer among its shareholders, filed for bankruptcy with plans to sell its business to ESW Capital LLC for roughly $6 million, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The technology company, based near Los Angeles, filed for chapter 11 protection on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. It is the latest in a string of proposed purchases of bankrupt software developers by ESW Capital, an Austin, Texas, investment firm founded by billionaire Joseph Liemandt. ESW has also stepped forward in recent years with bankruptcy buyout offers for part of video-screen-technology developer Prysm Inc., business apps provider BroadVision Inc. and TV advertising technology business Ensequence Inc. Security First, which raised at least $140 million in debt and equity financing since its 2002 founding, has just three employees and, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, no longer has an office. The company has generated total revenue of about $92,000 in the past two years, relying almost entirely on funding from secured lenders to continue operating.

J.C. Penney Co. is flirting with collapse, eager for lenders to agree to buy its assets out of bankruptcy after talks broke down with potential bidders including landlords Simon Property Group Inc. and Brookfield Property Partners LP, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. “We’ve hit a stalemate” in negotiations with several outside bidders, J.C. Penney’s bankruptcy lawyer Joshua Sussberg said yesterday during a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi, Texas. The department-store chain instead will pursue a bankruptcy sale to top lenders, including H/2 Capital Partners LLC, that would turn them into owners in exchange for debt forgiveness, Sussberg said. “Our lenders are no longer going to be held hostage in negotiations,” he said, adding that J.C. Penney intended to negotiate and document the lender deal within the next 10 days. No agreement has been reached. Putting the retail assets in lenders’ hands wasn’t the first choice for J.C. Penney or the lenders. Their lawyer, Andrew LeBlanc, said the other bidders “have been a disappointment” and that trying to hammer out a takeover so quickly is a “heavy lift.” Negotiations have dragged on past several lender-imposed deadlines. The longer J.C. Penney lingers in bankruptcy, the greater the chance of a liquidation that would dismantle the company’s retail operations and put most of its 70,000 employees out of work.

Women’s apparel retailer New York & Co. and plus-size sister brand Fashion to Figure are set to be sold for $40 million, double the amount offered after their parent company filed for bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. RTW Retailwinds Inc. said yesterday that New York-based investor Saadia Group LLC was the winning bidder at a bankruptcy auction for the two chains’ e-commerce business and all related intellectual property. Saadia Group plans to operate the brands’ e-commerce business as RTW winds down their brick-and-mortar retail operations. Saadia outbid apparel company Sunrise Brands LLC, which had been named the lead bidder, or stalking horse, for the assets with a $20 million offer. Los Angeles-based Sunrise Brands sells branded and private-label jeans and other casual apparel under brands including American Rag and Seven7 Jeans.

Lord & Taylor, the first department store established in the United States, is officially going out of business, ending a nearly 200-year run, CNN.com reported. The bankrupt company announced yesterday that all of its 38 remaining stores and website have begun liquidation sales — a reversal from last week's decision to keep 14 locations open. "While we are still entertaining various opportunities, we believe it is prudent to simultaneously put the remainder of the stores into liquidation to maximize value of inventory for the estate while pursuing options for the company's brands," Ed Kremer, Lord & Taylor's chief restructuring officer said in a statement. Lord & Taylor filed for bankruptcy on August 2, joining a string of upscale retailers filing for chapter 11 in recent months. It initially announced 19 stores were closing, then increased that number to 24 a few weeks later. Now every store will close for good.