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Iconix Brand Group Inc. is considering selling itself or combining with another company as the firm broadens its search for a financial lifeline, Bloomberg News reported. The brand-licensing company said yesterday that its board authorized management and its advisers to study options including a sale, merger, debt and equity financings, or other alternatives to keep the firm afloat. New York-based Iconix owns, licenses and markets consumer brands across fashion and sports, including Candie’s and Ed Hardy. It’s been shedding certain assets to raise cash, including Starter China Ltd., which it agreed to sell for $16 million in June. The company retained Ducera Partners as a financial adviser, together with law firm Dechert, its existing legal counsel, to assist in the review efforts. The plans are in addition to the company’s previously announced agreements to sell the rights to the Umbro and Starter brands in China, it said.

Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management’s bid succeeded in a court-supervised auction for bankrupt news publisher McClatchy Co., the news company said yesterday, Reuters reported. The Miami Herald publisher said that Chatham’s proposed deal, which needs a court confirmation and other regulatory approvals, would help it exit chapter 11 protection in the third quarter. McClatchy had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, burdened by heavy debt it took on when it bought newspaper chain Knight Ridder in 2006 and large pension obligations that eat into its profits. It began soliciting proposals for the company in April and received offers from Chatham and Brigade Capital Management, both holders of the company’s debt. The Sacramento, California-based publisher said it would contribute about $1.4 billion in pension assets to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. fund and expects it to assume the company’s qualified pension plan.

A battle is brewing for control of Brooks Brothers Group Inc., with at least two apparel ventures looking to take over the bankrupt clothing retailer, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sparc Group LLC, an apparel company backed by Authentic Brands Group LLC and mall owner Simon Property Group Inc., is considering bidding to buy Brooks Brothers out of bankruptcy. WHP Global Inc., which has agreed to finance Brooks Brothers during its bankruptcy, is also crafting a buyout offer. Brooks Brothers filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday after two centuries in business, unable to withstand the coronavirus pandemic and the forced shutdown of retail shopping. The company, which struggled in recent years with a shift toward more casual dress styles at work, will soon start a formal process to field offers. Both potential bidders are planning to keep most Brooks Brothers stores intact, betting that the retailer’s survival is tied to a strong brick-and-mortar presence.

A pair of serial entrepreneurs beat out private-equity firm Sycamore Partners in a bidding war to purchase home-goods retailer Pier 1 Imports Inc.’s branding and e-commerce business out of bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Retail Ecommerce Ventures LLC, owned by retail entrepreneurs Tai Lopez and Alex Mehr, was named the highest bidder at the bankruptcy auction yesterday, offering $31 million to acquire Pier 1’s intellectual property, data and other assets related to its e-commerce business. Sycamore Partners, a New York firm specializing in retail and consumer investments, is the backup bidder with a $30.9 million offer. The auction pushed up the sale price from the roughly $20 million Retail Ecommerce Ventures initially offered as the stalking horse, or lead bidder. The venture has been piling up retail assets since last year, purchasing the brand assets of Dressbarn and its e-commerce business from Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant parent company Ascena Retail Group Inc., then taking over online housewares retailer Linens ‘n Things and high-end collectible purveyor Franklin Mint last week. A hearing to approve the sale is scheduled for July 30 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Va. If the sale is given the green light, Retail Ecommerce Ventures plans to make Pier 1 an online-only business. Pier 1’s retail operations are winding down after failing to secure a buyer.

Bluestem Brands Inc., the owner of the Fingerhut catalog, won bankruptcy-court approval to sell its assets to lenders led by Cerberus Capital Management LP, which agreed to forgive $250 million of the company’s debt, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Mary Walrath of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., yesterday signed off on the sale of Bluestem Brands to Cerberus. The purchase price took the form of a credit bid, meaning the lenders led by the private-equity firm canceled some of the Bluestem debt they were owed. Approval of the sale comes about two weeks after Cerberus had slashed its initial $300 million credit bid to $200 million. The firm on Monday raised the credit bid to $250 million. Bluestem Brands, of Eden Prairie, Minn., sells merchandise through catalogs and e-commerce sites under such brands as Fingerhut, Gettington, Appleseed’s, Draper’s & Damon’s, and Blair. A key part of Bluestem Brands’ business is providing credit to customers — via installment plans and credit cards — who don’t have access to the usual sources of credit. The sale was complicated by the concerns of the company’s parent and largest unsecured creditor, Bluestem Group Inc. Bluestem Group, which is backed by Centerbridge Partners LP, has been at odds with its subsidiary ever since lenders led by Cerberus took control of Bluestem Brands around the time of its bankruptcy filing in March.

Home-goods retailer Pier 1 Imports Inc. has found a potential buyer offering more than $20 million for the bankrupt company’s intellectual property and e-commerce business as its brick-and-mortar retail operations wind down, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Fort Worth, Texas-based retailer has tapped Retail Ecommerce Ventures LLC to serve as the stalking-horse bidder to acquire Pier 1’s intellectual property, data and other assets related to the e-commerce business. The proposed buyer last year purchased the brand assets of Dressbarn and its e-commerce business from Ascena Retail Group Inc., the parent company of Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant. Pier 1 plans to hold a bankruptcy auction Wednesday after receiving offers from other bidders, according to a securities filing. A hearing to approve the sale to the best bidder is scheduled for July 30 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Va.

The McClatchy family has been in journalism since 1857, when its flagship publication, The Daily Bee, chronicled the latest for residents of Sacramento in the wake of the gold rush. Now, in keeping with a trend that has placed hundreds of American news outlets in the hands of the finance industry, the McClatchy Company and its 30 newspapers are likely to end up the property of a hedge fund, the New York Times reported. The publisher of The Miami Herald, The Charlotte Observer and The Kansas City Star filed for chapter 11 protection in February, after more than a decade of layoffs and plummeting revenue. Bids for McClatchy were due last week, with an auction supervised by U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan to start tomorrow. The company, which is led by the family scion Kevin S. McClatchy and Craig Forman, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and Yahoo executive, is scheduled to inform the court of the winner by July 15. A likely outcome is that McClatchy, one of the country’s largest newspaper chains and a consistent winner of prestigious journalism awards, will be owned by a New Jersey hedge fund, Chatham Asset Management. Under the deal, McClatchy, a publicly traded company, would go private. Chatham, which is the principal owner of American Media, the parent company of The National Enquirer, became a large McClatchy shareholder and assumed much of the company’s debt in 2018. In April, McClatchy said that Chatham had made a bid to take over the company. Other bidders could emerge at auction time.

Firearms manufacturer Remington Arms Co. is preparing to file for chapter 11 protection for the second time since 2018 and is in advanced talks for a potential bankruptcy sale to the Navajo Nation, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The bankruptcy filing could come within days as the gun maker makes preparations for the Navajo Nation to serve as the lead bidder to purchase Remington’s assets out of chapter 11, these people said. Founded in 1816, Remington’s namesake weapons are mainstays in hunting, shooting sports, law enforcement and the military. The Navajo Nation — a territory with roughly 175,000 people across parts of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico — could finalize a bid for Remington as soon as Friday, one of the people said. Any bid for the company would be subject to competing offers and require bankruptcy-court approval. The timetable could be pushed back, and an offer from the Navajo Nation isn’t guaranteed to materialize. The Navajo Nation, which explored buying Remington as far back as 2018, owns a set of business enterprises in industries including energy, transportation, and utilities. In 2019, a business owned by Navajo Nation purchased coal company Cloud Peak Energy’s mining assets out of bankruptcy. Despite cutting some $775 million in debt through the 2018 bankruptcy, Remington has continued to face high interest costs and operational issues, and expensive litigation surrounding the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

A deal to sell the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) oil refinery to a Chicago-based real estate developer is expected to close today for $26.5 million less than originally agreed to, lawyers for the bankrupt refiner said in court yesterday, Reuters reported. The sale to Hilco Redevelopment Partners (HRP) would end the prospect of a restart of the 335,000-barrel-per-day south Philadelphia refinery, the largest and oldest on the East Coast, which was idled a year ago after a fire badly damaged the plant. PES agreed to reduce the purchase price to $225.5 million, $26.5 million less than agreed upon earlier this year. HRP requested a reduction due to economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic and higher-than-expected costs to clean up the refinery site. Earlier this month, the two sides asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to cut the purchase agreement by $27.5 million but settled overnight on the current price tag, lawyers for the refiner said. The court approved the new agreement. PES filed for bankruptcy and shut its refinery after a series of explosions and fire at one of its gasoline processing units on June 21, 2019. More than 1,000 full-time employees were laid off, including 640 United Steelworkers members.