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Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s main operating unit has cleared the way for the casino operator to exit bankruptcy protection with an agreement that ends the last objection to its reorganization plan, lawyers told a U.S. judge on Friday, Reuters reported. The U.S. Trustee had objected to the reorganization of Caesars Entertainment Operating Co Inc., the subsidiary that filed an $18 billion bankruptcy in 2015, because of legal protections for the non-bankrupt parent. The objection by the U.S. Trustee was a cloud over next week's trial to approve the Caesars unit's plan to cut $10 billion of debt and emerge from its two-year chapter 11 bankruptcy. A last-minute deal with the U.S. Trustee removes that threat. Details of the agreement would be filed later, Joe Graham, a lawyer for the bankrupt unit, said at a hearing at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. Judge Benjamin Goldgar said that if the issues were resolved, "you can present an order and I'll sign it."

American Apparel LLC has lined up a buyer for one of its Southern California manufacturing plants, a deal which could potentially save more than 330 jobs, a company lawyer for American Apparel said, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The bankrupt retailer has reached a preliminary deal to sell its Garden Grove, Calif., facilities to Broncs Inc., American Apparel lawyer Carl Black said at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The deal, which has yet to close, could be valued at somewhere between $200,000 and $250,000, said Black, of the Jones Day law firm.

Peabody Energy Corp. said yesterday that a group of banks, including affiliates of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase Bank, has pledged a combined $1.5 billion in loans to help the coal producer exit bankruptcy in the coming months. The cash will be used to cover claims by Peabody's secured lenders and provide "a strong foundation" for its capital structure when it emerges from the roughly $8 billion Chapter 11 bankruptcy it filed last April, according to court documents. Affiliates of Credit Suisse AG and Macquarie Group Ltd. are also part of the group that has signed on to the new financing. Peabody, with 6.3 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves, joined other U.S. coal producers in bankruptcy last year when falling prices left it unable to service billions of dollars in debt taken on to finance expansion in Australia. The company expects to exit chapter 11 in the second quarter of this year with a plan, supported by most of its creditors, to cut more than $5 billion of debt and raise new capital through a $750 million private placement and a $750 million rights offering. Read more. 

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About 450 clergy abuse victims, plus several hundred other creditors of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., soon will be able to vote on competing compensation plans presented in bankruptcy court, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel yesterday approved a timeline for sending out the ballots — within about 30 days — and a 40-day response time. Creditors can vote for one of two competing plans or none at all. Judge Kressel also denied a motion that would have allowed the survivors’ committee to sue more than 100 parishes, schools and other Catholic institutions that received several million dollars in transfer payments from the archdiocese in the 90 days before it filed for bankruptcy.