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Real-estate data firm CoStar Group Inc. received court approval yesterday for its $588 million acquisition of bankrupt apartment-search site operator RentPath Inc., WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Brendan Shannon of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. signed off on the acquisition and RentPath’s related chapter 11 plan, clearing CoStar of a major hurdle in closing the transaction. The proposed merger must now be approved by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission which is reviewing the deal over potential antitrust concerns. Andriana Georgallas, a bankruptcy lawyer representing RentPath, said that the company anticipates receiving a decision from the FTC in August. If the FTC doesn’t approve the deal, RentPath has a backup offer from lenders that would instead take over the business in exchange for forgiving company debt. Atlanta-based RentPath advertises about 28,000 properties on its network of sites, ApartmentGuide.com, Rentals.com, Lovely.com and Rent.com. Its family of websites gets an average of 14 million unique visitors a month, according to the company’s website.

Bankrupt fitness club Gold’s Gym International Inc. is looking to sell itself via auction, with a stalking-horse bid of more than $80 million, Bloomberg Law reported. Judge Harlin D. Hale of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas yesterday approved bidding procedures for a July 13 auction that will lead to a sale as part of the GGI’s reorganization plan. TRT Gym Asset Holdings LLC, GGI’s majority shareholder as well as an affiliate of the debtor’s post-bankruptcy debtor-in-possession lender, is the lead bidder for the company. Its offer, subject to overbid at auction, will provide $51.3 million to pay off pre-bankruptcy lenders, $20 million for estimated outstanding DIP loans, and between $7 million and $10 million for curing defaults of any contracts or leases that the purchaser may assume as part of the sale. TRT will also pay $225,000 for distribution to unsecured creditors. If another buyer prevails at the auction, TRT will be entitled to receive a break-up fee equal to 3 percent of the purchase price.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. investor Silver Lake Group LLC could get first dibs on the movie-theater chain’s assets under a proposed debt swap as the company battles to survive the coronavirus pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. AMC, the world’s largest cinema operator, has shut down its more than 1,000 theaters due to the pandemic and said Wednesday it might not continue as a going concern if the temporary closures go on for longer than expected or if it can’t raise additional cash. The Leawood, Kan.-based company also launched a bond exchange proposal to entice creditors to slash debt and push out maturities. AMC would swap roughly $2.3 billion of junior debt at between 51 and 53 cents on the dollar into new securities backed by a second-priority claim on its assets, including its brand name, trademarks, property and business operations. The proposed transaction would cut AMC’s debt by slightly more than $1 billion. But the deal depends on private-equity firm Silver Lake exchanging $600 million of unsecured convertible bonds into a new security with a first lien on assets.

The closing of a $252 million sale of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery to a Chicago-based real estate developer has been delayed, Reuters reported. Hilco Redevelopment Partners won an auction in January to purchase the 1,300-acre site along the Schuylkill River in south Philadelphia. The companies were scheduled to close on the purchase agreement by the end of this month. City of Philadelphia officials were told that the closing was delayed, a city spokesman said by email. PES filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in July and put its refinery, which was the largest and oldest on the U.S. East Coast, up for sale. More than 1,000 full-time workers were laid off, including 640 United Steelworkers. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in February approved the transaction with Hilco, whose plan has been to transform the site into a mixed-use industrial park, and seemingly secured the permanent end to operations at the plant. The bankruptcy judge also signed off on a backup bidder, developer Industrial Realty Group, LLC, in case the deal with Hilco fell through.

Alta Mesa Resources Inc. received court confirmation of its chapter 11 plan of liquidation, marking the beginning of an end to a tumultuous bankruptcy, Bloomberg Law reported. The approval will let the company wind down its affairs after it was forced to sell most of its assets at a steep discount due to Covid-19 and a collapse in oil prices. Judge Marvin Isgur of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas confirmed the plan for Alta Mesa and its affiliates after a hearing Wednesday. The plan “was overwhelmingly accepted” by every class of creditors and the company resolved a dozen objections, Caroline A. Reckler of Latham & Watkins LLP, an attorney for Alta Mesa, told the court. The plan appoints a plan administrator and a litigation trustee to efficiently wind down the estates, Robert Albergotti, the company’s chief restructuring officer, said in a declaration filed with the court. The wind-down budget provides sufficient funds to pay all administrative claims, Albergotti said. Judge Isgur on Wednesday also confirmed the plan and company disclosures of Alta Mesa subsidiary Kingfisher Midstream, LLC, which followed Alta Mesa into bankruptcy in January.