Limited Stores LLC, owner of U.S. women's apparel chain The Limited, said today that it filed for bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Limited Stores also said it agreed to sell its intellectual property and some related assets to an affiliate of private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Limited Stores, which filed for chapter 11 protection in Delaware, said on Friday that it would close all its brick-and-mortar retail locations effective Sunday.
Wet Seal, the mall retailer owned by Versa Capital Management, is considering a sale or bankruptcy after struggling to turn around the business, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. A decision could come as soon as this week. If Wet Seal decides instead on a bankruptcy, it would be the second in two years for the chain, which caters to women and girls ages 13 to 24. During its previous chapter 11 in 2015, the company sold its assets to Versa in a deal that included $7.5 million in cash. Wet Seal has already closed hundreds of stores, but sluggish mall traffic has continued to weigh on the chain’s remaining locations. In early 2015, Versa’s Mador Lending LLC won an auction for the Wet Seal’s inventory and some leases. As part of the deal, it provided $20 million in replacement bankruptcy financing and assumed certain liabilities. The Irvine, Calif.-based retailer has 171 locations in 42 states, according to its website.
The sale of the operator of a Long Beach, Calif., container terminal has provoked stiff opposition from Hanjin Shipping Co.’s U.S. creditors, many of whom say the deal is designed to bypass them, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Hanjin has asked Bankruptcy Judge John Sherwood to sign off on a proposed $78 million sale of the business, overruling creditors that have fought the deal and aim to keep as many of the shipper’s assets in the U.S. as possible. Some U.S. creditors — including container lessors, insurance providers and the Port of Seattle — say that the terms of the sale and Hanjin’s plans to direct any proceeds to South Korea could leave them empty-handed and without recourse to fully enforce their rights. During a U.S. court hearing on the sale that began on Thursday, lawyers for Hanjin described the Long Beach terminal business as a “melting ice cube” that had to be sold quickly to preserve Hanjin’s ability to extract any value from the asset. The Seoul Central District Court, which is the primary authority overseeing Hanjin’s bankruptcy, has already approved the sale.
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."
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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Bibhu Mohapatra, a New York fashion designer whose clothing has been worn by first lady Michelle Obama, has put his fashion house into bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bibhu LLC sought protection from creditors under chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Mohapatra’s company listed $81,000 in assets and more than $1.1 million in debt. Mohapatra said that the fashion house plans to continue doing business as usual and its planned debt restructuring would make the business more attractive for investors. He said that a restructuring of the company’s debts would allow Bibhu to add a second collection at a lower price point.
Leaders of a Marshalltown hospital are moving ahead with selling the facility as part of bankruptcy proceedings, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The sale of Central Iowa Healthcare’s (CIH) assets to Unity Point Health-Waterloo was unanimously approved by corporate members at a Tuesday meeting. Unity Point Health-Waterloo offered $12.5 million for the assets. CIH members also outlined the loss of more than $18 million as of Nov. 30, 2016. If the sale is approved by bankruptcy court, the downtown Marshalltown hospital will no longer be an independent hospital. The hospital is the only full-service medical center in its area and has more than 60,000 residents depending on it for health care services. A second measure approved at the Tuesday meeting retains 13 trustees until the end of the bankruptcy proceeding.
