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Bon-Ton, the more than century-old department store chain that declared bankruptcy in February and shut its doors Wednesday, may be close to a comeback, USA Today reported. The rights to relaunch the retailer and its subsidiary brands are close to being acquired. The reinvented Bon-Ton would be a sleeker business more focused on e-commerce, according to sources. While it will be centered around its website, there are also plans to reopen physical locations in Illinois, Colorado, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Services like personal styling will be offered, and stores will be open for a shorter time most week days, and for extended hours from Thursday to Sunday. Former Bon-Ton employees would get first dibs on re-staffing those locations. If given the green light by the bankruptcy court, Bon-Ton, and the retail chains under its corporate umbrella — Boston Store, Carson’s, Bergner’s, Elder-Beerman, Younkers, and Herberger’s — would be revived about seven months after Bon-Ton filed for bankruptcy protection.

Penn Virginia Corp. has reached out to potential buyers including Hilcorp Energy Co. and WildHorse Resource Development Corp. ahead of a sale process slated to start next month, Bloomberg News reported. The Houston, Texas-based company will open a data room and solicit initial bids in September. Penn Virginia said in July that it had hired Jefferies Financial Group Inc. to help it evaluate a sale. Penn Virginia primarily drills for oil and gas in the Eagle Ford shale basin in South Texas, after selling its operations in Oklahoma in July. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2016 after eliminating more than $1 billion of debt.

Brookstone Inc.’s brand is at the center of a brewing bidding war between two brand-licensing firms, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. One day after Brookstone announced it received a $35 million offer from Authentic Brands Group Inc., the company received another prospective offer from Bluestar Alliance LLC. Bluestar, which owns brands including Bebe, Tahari and Limited Too, said in court papers on Tuesday that it submitted a letter of intent with a $40 million cash offer for the Brookstone brand. The firm said its Tuesday offer was in response to the announcement of Authentic Brands’ bid on Monday. The prospective offer from Bluestar wasn’t reviewed by Brookstone’s board as of the Wednesday hearing, mainly because a majority of the board is located in China, a company lawyer said.

The company holding the rights to the R.M.S. Titanic and 5,500 artifacts from the ship has been mired in debt, placing the future of its collection in the hands of a bankruptcy court, Bloomberg News reported. A judge yesterday weighed plans for auctioning the largest trove of Titanic memorabilia, which already is drawing the interest of U.S. hedge funds, Chinese investors, British museums and award-winning director James Cameron. Among the items is the bell a crow’s nest lookout rang to warn the bridge of an iceberg ahead; window grills from the first-class dining area; a passenger’s three-diamond ring; and a suitcase full of clothes owned by William Henry Allen, an English toolmaker immigrating to America. Titanic, once the biggest ocean liner ever built, sank almost two miles below the sea on its maiden voyage in 1912, killing more than 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers. At least three groups are vying for the artifacts from the current owner, Premier Exhibitions Inc. It’s the successor to a company once owned by a wealthy Connecticut auto dealer, who bankrolled a French exhibition that retrieved artifacts from Titanic for the first time in 1987.

A company controlled by publisher Peter Brant is buying Interview magazine out of bankruptcy three months after the arts and culture periodical shut downWSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil on Tuesday approved the sale of the magazine to Singleton LLC, a company Brant controls, for $1.5 million. Court approval came after a bankruptcy trustee said the offer from Singleton, which holds an unpaid loan to the magazine, was the best offer Interview received during a court-supervised auction. Founded in 1969 by Andy Warhol, Interview magazine was later acquired by Brant Publications Inc., a publishing business that Brant founded. The magazine featured profiles and stylized portrait photos of musicians, models, actors, artists and fashion designers. BPI owned the publication when it filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in May.

Three Mississippi hospitals, their physician practices and a Tennessee parent company are filing for bankruptcy, citing more than $70 million in debts, the Associated Press reported. Curae Health of Knoxville, Tenn., filed for chapter 11 reorganization on Monday. The nonprofit company owns Gilmore Memorial Hospital in Amory and Panola Medical Center in Batesville, while it leases Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale. Curae's Russellville Hospital in northwest Alabama is not seeking bankruptcy. Curae plans to keep operating the Mississippi hospitals until it can sell them, CEO Stephen Clapp said in court papers. The company has 1,245 employees, who will continue to be paid during the bankruptcy proceedings, Clapp said. Clapp added that past revenue and profits were high enough when Curae bought the hospitals in 2017 to pay off the money the company borrowed. But he said revenue declined and the hospitals faced higher-than-expected costs for electronic health records. He said that the company saw a cash crunch, with vendors demanding payment for lagging bills, which sparked the bankruptcy filing. The hospitals are the latest to struggle in Mississippi. Magee General Hospital filed Friday for Chapter 11. Five rural Mississippi hospitals have closed since 2013, while the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program says 87 rural hospitals have closed nationwide since 2010. Curae closed a hospital in Haleyville, Alabama, in January. Read more.

For more on hospital and health care insolvencies, be sure to pick up a copy of the ABI Health Care Insolvency Manual, Third Edition from the ABI Bookstore. 

Specialty retailer Brookstone Inc. has got a $35 million offer for its brand name from Authentic Brands Group Inc., WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The retailer, which is known for selling massage chairs, travel gadgets and other novelties at malls and airports, sought chapter 11 protection in early August with plans to sell its brand and airport stores. The offer from Authentic Brands, which would serve as an opening bid at a bankruptcy-run auction and is subject to court approval, is primarily for the brand assets. Authentic Brands, backed by private-equity firm Leonard Green & Partners, is a frequent shopper of bankrupt assets. As recently as June the retailer made its latest acquisition through a bankruptcy-run auction for brands associated with Nine West Holdings Inc. The licensing firm paid $340 million for Nine West and Bandolino brands, despite having set a much lower baseline bid. Authentic Brands ended up going toe-to-toe with DSW Holdings Inc. during the auction. Authentic Brands also owns the brands associated with Aeropostale Inc. and Frederick’s of Hollywood as results of bankruptcy-sale processes. The proposed bid for Brookstone also “includes an expressed interest” in finding a partner to keep the retail business, which includes the airport stores, open according to a news release.

Provant Health Solutions, weighed down by operating losses and deal-related debt, filed for bankruptcy in New York on Monday with plans to sell virtually all of its assets to a subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics Inc. for $27 million, the WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Provant, based in Olathe, Kan., provides services that include sample collection, health-risk screening and on-site flu shots administered by independent contractors. Its customers include corporations and clinical-research organizations. Provant said it has 326 employees on its payroll but through a network of health professionals did nearly 1 million screenings last year. Provant and six related companies, including publicly traded Hooper Holmes Inc., entered bankruptcy with $24.4 million in debt, of which $17.6 million is a secured term loan owed to SWK Holdings Corp. of Dallas and $4.8 million is a secured revolving credit facility provided by CNH Finance L.P. of Greenwich, Conn. SWK specializes in providing financing to health-care companies, and the industry is also one of CNH’s main areas of focus.