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Performance Sports Group Ltd, the maker of Bauer Hockey gear and Easton Sports baseball bats, has turned to an investment bank for advice on how to cope with its debt pile, Reuters reported yesterday. Performance Sports has sought the help of investment bank Centerview Partners Holdings LLC on its negotiations with its lenders. Performance Sports, which has offices in British Columbia and Exeter, N.H., lost more than half of its market value last week after it said it may default on its loans due to a delay in filing its annual report. It now has a market capitalization of $90 million. The delay in filing its annual report is the result of an internal investigation over its accounting, the company has said.

Some of the world’s largest energy companies are saddled with their highest debt levels ever as they struggle with low crude prices, raising worries about their ability to pay dividends and find new barrels, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Exxon Mobil Corp. Royal Dutch Shell PLC, BP PLC and Chevron Corp. hold a combined net debt of $184 billion — more than double their debt levels in 2014, when oil prices began a steep descent that eventually bottomed out at $27 a barrel earlier this year. Crude prices have rebounded since, but still hover near $50 a barrel. The soaring debt levels are a fresh reminder of the toll the two-year price slump has taken on the oil industry. Just a decade ago, these four companies were hauled before Congress to explain “windfall profits” but now can’t cover expenses with normal cash flow. Executives at BP, Shell, Exxon and Chevron have assured investors that they will generate enough cash in 2017 to pay for new investments and dividends, but some shareholders are skeptical. In the first half of 2015, the companies fell short of that goal by $40 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of their numbers. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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. 

The bankrupt operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp. asked a judge yesterday to extend a lawsuit shield for its parent company, which a financial advisor said is critical to making progress toward a settlement with holdout creditors, Reuters reported. Negotiations are advancing thanks to the prospect of more cash for creditors following the $4.4 billion sale of another Caesars affiliate last month and the possibility of financial contributions from Caesars' private equity sponsors, Brendan Hayes, managing director of Millstein & Co said at a hearing. But negotiations need to take place without the threat of judgments on bondholder litigation currently pending in New York and Delaware against the non-bankrupt Caesars parent, Hayes said. Parties in the long and litigious $18 billion bankruptcy met in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago as Caesars Entertainment Operating Co Inc. requested a third halt to $11.4 billion in lawsuits by noteholders against its parent over bond guarantees. A current injunction expires on Aug. 29.

Wilbur Ross, known for big investments in distressed industries, is betting that the oil and gas slump has dragged on long enough to shake out weaker players, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. His investment firm, WL Ross & Co., has purchased hundreds of millions of dollars in troubled energy debt in a bid to take control of distressed oil and gas companies if they are forced to hand over ownership to creditors, according to people familiar with the matter. The firm sat out the early innings of the downturn, when other investors pounced on perceived bargains that continued losing value when oil and gas prices fell further. WL Ross is angling to swap debt for ownership in Breitburn Energy Partners LP, which filed for chapter 11 protection in May, and has been buying debt of Permian Resources LLC, a Texas oil producer founded by late wildcatter Aubrey McClendon that might ultimately have to hand at least part-ownership to creditors in a restructuring. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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. 

American Apparel LLC, the U.S. teen clothing retailer known for its sexually suggestive advertising, has hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc to explore a sale, Reuters reported yesterday. The sale process comes just six months after American Apparel emerged from chapter 11 protection, following the public ouster of its controversial founder and chief executive officer, Dov Charney, and a string of losses that the company has struggled to reverse. When contacted for comment, Charney said he would have to see what the asking price for his old company is before considering making a bid. Charney, with support from investors that included Hagan Capital Group and Silver Creek Capital Partners, had mounted an unsuccessful $300 million bid for American Apparel in January.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. has struck a deal to settle one of several pending bondholder lawsuits, a key step toward peace in the contentious bankruptcy case of the casino company's largest operating unit, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. The settlement, which Caesars disclosed yesterday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, resolves a class-action lawsuit brought by the holders of unsecured bond debt issued by its Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. unit. Like other litigation pending against Caesars, the lawsuit sought to hold Caesars to guarantees of the bankrupt CEOC unit's debt. Under the settlement, which was reached on Monday, lead plaintiff Frederick Barton Danner agreed to drop the lawsuit in a New York federal court and to support CEOC's chapter 11 restructuring, which includes a broader settlement of potential legal claims against Caesars and its private-equity backers, Apollo Global Management and TPG. Read more. 

In related news, Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar suggested the casino operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp. (CEC) ask its parent's private equity sponsors for money to fund a plan to exit its contentious $18 billion bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG Capital Management LP formed the Caesars casino holding company in a 2008 buyout and the three groups are facing claims of fraud and asset stripping by creditors of the bankrupt unit. Caesars, Apollo and TPG have denied the claims. "Why should a successful reorganization depend on contribution from CEC alone?" Judge Goldgar asked at a monthly hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. The unit recently asked Judge Goldgar to extend a halt on billions of dollars in lawsuits over debt guarantees from several bondholders against the parent while it makes a last-ditch attempt to settle with holdout creditors. Read more. 

Bankrupt coal company Peabody Energy won U.S. court approval yesterday for agreements with three states to partially cover $1.14 billion in potential environmental liabilities and for a bonus plan for its six top executives, Reuters reported yesterday. Under the agreements, Wyoming can receive $127 million in cash if Peabody walks away from its mine cleanup obligations in the state while in bankruptcy, while New Mexico would receive $32 million and Indiana would get $17 million. Until now those liabilities were covered by a federal program known as self-bonding. It allows the largest miners to extract coal without setting aside cash or collateral. The program is currently under review. Peabody's agreements with Wyoming, New Mexico and Indiana are similar to deals reached by bankrupt coal miners Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources on self-bonds in Wyoming and West Virginia. Peabody also overcame objections by funds affiliated with the United Mine Workers of America to its executive bonus plan. The plan and another incentive plan for non-insider employees proposed setting aside up to $16.2 million in bonuses.