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Republican promises to dismantle the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul may prove good news for many financial firms. The bad news for Wall Street: A top target is a provision big banks would rather retain, according to a Wall Street Journal commentary today. “Orderly liquidation authority” (OLA) was an answer to the 2008 bailouts of Wall Street firms during the financial crisis. It empowers the federal government to take over and wind down a failing financial firm. Conservatives have sought for years to repeal OLA. Now Trump administration officials are talking about doing so, providing new momentum. OLA is a particularly ripe target with partisan tensions boiling on Capitol Hill, according to the commentary. That is the result of quirks in congressional budget rules, which say that because OLA repeal has an impact on the federal budget, it could be passed with a simple majority vote and clear the Senate with only GOP votes. In contrast, other Republican-favored changes to Dodd-Frank, such as stripping the government of powers to extend more stringent oversight to big nonbank firms, would require some Democratic support to clear a higher vote hurdle. “We are going to probably at some point talk about whether OLA works and whether OLA should ever be triggered, because no one thinks that we really solved ‘too big to fail,’” commented White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn. He said that the administration was contemplating an unspecified executive action related to the policy.

A federal court-appointed receiver for troubled U.S. hedge fund manager Platinum Partners has hinted that some clients may yet recover much of their assets, Reuters reported yesterday. "Though we have just initiated our review, thus far we have not observed a major shift in overall portfolio value," Bart Schwartz, chairman of Guidepost Solutions, wrote in a message posted to platinumpartnersreceiver.com last week. Guidepost is working to liquidate Platinum's investments in hard-to-sell private energy, mining and other companies after six top executives of the firm, including founder Mark Nordlicht and President Uri Landesman, were charged in December with running a $1 billion fraud. All six have pleaded not guilty. Platinum executives reported to Guidepost in September that two funds, Platinum Partners Credit Opportunities funds and the Platinum Partners Liquid Opportunity funds, had assets of $520 million and $16 million respectively, according to Schwartz's note. The new message from Schwartz said that Guidepost continues to work with a valuation expert to assess those assets, a process that will continue for several months. Read more. 

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After nearly 17 months in bankruptcy protection, Tulsa-based Samson Resources Corp. has reached a deal with its lenders and plans to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, the Oklahoman reported today. Samson's recovery plan was approved by 100 percent of first- and second-lien lenders and more than 99 percent of holders with unsecured claims against the company. "The plan of reorganization confirmed by the court today culminates a thoughtful and thorough restructuring process that dates back to late 2014," Samson CEO Andrew Kidd said. "It will enable us to significantly reduce our debt and create a capital structure that will pave the way for a successful future." Samson executives filed for bankruptcy protection in Sept. 16, becoming one of the first Oklahoma companies to file for bankruptcy during the recent oil and natural gas industry downturn. The company cited $4.2 billion in debt. Read more.

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Payless Inc. is in talks with its lenders over a restructuring plan that includes closing about 1,000 stores as it wrestles with an unsustainable debt load, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The discount shoe retailer may consider filing for bankruptcy if it’s unable to reach a deal with the creditors. A decision on whether to restructure in or out of court may be reached as soon as this month. The chain has hired Guggenheim Partners to help in the effort. Payless was bought by private equity firms Golden Gate Capital and Blum Capital Partners in 2012 as part of a split of publicly traded Collective Brands Inc. The company, founded in 1956 in Topeka, Kansas, has more than 4,400 stores in 30 countries and employs more than 25,000 people, according to its website. The company’s biggest debt piece is a $520 million term loan due in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The loan, which was last quoted above par July 2014, declined another 2 cents to trade around 51 cents on the dollar.

Beleaguered retailer Sears Holdings Corp. said on Friday that it would cut costs by $1 billion and reduce debt and pension obligations by at least $1.5 billion this year, sending its shares soaring as much as 40 percent, Reuters reported. The company also said that it had sold five Sears full-line stores and two Auto Centers for $72.5 million in January, and had engaged Eastdil Secured to raise at least $1 billion from the sale of its real estate. Sears has spun off some of its stores into a real estate investment trust, put some brands on sale and repeatedly raised debt from billionaire Chief Executive Edward Lampert's hedge fund as part of efforts to cope with the slump. Under the latest plan, the company said that it would consolidate Sears and Kmart's corporate and support functions and improve product assortment at its stores. The company also reaffirmed that it would close 150 stores.

U.S. hunting and fishing chain Gander Mountain Co. is preparing to file for bankruptcy as early as this month, after an aggressive effort to expand its store base failed to pull in new customers, Reuters reported. Gander Mountain is working with financial advisory firm Lighthouse Management Group Inc. and law firm Fredrikson & Byron PA as it gets ready to file for bankruptcy. Gander Mountain, which bills itself as America's firearms superstore, has faced challenges capitalizing on a booming gun market. The Federal Bureau of Investigation carried out a record 27.5 million background checks on people seeking to buy guns in 2016, up 19 percent from the year before. Gander also has stiff competition from rivals like Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's Inc., which have been revamping their stores to attract customers with restaurants and shooting activities. Bass Pro agreed last year to buy Cabela's for $5.5 billion, potentially putting more pressure on Gander Mountain, though the deal has to overcome major hurdles to close, including antitrust concerns.

Ultrapetrol (Bahamas) Ltd., owner of one of the largest shipping businesses in South America, received a judge’s permission to embark on a rapid chapter 11 that would result in an affiliate of Latin American private-equity firm Southern Cross Group acquiring most of its business, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain on Friday authorized Ultrapetrol to continue paying employees’ wages and business expenses after the company filed for chapter 11 protection earlier this week. Judge Drain is scheduled to consider approving Ultrapetrol’s reorganization plan, which creditors have already voted on, next month. Under the plan, Southern Cross subsidiary Sparrow Capital Investments Ltd. would acquire Ultrapetrol’s so-called river-supply business for $73 million. Proceeds would be paid out to Ultrapetrol’s creditors and outstanding bond debt would be retired, court papers say. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

The featured keynote at ABI's 2017 Annual Spring Meeting will be Spencer Abraham, former U.S. Senator and former U.S. Secretary of Energy. Click here to register! 

The Farm Belt is hurtling toward a milestone: Soon there will be fewer than two million farms in America for the first time since pioneers moved westward after the Louisiana Purchase, according to an analysis in the Wall Street Journal. Across the heartland, a multiyear slump in prices for corn, wheat and other farm commodities brought on by a glut of grain world-wide is pushing many farmers further into debt. Some are shutting down, raising concerns that the next few years could bring the biggest wave of farm closures since the 1980s. The U.S. share of the global grain market is less than half what it was in the 1970s. American farmers’ incomes will drop 9 percent in 2017, the Agriculture Department estimates, extending the steepest slide since the Great Depression into a fourth year. Farming has always been a boom-and-bust enterprise. Today, the swings are sharper and less predictable now that the farm economy has become more international, with more countries growing food for export as well as for their own populations. American farmers’ share of the global grain trade has fallen from 65 percent in the mid-1970s to 30 percent today, giving them less sway over prices. More producers and more buyers around the world also mean more potential disruptions from bad weather, famine or political crisis.

Ultra Petroleum Corp. filed a revised restructuring plan that calls for the oil and gas driller to raise $2.4 billion in bankruptcy-exit financing, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Court papers filed on Wednesday say that the proceeds of the new financing will be used to pay down $2.52 billion of senior bonds and revolver drawings in full and in cash. The proposed exit facility will include a $600 million term loan, a $400 million revolving credit facility and a $1.4 billion bridge loan, which may be converted to an unsecured term loan. Barclays Bank PLC has agreed to arrange the financing, court papers say. Ultra has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston to review the financing agreement next week as well as its request to keep the fees associated with the facility shielded from public view. Also up for court review next week is an outline of Ultra’s restructuring plan, which the company revised to include the exit financing. Under the prior restructuring plan, filed in early December, holders of $2.52 billion in senior bonds and revolver loans would have received new notes in the same amount. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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