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Blackhawk Mining LLC, the Lexington, Ky.-based coal-mining company that had to delay its planned exit from bankruptcy due to a drop in coal prices, found a buyer for some of its mineral reserves, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Privately owned Blackhawk said yesterday that it would sell some of its mineral reserves to Arch Coal Inc. for more than $52 million. Blackhawk will use proceeds from the sale to pay down its term loan. After filing for bankruptcy in July, Blackhawk encountered an unexpected decline in coal prices and had to rework its restructuring plan to obtain additional financing while slashing the amount of debt the company will have when it exits bankruptcy protection. Now the company expects to leave bankruptcy by the end of the month. Blackhawk’s detour in bankruptcy reflects the dire state of the industry as the recent drop in coal prices worsens the hardships from an ongoing shift in the power sector away from coal and toward natural gas and renewable fuels. More than half a dozen coal companies, including Blackhawk, have filed for bankruptcy over the past year. The company now plans to emerge from bankruptcy with $175 million in debt, down from $465 million in an earlier restructuring plan. Blackhawk is also seeking court approval to borrow an additional $35 million in bankruptcy loans to finance a longer stay in bankruptcy, court filings show.

Two Wyoming coal mines that have been embroiled in the bankruptcy of Blackjewel LLC are expected to resume full production, and workers owed back pay will be compensated, after a deal to sell the mines closed, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Blackjewel said Monday the sale of its Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines to a new owner, Eagle Specialty Materials LLC, closed on Oct. 18. The sale will bring the mines back to full production and provide funds to pay wages owed to Blackjewel workers since the company filed for chapter 11 on July 1. Contura Energy Inc., a prior owner of the two mines, also said Monday that the deal to ESM had closed. As part of the transaction, Contura said that it made an $81.3 million cash payment to ESM and conveyed its interest in two ranches to the buyer. Contura said that it also agreed to make a second payment of $8.7 million within 15 business days into an escrow account in connection to certain royalty claims tied to the mines.

Alabama pension funds are likely to become the new owners of iPic Entertainment Inc., a luxury movie theater chain that went bankrupt in August, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In an auction in New York, an investment vehicle formed by the Teachers’ Retirement System of Alabama and the Employees’ Retirement System of Alabama was the successful bidder for the Boca Raton, Fla.-based business, which had filed for bankruptcy after skipping an interest payment to one of the funds. The systems’ $50.9 million “credit bid” — a common tool in bankruptcy auctions in which monies owed are used as currency — beat a $48.8 million backup bid by Cinemex Holdings USA Inc., according to a filing Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Cinemex and the two funds’ iPic Theaters LLC were the only two qualified bidders participating in the auction, records show. The purchase is subject to court approval. A sale hearing is scheduled for Oct. 28.

Auto parts-maker Dura Automotive Systems LLC has filed for bankruptcy protection for its U.S. operations, saying that it is looking for a buyer to bail out its debt-laden business managed by turnaround executive Lynn Tilton, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported The business has been up for sale since last year, but Tilton, who says she is the majority owner, intends to be the lead bidder at a bankruptcy auction. She plans to buy Dura from herself unless rival bidders step forward. New court papers say that Tilton wants the right to credit-bid at the auction instead of bidding with cash. Dura owes her Ark II about $27 million; however, she has proposed bankruptcy financing that would elevate that loan to top priority, and add additional funds, which would also be valuable currency at an auction. The bankruptcy filing sets up a clash between Tilton and the Zohar funds, investment vehicles that are Dura’s largest senior lender, owed about $105 million. Both the Zohar funds and Tilton claim to be majority owners of the company.

In a first step toward determining its fate, Barneys New York Inc. has selected a consortium led by Authentic Brands Group LLC as its initial bidder, setting a floor for offers due next week for the bankrupt luxury retailer, Bloomberg News reported. The $271 million offer from the Authentic Brands Group includes a plan to open Barneys shops in Saks Fifth Avenue stores, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The stalking-horse bid calls for closing seven Barneys stores, including its two Manhattan locations and its Beverly Hills store, according to a court filing yesterday. The fate of some stores, including its flagship Madison Avenue location, however, is still under discussion. Authentic owns and licenses fashion, celebrity and media brands, including Nine West and Sports Illustrated. The stalking-horse group includes B. Riley Financial Inc., according to the bankruptcy court filing in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.. Barneys filed for bankruptcy protection in August and said it would close 15 of its 22 stores, exempting its Beverly Hills location and the Madison Avenue store, among others.

The former Manhattan residence of Iranian Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, the twin sister of the last shah of Iran, has been put into bankruptcy and received a $10.3 million purchase offer from an anonymous buyer, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The seven-story townhouse located at 29 Beekman Place was listed earlier this year for $17.9 million and has been pitched to wealthy foreign nationals and governments as a potential embassy space because of its close proximity to the United Nations, according to court papers filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The proposed buyer listed in court papers is an anonymous limited liability corporation. The property was listed for $49.9 million as recently as 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

A Kansas City-based company that specializes in turning around financially distressed hospitals is proposing to purchase Hillsboro Community Hospital in rural Kansas for $6.9 million, KCUR.org reported. The company, Rural Hospital Group, was formed in 2017 and has acquired three other rural hospitals: one in Wellington, Kansas; another in Boonville, Missouri; and a third in Marion, Kentucky. It has since sold the hospital in Boonville. Hillsboro Community Hospital was placed in receivership in January and then in chapter 11 protection after its previous owner defaulted on its bills and other financial obligations. Through a subsidiary, Rural Hospital Group has submitted a stalking-horse bid for Hillsboro. So far, Rural Hospital Group appears to be the only bidder. “We have signed an asset purchase agreement, which starts the stalking horse process,” said Dennis Davis, one of RHG’s principals. Davis said he expects the purchase to close before the end of the year. The 15-bed hospital has endured multiple owners and a bankruptcy over the last couple of years. In 2017, its operations were taken over by a group of Miami businessmen led by Jorge Perez, a group that had acquired control of nearly two dozen distressed rural hospitals across the U.S. Last week, a member of the group, David Byrns, was charged in federal court in Kansas City with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Byrns was CEO of Putnam County Memorial Hospital in Unionville, Missouri, another 15-bed hospital taken over by Perez’s group before it was ousted by the hospital’s board of trustees. 

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of Interlogic Outsourcing Inc. (IOI), the Elkhart, Ind.-based payroll company under fire for alleged fraud by its former CEO, to a Pennsylvania firm, the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune reported. PrimePay, based in West Chester, Pa., is set to purchase IOI for $3.5 million, with additional payments if payroll revenues exceed certain monthly amounts, according to court documents in IOI’s bankruptcy case. It’s unclear if the sale has closed, but the court previously set a deadline of Oct. 11. On PrimePay’s website, however, a banner welcomed IOI clients and directed them to contact IOI Client Services for questions. According to sale documents, PrimePay would take over ownership of the customer lists, intellectual property and the names and trademarks of IOI and its other subsidiary companies, including Lakeview Holdings, TimePlus Systems, IOI West and Modearn.

A federal bankruptcy judge in West Virginia yesterday approved a new plan to sell two of the biggest coal mines in the U.S., the Associated Press reported. Under the deal, West Virginia-based Blackjewel would sell the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines in northeast Wyoming to Eagle Specialty Materials, a subsidiary of Alabama-based FM Coal. Blackjewel halted almost all Wyoming operations and furloughed some 600 employees in the state when it filed for bankruptcy July 1. The sale could allow the mines to reopen. About 500 employees who haven’t taken other jobs could go back to work, Blackjewel attorney Stephen Lerner told Judge Frank W. Volk. The court in August approved the mines’ sale to Tennessee-based Contura Energy, a former owner and ongoing Wyoming permit-holder. The deal didn’t go through, however, as government officials seeking to collect federal coal royalties withheld approval.

Bankrupt College of New Rochelle is looking to sell its 15.6-acre campus that is just 20 miles from New York City to repay creditors, Bloomberg News reported. The school, founded as a Catholic women’s college in 1904, filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 20, crushed under the burden of $80 million of liabilities, including $14 million to bondholders. The campus will be sold at auction in November, but brokers retained by the school have been working for months to court potential buyers — someone who might find a use for a site that includes a TV production studio, four dormitories, and a library of 200,000 volumes. The site would likely draw interest from other educational institutions, as well as senior housing, or wellness and lifestyle firms, said Jeff Hubbard, executive managing director at B6 Real Estate Advisors, which is handling the campus sale with A&G Realty Partners. It’s being leased through 2020 by Mercy College, which absorbed about 1,700 students from College of New Rochelle. Qualifying bids to participate in the auction are due by Nov. 18, according to court documents. The auction will be held on Nov. 21. There is no stalking-horse bidder currently listed. Matthew Roseman, an attorney representing the college in its bankruptcy case, estimates the campus is worth between $35 million and $50 million.