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SunEdison Inc.’s potential bankruptcy would be the biggest ever in the renewable-energy industry, and the largest U.S. failure in more than a year, and it also promises to be more complicated than most, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The world’s biggest clean-power developer had total debt of $11.7 billion as of Sept. 30, the last comprehensive figure it reported, after a two-year buying binge of wind and solar assets on six continents. The company is preparing to file in New York. If it does seek protection from creditors, the proceedings may drag in SunEdison’s two publicly traded holding company units, TerraForm Power Inc. and TerraForm Global Inc. A SunEdison bankruptcy also has the potential to trigger defaults on multiple wind and solar farms that are generating revenue from selling electricity. SunEdison’s global expansion effort was fueled by a complex web of financing that includes loans from banks and hedge funds, credit lines and the initial public offerings of the TerraForm units. The company acknowledged in a regulatory filing on April 15 that it’s talking with creditors about financing to carry the company through bankruptcy reorganization. Potential creditors may also include insurance companies, at least one university and the residential solar installer that SunEdison tried to buy for $1.9 billion, Vivint Solar Inc., which sued for damages after the deal fell apart in March. TerraForm Global is pursuing another suit, alleging that SunEdison misused the holding company’s cash.

Struggling grocer Fairway Group Holdings Corp. has reached a tentative deal with creditors to restructure its debt in bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The deal would likely put the New York-based gourmet grocery chain into chapter 11 proceedings by the end of May. Fairway’s lenders, led by Blackstone Group LP credit arm GSO Capital Partners, would provide a loan enabling it to continue operations while still in court. The specific terms are still being worked out, including the size of the financing package and whether all store lease contracts will be maintained at its less profitable locations. Under the deal, lenders would take over ownership of the business after Fairway completes its debt restructuring. The company, which is being advised by Greenhill & Co., would focus on turning around the chain without closing the majority of its stores. The company also brought on Alvarez & Marsal Inc. to advise on the restructuring plan.

SunEdison Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection, confirming what the industry has been expecting for months, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. SunEdison has arranged with first- and second-lien lenders for financing to carry it through bankruptcy reorganization. The company provided a glimpse into its financial status in a regulatory filing Friday, including that it’s pursuing debtor-in-possession loans from creditors. The disclosure of the DIP negotiations comes as SunEdison faces default on at least $1.4 billion in loans and credit facilities, and after it failed to make a $2.6 million interest payment at the beginning of this month on its 2 percent convertible bonds maturing in 2018. SunEdison’s finances are being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Academy Sports + Outdoors and Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. have expressed interest in buying the assets of rival U.S. retailer Sports Authority Inc. that are on sale in a bankruptcy auction, Reuters reported on Friday. The auction will determine whether Sports Authority, which opened its first store in Florida in 1987 and expanded nationwide, will be sold off in pieces, or its creditors will hold on to it and try to find a buyer for its entirety. Both Dick's and Academy Sports have submitted letters of interest to buy some of the assets of Sports Authority, which filed for chapter 11 protection in March after seeing sales flatline in the face of online competition. New York City-based Modell's Sporting Goods is also interested in Sports Authority, which has 464 stores across the country. But family-owned Modell's, whose stronghold is on the U.S. East Coast, has not yet decided whether it will participate in the auction.

Vestis Retail Group LLC, the operator of Eastern Mountain Sports, filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to adjust to changes in U.S. shopping habits, especially among young people, Bloomberg News reported today. Vestis, which also runs the Sport Chalet and Bob’s Stores chains, is owned by Philadelphia-based private equity firm Versa Capital Management. The chapter 11 petition filed today in Wilmington, Del., listed as much as $500 million in liabilities and less than $50,000 of assets.  The company said that Vestis BSI Funding II LLC, funds advised by Versa, has agreed to purchase substantially all of its remaining assets. Vestis will seek approval of a court-supervised auction process with the Vestis BSI offer as the opening bid, according to court papers. Vestis will seek approval of up to $125 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its pre-petition lender Wells Fargo Capital Finance LLC to help fund operations while the company restructures. 

The bankruptcy of TransCare, a private company that provided ambulance coverage to large parts of the Bronx and some areas in Manhattan, has the city’s Emergency Medical Service scrambling to shift ambulances and crews from across the five boroughs, the New York Times reported today. In all, TransCare used to provide 81 ambulance tours a day in the city; it was teetering for months, so officials knew they needed a contingency plan. For now, the city has patched the problem, though the medics are starting to become frayed from the extra hours or the trips to boroughs outside their regular assignments, and warm weather, the busiest time of the year for medical emergencies, is coming up.

Officials with Peabody Energy say that they expect mine operations to continue as usual in the wake of bankruptcy filings, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Peabody's Director of Colorado Government Relations Mike Blank wrote in an email to State Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush that the bankruptcy proceedings will not affect operations in northwest Colorado, including at the Twentymile Coal Company, which employs about 300 people. Peabody officials say that employees will continue to receive their normal benefits and salaries and that all of the companies American mining operations are cash-flow positive. Peabody Energy Corp., based in St. Louis, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Goodrich Petroleum Corp. has filed for chapter 11 in a U.S. bankruptcy court to implement financial restructuring, Bloomberg News reported today. “Through the chapter 11 restructuring, the company will eliminate approximately $400 million in debt from its balance sheet, substantially de-leverage its capital structure and strategically position the company for long-term performance in an anticipated improving commodity price environment,” Houston-based Goodrich said. Goodrich earlier this month reached an agreement with creditors to use its "best efforts" to file for chapter 11 with a pre-packaged plan to reorganize and emerge from court as an operating business. That agreement came after the company’s debt-for-equity exchange offer failed to gain enough traction among debt holders. On March 16, Goodrich delayed releasing its annual report, citing a large loss that auditors have determined may affect the company’s ability to operate as a going concern. The loss comes "mainly as a result of substantial impaired asset writedowns," Goodrich said in the filing. Read more. 

Has the final shoe dropped for the E&P industry? A session this afternoon at ABI's 34th Annual Spring Meeting features experts discussing energy industry distress. 

Get a better understanding of what happens when an oil, gas or other natural resources company goes bankrupt. Pre-order your copy of ABI's revised and expanded When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy, Second Edition. Print copies are available at the onsite bookstore at the Annual Spring Meeting.