%1

Oilfield servicer GreenHunter Resources Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection on Tuesday as the distress facing its customers ripples out further into the oil and gas industry, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The Grapevine, Texas, company said that despite taking such steps as slashing costs, layoffs and exiting its South Texas and Oklahoma operations to focus on Appalachia, its revenues have suffered as low oil prices continue to plague the exploration and production companies that form its customer base. GreenHunter's bankruptcy filing comes a little more than a month after its lender declared it in default on nearly $13 million in note debt. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Get a better understanding of what happens when an oil, gas or other natural resources company goes bankrupt with ABI’s When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy. 

Will exploration and production hit bottom in 2016? Be sure to attend ABI's Annual Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C., from April 14-17, as a panel of experts will be addressing this topic. Register today!

The operator of a 41-mile Texas toll road connecting San Antonio to Austin filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday due to dwindling cash, Reuters reported. SH 130 Concession Co LLC, which operates the section of state highway 130, is jointly owned by the Cintra unit of Spain's Ferrovial SA and Zachry American Infrastructure of San Antonio. The operator struck a $1.3 billion agreement with Texas in 2006 to finance, develop and operate segments five and six of the highway, which boasts an 85 mile-per-hour speed limit, the highest in the country. Construction began in 2009 and the highway opened in 2012, allowing the operators to begin collecting tolls. However, the highway never lived up to traffic projections, according to credit rating agency Moody's, and in court documents the operator said it had run short of cash.

Lenders are giving Sports Authority Inc. until the end of April to find a buyer and close a deal to save part of the ailing retail chain, which sought bankruptcy protection yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Nearly 140 stores are already being sacrificed to appease lenders owed more than $1 billion and more may be closed unless the company finds a buyer or manages to put together a turnaround plan, court papers say. Ahead of a bankruptcy court hearing today, Sports Authority sketched out its strategy of pursuing a dual-track process, negotiating a chapter 11 reorganization plan while looking for a buyer. However, $595 million in bankruptcy loans come due June 30, which doesn’t give the beleaguered retailer much time. Chief executive Michael Foss said Wednesday that parties have expressed “strong interest” in buying or investing in some or all of Sports Authority. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Don’t miss the “Everything-Must-Go Sale: The Ins and Outs of Retail Bankruptcies” at ABI’s Bankruptcy Battleground West next Friday in Los Angeles. Click here to register. 

Total U.S. bankruptcy filings decreased just 1 percent in February from the same period last year, according to data provided by Epiq Systems, Inc. Bankruptcy filings totaled 64,662 in February 2016, down slightly from the February 2015 total of 65,064. Consumer filings declined 2 percent in February 2016 to 61,662 from the February 2015 consumer filing total of 62,784. However, total commercial filings in February 2016 jumped to 3,000, representing a 32 percent increase from the 2,280 business filings recorded in February 2015. The 476 total commercial chapter 11 filings in February 2016 represented an increase of 31 percent from February 2015’s total of 364. “February showed that decreases in total filings are starting to level off, and more businesses are turning to the financial relief of bankruptcy," said ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano. “As the last major overhaul of chapter 11 took place in 1978, the recommendations of ABI's Chapter 11 Reform Commission provide an updated roadmap for struggling businesses and courts trying to navigate today’s complex financial terrain.”

Philadelphia’s iconic children's museum has raised nearly all the funds needed to exit bankruptcy and stands only thousands of dollars away from exiting bankruptcy, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported today. The Please Touch Museum filed for chapter 11 protection last fall to settle $60 million in debt owed. The museum and the bondholders reached an agreement for a much lower payoff — and the museum is reportedly only a few thousands of dollars away from the $5.75 million needed to leave bankruptcy. The museum still must pay off at least one other debt, a reduced parking-tax claim, but it appears Please Touch is in a much stronger position than it was several months ago.

Struggling radio broadcaster IHeartMedia Inc. reached an agreement with a group of lenders that could forestall a fight over whether the company violated its debt agreement, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The creditors have agreed to temporarily hold off from filing a default notice claiming that IHeart breached its debt terms by shifting assets to its Broader Media LLC subsidiary last year. Under the standstill agreement, the company won’t move any additional assets. The arrangement, which runs through today, can be extended if both sides agree. The deal gives creditors an opportunity to propose a plan to address IHeart’s more than $12 billion in debt coming due in the next five years. 

Retired U.S. Judge Joseph Farnan has agreed to serve as the mediator in the chapter 11 bankruptcy of the operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp., Reuters reported yesterday. Farnan's agreement to mediate the drawn-out case came as the company and creditors wait for the independent examiner's report, due mid-March. Creditors have accused Caesars of looting the operating unit before the bankruptcy for the benefit of private equity owners Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital Management . The examiner's report will look into the accusations. The operating unit proposed a mediator last month as a way to help creditors reach a compromise and guide the case to resolution.

Peabody Energy Corp.’s lenders are pushing the largest U.S. coal producer to restructure its $6 billion in debt through bankruptcy, the company said in a filing on Monday, Reuters reported yesterday. Peabody is pursuing bond exchanges to deal with its debt as coal prices decline. Its lenders are concerned that Peabody is not pursuing an in-court restructuring, according to the filing. Peabody has been trying to sell coal mines in New Mexico and Colorado to privately owned Bowie Resource Partners LLC to raise $358 million cash and relieve it of certain liabilities tied to the mines, according to a statement on Nov. 20, 2015.

Sports Authority Inc. said that it filed for chapter 11 protection today, making it the first major U.S. retailer to file for bankruptcy this year, Reuters reported today. The sporting goods retailer said today that it expects to have access to up to $595 million in debtor-in-possession financing during its restructuring. Sports Authority said that it had identified about 140 stores and two distribution centers, in Denver and Chicago, that it intends to close or sell as part of its restructuring plan. The company listed assets worth up to $50,000 and liabilities of between $1 million and $10 million in its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Sports Authority was expected to file for bankruptcy after it missed a $20 million coupon payment on Jan. 15, triggering a 30-day grace period to work out a compromise with creditors, Reuters had reported last week.