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The Minnesota and Indiana assets of bankrupt ERP Iron Ore were auctioned off Tuesday as the company entered purchase agreements with two bidders, the Duluth News Tribune reported. ERP selected Illinois-based PPL Acquisition Group, LLC’s $6.8 million bid for its Minnesota assets near Grand Rapids, according to documents filed in Minnesota Bankruptcy Court Wednesday evening. The sale is scheduled to close by Nov. 15. ERP selected a $15 million bid from Altos Hornos de Mexico, a Mexico-based steel manufacturer, for its Reynolds, Ind. pellet plant. A sale hearing for the assets is scheduled for Oct. 24. In July, ERP Iron Ore filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and hours later owner Tom Clarke said that he would be scrapping the assets. With ERP, Clarke had been trying to revive the bankrupt Magnetation operations since purchasing it in January 2017. The company wanted to restart pellet productions soon after closing on the sale, but ERP was held back by two violation notices filed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2016 against the Indiana plant, alleging the former Magnetation owners didn't have proper pollution control equipment in several areas of operation, and creditors owed millions by ERP tried to petition the company into bankruptcy.

Mattress Firm Inc., which filed for bankruptcy last week, won court approval Tuesday to begin closing hundreds of stores and said it plans to renegotiate leases and seek rent concessions at “many more,” WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi also gave the nation’s largest specialty mattress seller clearance to start using up to $250 million in financing to help it get through its chapter 11 reorganization. The Houston-based retailer had acquired dozens of rivals over the past decade, leading to a glut of stores, a lawyer for the company said yesterday. The bankruptcy filing follows a deal that Mattress Firm’s troubled parent company, Steinhoff International Holdings NV, struck with its bondholders to hand them a 49 percent stake in the retailer. Steinhoff took Mattress Firm private two years ago for $3.8 billion.

Two bidders have joined forces to present a lead offer for Seasons Kosher Supermarkets, the country’s largest kosher grocery chain, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. During a hearing Friday at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., lawyers for Seasons said the new offer from SKNY LLC, an existing lender, and DC Brothers II LLC would replace an earlier offer from SKNY alone. Court papers show SKNY first lent Seasons $1 million in early 2016 and has continued to make loans to help the company make payroll and pay insurance premiums. DC Brothers II is a third party that had initially competed with SKNY to become the lead, or stalking horse, bidder. The new bid, made in exchange for all the Season’s assets, is for $13.25 million, an increase over the previous $12 million offer from SKNY. A so-called breakup fee included as a provision in the new offer was also reduced to 2 percent from 3 percent, a benefit to Seasons.

The brand name of specialty retailer Brookstone Inc. will be sold to Bluestar Alliance LLC, the licensing brand firm that has been eager to acquire bankrupt stores’ intellectual property, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The sale is the result of a lengthy auction that spanned from Wednesday through Sunday, according to court papers filed Sunday. Bluestar, in a joint bid with technology company Apex Digital Inc., walked away the winning bidder. The sale is subject to court approval. Bluestar has been looking to buy the Brookstone brand since late August, shortly after the retailer had received an offer from Authentic Brands Group LLC, a rival brand-licensing firm. Bluestar not only upended Authentic Brands’ bid, it increased its own three times, eventually heading to the auction with a court-approved $56.35 million opening offer, or so-called stalking-horse bid. The retailer — which sells everything from toys and games to sleep and wellness products — said it values the winning firms’ bid at between about $66 million and $74 million, which includes cash and the assumption of liabilities.

The same Toys “R” Us Inc. lenders that have been taking heat for their role in the decision to liquidate the company in March are now working on bringing the brand back to life, according to new court documents, Bloomberg News reported. In a bankruptcy court filing yesterday, the funds that now control Toys “R” Us said that they’d canceled a plan to auction off the company’s intellectual property. Instead they are seeking to reorganize the assets into a new company that will maintain the current license agreements and invest in new retail operating businesses. Maintaining the brands under a new independent U.S. business was the best option with respect to the recovery of the Toys “R” Us estate, as well as the benefit of other indirect and direct stakeholders, according to the filing. “The qualified bids were not reasonably likely to yield a superior alternative.” The court authorized the cancellation of the auction.

One of the largest shareholders of the El Torito and Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant chains is preparing to take full ownership after a bankruptcy judge approved its $46.8 million purchase offer last week, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., on Friday cleared investment firm Z Capital Group LLC to buy the restaurants out of bankruptcy protection. RM Holdco LLC, the bankrupt owner of the two chains and several smaller brands, filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 5 amid a search for buyers. The Cypress, Calif., company’s combined brands make it one of country’s largest Mexican casual-dining operators: It has roughly 80 restaurants, mostly in its home state. No other bidders emerged during the bankruptcy case to challenge the offer from Z Capital Group, according to court papers.

Bankruptcy Judge Michael Fagone ruled Friday that the Clary Lake dam can be sold to the Clary Lake Association, the Portland Press Herald reported. Delivering an oral decision, Judge Fagone also stripped the restrictive covenants from the dam property and allowed its transfer to go forward unburdened by a mortgage, pending a 14-day appeal period. The judge did not wipe away the tax liens the town of Whitefield holds on the property, the water level order imposed by the state Department of Environmental Protection or easements that allow access to the mill house on top of the dam.