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A sale of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery site to real estate developer Hilco is expected to close next week for $27.5 million less than planned, the bankrupt refiner said in a court filing, Reuters reported. Hilco Redevelopment Partners won an auction in January to buy the 1,300-acre (526-hectare) south Philadelphia refinery with plans to transform it into a mixed-use industrial park. It agreed to pay $252 million for the site. The Chicago-based developers, citing economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic and higher-than-expected environmental costs tied to cleaning up PES land, asked to amend the agreement and delay the sale earlier this month, the filing said. PES agreed to lower the price contingent partly on Hilco finalizing the deal by June 26. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware must sign off on the amended sale agreement.

Chuck E. Cheese, the troubled restaurant chain and children’s party venue, is fielding interest from creditors and other potential suitors, according to people familiar with the matter, as some bricks-and-mortar establishments struggle to survive the coronavirus pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The chain, owned by private-equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc., has drawn interest from potential buyers including New York grocery magnate John Catsimatidis. Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company, CEC Entertainment Inc., is also in talks with a group of bondholders who have offered to invest more than $100 million in the company and keep it out of bankruptcy. Catsimatidis, who has scooped up some CEC bonds, is exploring a possible offer for the family-entertainment company. CEC is now reopening venues and planned to have 100 of its 741 Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza restaurants open by mid-June, according to a letter to employees sent last week by Chief Executive David McKillips. While the doors were closed, Chuck E. Cheese was burning too much cash to continue operating without raising additional capital, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Still, the company had enough of a cash cushion to keep its doors closed until the fall, Moody’s said. CEC has close to $1 billion in debt stemming from Apollo’s leveraged buyout in 2014, but faces no debt maturities until 2022. CEC’s top-ranking loans traded at about 59 cents on the dollar of face value on Friday, according to IHS Markit.

The two largest mall landlords and Authentic Brands Group LLC are in talks to buy bankrupt department-store chain J.C. Penney Co., Bloomberg News reported. Authentic Brands may team up with Simon Property Group Inc. and Brookfield Property Partners LP to acquire the retailer as part of its court reorganization. J.C. Penney, which filed for chapter 11 protection in May, has been racing to firm up a business plan by a July 14 deadline, after which the company risks running out of cash to finance its reorganization and emerge from bankruptcy court. The company’s proposed exit plan involves creating two new publicly traded entities, including a real estate investment trust that would hold some of the retailer’s property. For the landlords, buying J.C. Penney would ensure the survival of one of their most ubiquitous tenants amid a wave of retail distress that has seen thousands of stores close permanently. That’s in addition to the pandemic lockdown that shuttered most retailers for months nationwide. Authentic teamed up with Simon and Brookfield to buy teen clothing chain Forever 21 out of bankruptcy earlier this year. And Authentic and Simon are also in discussions with Brooks Brothers Inc. on a joint bid that would be part of a potential bankruptcy filing by that clothing retailer, Bloomberg News reported last week.

Consumer-focused investment firm Capitol Peak Partners LLC and KKR & Co. won a bankruptcy auction for Borden Dairy Co., the milk producer known for its “spokes-cow” Elsie, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A joint venture between Capitol Peak and KKR was named the winning bidder after an auction to sell Borden’s assets out of bankruptcy, according to the people and to court documents. Capitol Peak is led by Gregg Engles, a former chairman and chief executive of Dean Foods Co., a longtime rival to Borden. KKR is a major lender to Borden, which filed for bankruptcy in January amid falling milk consumption in the U.S., rising freight costs and the growing clout of retailers consolidating with other merchants or beginning to develop their own milk-processing operations. Borden named Prairie Farms Dairy as a backup bidder behind the Capitol Peak-KKR venture, according to court records. Any sale requires approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington Del. Borden tried unsuccessfully to merge with Dean in April, before Dean’s assets were purchased out of bankruptcy by Dairy Farmers of America Inc., the nation’s largest dairy cooperative by membership.

A Florida investment firm is seeking a bankruptcy court’s approval to take control of the closed Ellwood City Medical Center in Lawrence County, Pa., the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. With the medical center’s assets going up for sale within a month, attorneys for West Palm Beach-based Third Friday Total Return Fund yesterday asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky to schedule a hearing on its plan to take control of the Ellwood City Hospital parent, Americore Holdings, LLC, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Third Friday’s filing proposes to consolidate Americore’s debts but offers no details on its plans for Ellwood City Medical Center, and manager Mike Lewitt declined to comment yesterday. Earlier this spring, Lewitt told the Ellwood City Ledger newspaper he was committed to reopening the medical center, including its emergency department — a long-sought goal of Ellwood City leaders. Third Friday is already a major investor in Americore, a small, for-profit network of rural, financially stressed hospitals under CEO Grant White. At one point, Americore’s holdings comprised five hospitals, most based in the south, but court filings say that has been reduced to two hospitals and the now-closed Ellwood City Medical Center, which it acquired in 2017. Americore filed for bankruptcy in the Eastern Kentucky court on Dec. 31, a filing which now includes more than 600 filings for its various hospital properties. Among those filings are lien claims by both Ellwood City Borough and the Ellwood City School District against the medical center’s property for unpaid taxes and utility bills.

Murray Energy Corp. is selling its stake in Javelin Global Commodities Holdings LLP to the founders of the commodity trader for $20 million as the private coal company nears a crucial hearing on its plan for leaving chapter 11 bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The cash transaction is the best available price for its Javelin holding and gives Murray much needed liquidity as it continues to struggle with the market downturn caused by Covid-19, the company said in a filing on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Columbus, Ohio. Murray, in consultation with its advisers and senior lenders, said that it has been examining the business to determine if it can monetize any of its noncore assets. After discussions with its advisers, the company reached an agreement to sell its stake in the commodity trader to Javelin co-founders Peter Bradley and Spencer Sloan. The sale must be approved by a judge and Murray is seeking court permission to forgo holding an auction for its Javelin stake. The coal company said it also reached out to Javelin investor Uniper Global Commodities UK Ltd. before striking a deal with Bradley and Sloan. Murray owns a 34 percent stake in Javelin, according to a December court filing.

Authentic Brands Group LLC and mall landlord Simon Property Group Inc. are in talks over a joint bid to buy Brooks Brothers Inc. as part of a bankruptcy reorganization of the men’s clothing retailer, Bloomberg News reported. Authentic and Simon, which have teamed up before on deals for Forever 21 Inc. and Aeropostale Inc., is in discussions with Brooks Brothers to buy it in a court-supervised sale after a chapter 11 filing being contemplated by the retailer. The two-century-old menswear company has been seeking buyers as many of its stores struggle, even before the Covid-19 pandemic that shuttered retailers nationwide, Bloomberg News reported last month. Authentic Brands, which owns fashion, celebrity and media brands, has been snapping up distressed retailers in the past year. In addition to Forever 21, it bought Barneys New York Inc. out of bankruptcy. Mall operators like Simon, meanwhile, have been stepping up their involvement following a wave of store closings and bankruptcies. Brookfield, the second-largest U.S. mall operator after Simon, created a $5 billion fund this year to buy stakes in retailers.