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Aviation services provider Erickson Inc., which has filed voluntary petitions for chapter 11 relief, announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas has approved key first day motions related to its voluntary chapter 11 restructuring, RTT News reported today. The motions allow Erickson to fulfill current key customer contracts, pay employee wages, honor existing employee-benefit programs, pay certain suppliers and foreign creditors, and will ensure that the company continues normal business operations throughout the financial restructuring process. The Court has authorized Erickson to access up to $49 million of its $66 million debtor-in-possession term financing. This financing, along with its approved DIP revolver financing, will provide sufficient liquidity to fund ongoing operations in the ordinary course of business. It will maintain Erickson's longstanding commitment to safety, compliance, and customer service.

Flying Star’s owners no longer have a creditor-backed challenger vying for control of the Albuquerque-based cafe chain, the Albuquerque Journal reported yesterday. The unsecured creditors’ committee has agreed to withdraw a reorganization plan that would involve selling Flying Star as a going operation to Southwest Brands. As part of a settlement, the committee also has agreed not to challenge a reorganization plan proposed by Flying Star owners Jean and Mark Bernstein, which does not necessarily mean the their plan will get confirmed by a judge. It must still go out to individual creditors for vote. The committee itself — comprised of three Flying Star creditors — has ended what had become a rancorous battle over the future of the chain, which filed for chapter 11 protection in January 2015.

Helicopter operator Erickson Inc. has put its flying fleet into bankruptcy, blaming oil and gas companies that cut back on drilling operations during a slump in energy prices, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Lawyers who put the Portland, Ore., company into bankruptcy said that profitability has declined since 2013 and that it couldn’t overcome “sustained economic distress” in the oil-and-gas industry, where it provides lift services for production rig equipment. Erickson officials said they plan to negotiate with lenders behind some of its roughly $561 million in debt. The 700-worker company also struggled with the slower pace of U.S. military activity in Afghanistan. Its defense revenues fell about 32 percent throughout last year to $105.2 million. Any debt-cutting plan that Erickson officials put forward will need approval from Judge <b>Barbara J. Houser</b>. The company, founded in 1971, has 69 aircraft. It expanded in 2013 with the $26 million purchases of Brazil’s Air Amazonia Servicos Aeronauticos Ltda and the $298 million purchase of Evergreen Helicopters Inc., which expanded its military work.

While coal executives clashed with environmental advocates regarding Donald Trump’s election as president, union workers struck a middle ground in reacting to the New York billionaire’s rise to power, the Wheeling (W.Va.) News-Register reported today. Murray Energy Corp. CEO Robert E. Murray, a critic of Obama and his Environmental Protection Agency, continues battling regulations such as the Clean Power Plan and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards in court. He plans to close the Powhatan No. 6 Mine in December, but has steadily reduced the number of active coal miners working at his various facilities throughout Obama’s presidency. During the campaign, Trump often pledged to put coal miners back to work and help reopen mines that have closed while Obama has been in office. “Mr. Trump has a mandate to carry out all of the policies that he said he would implement during his campaign. And, he has the courage, passion, and commitment to do so,” Murray said. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Murray Energy was the nation’s fifth-largest coal producer in 2014, grinding out 62.8 million tons. Three of the top five producers have filed for bankruptcy during the last two years. Murray Energy officials are trying to avoid this.

A publicly traded aviation company in Portland, Ore., has gone silent as reports swirl that it has defaulted on its debt, Oregon Live reported yesterday. Erickson Inc. failed to make its quarterly $14 million payment to holders of its $355 million worth of bonds on Nov. 1. Observers expected company executives to address the uncertainty last Thursday, when it was scheduled to release quarterly financial results. But Thursday came and went with no earnings and no explanation. Clearly something is up, and speculation has run the gamut from a debt-restructuring deal that would give bondholders equity in Erickson to a straight bankruptcy filing. The one public statement the company did make last week only deepened the mystery. Erickson announced that two of its directors had left its board. Funds and companies controlled by Morgan own more than 54 percent of Erickson's stock. After three years of sustained losses, executives acknowledged this summer that the company needs to restructure. Erickson, famous in aviation circles as the only supplier of the  Skycrane heavy-lift helicopter, employs about 700 people, many of them in Portland and in Southern Oregon. The company has lost $162 million since 2014. It lost a key $50 million firefighting contract with the U.S. Forest Service last spring.

Considering the number of bankruptcies to hit the coal industry over the past few years, there's a certain irony in the crazy rally that has seen coal prices triple in 2016, yet the industry is still ailing, and moves by one heavy equipment maker even suggest it may have a terminal condition, MSN reported yesterday. Despite the rally in prices this year, the outlook for the coal mining industry remains bleak. In addition to mine closures, new trucking regulations have created delivery backlogs that have caused transportation prices to rise accordingly. The price surge isn't expected to see other miners jump-start currently idled projects. Teck Resources, the largest product of met coal in North America, said that although conditions could see prices remain elevated, this was not some "new normal" for coal. CEO Don Lindsay said, "The management teams will typically not make any significant investment decisions based on a few weeks of prices." That could be why one heavy equipment maker figures now is the time to get out of supplying the coal mining industry with its specialized equipment. Delivering its own quarterly earnings report last week, Caterpillar reiterated that as part of the major restructuring and consolidation of its operations it has been engineering over the past year, it was looking to sell its room and pillar equipment. While Caterpillar may want to sell off its room and pillar mining equipment, there may be others willing to sell into the industry.

The world's biggest wind turbine maker Vestas warned that it expected a slowdown in its key U.S. market next year, overshadowing robust third-quarter results and an upgrade to its 2016 sales forecast, Reuters reported today. The Danish company and its peers are benefiting from a new focus on renewables, encouraged by the Paris Agreement on climate change and a five-year extension of a key U.S. Production Tax Credit (PTC). However, while extension of the PTC is positive for the wind power industry, it would hit its U.S. business in the near term as it gives investors more time to build their wind farm projects, reducing pressure to get projects built next year. The company said 2016 had proven to be an "extraordinary" year and that it now expects sales to grow to 10 billion to 10.5 billion euros this year. The operating margin is now seen at 13-14 percent for the year, up from 12.5 percent in the earlier guidance. The U.S. has generated more orders than any other country for Vestas this year.