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Performance Sports Group Ltd. said today that it would seek approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court for the sale of its assets to Sagard Capital Partners LP and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., after it failed to attract other bids, Reuters reported. Sagard, Performance's biggest shareholder, and Fairfax had agreed in October to act as stalking-horse bidders to buy most of the Bauer ice hockey gear maker's assets and its North American units for $575 million. The auction scheduled for Jan. 30 will not be held as no qualified bids were submitted by the deadline of Jan. 25, said Performance, which owns Mission Roller Hockey and Maverik Lacrosse brands.

The financially troubled Cocoa (Fla.) Expo Sports Center has filed for chapter 11 protection, along with its CEO, Orlando businessman Jeff Unnerstall, the Orlando Sentinel reported yesterday. The sports center listed debts totaling $22.8 million on its bankruptcy court petition; that includes almost $11 million owed to Bank of Washington and $7.2 million owed to the Urban Development Fund of Chicago. The expo listed the loans as secured by its property, valued at around $10 million. Unnerstall also told the court he has ownership interest in Neptune Bay Apartments in St. Cloud, Fla., which is also pledged as collateral on the Bank of Washington loan.

Judges in Delaware and Canada yesterday approved a plan to pay more than $7 billion to creditors of Nortel Networks, ending years of litigation over the former telecommunications company that filed for bankruptcy in 2009, Reuters reported. The rulings by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross in Wilmington, Delaware and Frank Newbould of the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto ends one of the longest and most expensive chapter 11 cases, marked by battles over funds raised by the company's liquidation. The coordinated ruling yesterday will allow repayment of vendors, retirees in Canada, government agencies and investment funds later this year.

Peabody Energy Corp., the world's largest private sector coal producer, stood by its current bankruptcy exit plan, saying yesterday in court papers that alternative proposals threatened to send the company back into chapter 11, Reuters reported. Peabody's plan to slash $5 billion of debt has the support of the vast majority of its creditors but is opposed by Indiana, Missouri, environmental groups and certain former employees, creditors and shareholders. A small committee of objecting creditors has sent Peabody a series of alternative proposals to its own plan, which calls for the coal producer to emerge from bankruptcy in April with about $2 billion in debt. In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in St. Louis, Lazard's Tyler Cowan, who has been advising Peabody on its restructuring, said the alternative plans contained "major flaws" in terms of valuation, debt capacity and feasibility. Given the "cyclical and volatile nature" of the coal industry, Cowan said that Peabody's debt should not exceed $2 billion given a long list of risks including China's coal policy, U.S. natural gas prices, and financing for environmental cleanup and retirement obligations.

A U.S. judge overseeing the bankruptcy of Linn Energy LLC said yesterday that he is prepared to confirm its restructuring plan with slight tweaks, backing the oil-and-gas producer's goal of shedding $5.5 billion in debt and splitting into two companies, Reuters reported. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones at the end of a hearing in Houston congratulated Linn's legal team and lawyers for working with its key stakeholders, noting that the company would have faced a hard time trying to restructure had they not agreed on the plan. Judge Jones added that he expects a final version of the plan to be filed with him by today. Linn filed for bankruptcy in May and had been negotiating with stakeholders in recent months on how best to split assets with its Berry Petroleum Co LLC subsidiary. In 2013, Linn acquired Berry for $4.3 billion, creating one of the largest independent energy producers. Under Linn's plan, Berry will become an independent company. Linn will shed nearly $4.3 billion of the roughly $6 billion in debt it had when it filed for bankruptcy. Berry will cut nearly $1.2 billion of its $1.7 billion in pre-petition debt. Read more. 

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Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Canada’s largest alternative asset manager, has entered into exclusive talks to buy bankrupt SunEdison Inc.’s two yieldcos, valuing the power companies at as much as $2.46 billion, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Toronto-based Brookfield offered $12 a share for TerraForm Power Inc., conditional on acquiring more than half of sister company TerraForm Global Inc., according to a regulatory filing yesterday. SunEdison formed the two yieldcos as part of an expansion effort that made it the biggest clean energy company in the world, with assets spread across six continents. The two-year buying binge left it overextended and in April it filed the biggest U.S. bankruptcy of 2016.

U.S. oilfield services company Forbes Energy Services Ltd. said that it expected to "promptly" emerge from bankruptcy after filing a chapter 11 plan yesterday with a pre-packaged deal to exchange $280 million of debt for equity, Reuters reported. In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, Forbes said that the oil slump had reduced demand for its activities, rendering it unable to make payments on some of its debt. It said that holders of 87 percent of senior unsecured notes had voted to accept its restructuring plan. The Alice, Texas-based company operates around 173 well servicing rigs in Texas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. It also transports and disposes of fluids used in drilling. Read more. 

Get a better understanding of what happens when an oil, gas or other natural resources company goes bankrupt. Order your copy of ABI's revised and expanded When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy, Second Edition.