Nine West Holdings Inc. took steps forward in its bankruptcy case after winning court approval to sell its brands to licensing firm Authentic Brands Group Inc., WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman in New York signed off yesterday on the sale of the Nine West and Bandolino brands for $340 million. Last week Authentic Brands walked away the winning bidder for the assets, after going toe-to-toe with DSW Holdings Inc. The price tag was a considerable increase. Nine West sought bankruptcy protection in April with a $200 million baseline bid from Authentic Brands. The shoe retailer sought bankruptcy protection after seeing significant sales declines in recent years. In addition to selling off its intellectual property assets, Nine West’s remaining brands, including Gloria Vanderbilt, Jessica Simpson, Anne Klein and the Kasper Group, will be taken over by a group of its lenders.
Magnolia Petroleum plc, a U.S.-based oil and gas E&P company, has announced that it has signed a non-binding agreement with a third party for the sale of all its wells in which it has varying interests in North Dakota, being approximately 31 wells, for a total consideration of $1.5 million, according to a press release. In addition, the company announces the sale of its 100 percent interest in the Roger Swartz #1 well in Oklahoma for approximately $30,000. The proposed disposal is in line with the company’s debt reduction program and, subject to shareholder consent and completion, will substantially clear a large portion of the outstanding $2-million balance of the reserve-based lending facility of its wholly owned operating subsidiary, Magnolia Petroleum, Inc. As detailed in the company’s announcement of June 7, 2018, the Company embarked on a debt reduction program in response to the bank’s decision not to extend the lending facility and its requirement that the full outstanding amount be repaid or refinanced by July 9, 2018.
Enduro Resource Partners LLC has a deal to sell undeveloped oil and gas properties in northern Louisiana to Comstock Resources Inc. for $20 million, subject to better offers, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The private equity-backed oil and gas producer on Thursday filed a stalking horse purchase agreement with a Comstock affiliate. The deal, which must be approved by a judge, sets a floor on the price for the Louisiana properties at a potential auction. When Enduro Resource filed for chapter 11 protection last month, the company already had three purchase agreements in hand to sell other properties in Louisiana, North Dakota and Wyoming. Enduro Resource said in a court filing earlier this week that the aggregate value of its now-four stalking horse purchase agreements is $97.5 million.
Authentic Brands Group LLC won the auction on Sunday for the intellectual property of bankrupt U.S. shoe and accessories company Nine West Holdings Inc with a revised bid of about $350 million, Reuters reported. Authentic Brands, a brand development and marketing company, was bidding against shoe retailer DSW Inc. for the well-known Nine West brand, found in department stores. Authentic Brands had submitted an initial offer for the Nine West and Bandolino brands of $200 million, according to court papers. The proceeds from the sale will go toward paying down some of Nine West’s approximately $1.5 billion in debt.
The real-estate investment trust planning to take control of bankrupt HCR ManorCare Inc. explained its decision to keep the nursing home operator’s management, saying that debt placed on it by its private-equity owners burdened an otherwise “effective” team, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Thomas DeRosa, chief executive officer of Welltower Inc., appeared Wednesday at the Nareit REITweek 2018 Investor Conference in New York. His Toledo, Ohio-based real-estate investment trust, which focuses on health-care properties, is forming a joint venture with hospital operator ProMedica Health System Inc. to acquire the operations of HCR ManorCare, a nursing home operator that filed for chapter 11 in March in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. HCR ManorCare, also based in Toledo, is owned by private-equity firm Carlyle Group, which took it private in a $5.15 billion deal in 2007. Carlyle will have no stake in the reorganized company.
As Toys ‘R’ Us prepares to close more than 700 stores around the country, some of them in the Chicago area won't stay dark for long, Crain's Chicago Business reported. The giant toy retailer has found takers for a small group of its stores in the Windy City after conducting two auctions for more than 400 of its locations nationwide. The fortunate few include Regency Centers, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based owner of Roscoe Square, a 140,500-square-foot shopping center on the western edge of Roscoe Village, on the city's Northwest Side. In a recent auction of 273 Toys ‘R’ Us stores and other properties, Ashley Furniture and Huntington National Bank offered to take over part of a 38,600-square-foot Toys ‘R’ Us store at Roscoe Square, according to a June 5 court filing. Regency is taking over the rest of the space, which Toys ‘R’ Us controls through a ground lease. In an earlier auction approved by a bankruptcy judge in April, Toys ‘R’ Us, which has about 30 stores in the Chicago area, was able to sell off leases for stores in Highland Park, Vernon Hills and at Bricktown Square Shopping Center on Chicago's West Side. Read more.
Occupancy issues are at the heart of many significant retail cases, as detailed in the ABI publication Retail and Office Bankruptcy: Landlord/Tenant Rights, available at the ABI Store.
