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Alpine Summit Energy Partners filed for bankruptcy on a confluence of factors including unplanned facility outages, falling natural-gas prices and scarcer financing from more socially conscious lenders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Nashville, Tenn.-based oil-and-gas operator filed for chapter 11 Wednesday, less than a month after the company said it was ending its efforts to restructure out of court, and plans to sell its assets in bankruptcy. The publicly traded company said it began in March to look for a buyer without filing for chapter 11, but it wasn’t happy with the offers it received. Alpine’s problems included a 54% drop in natural-gas prices in the first quarter from the same period a year earlier, Chief Executive Craig Perry said in a sworn declaration filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Financing has also become more difficult for the oil-and-gas industry, partly due to lenders’ increasing reluctance to work with fossil-fuel borrowers as they became more aware of environmental, social and corporate-governance goals, Perry said. Alpine, which has drilled more than 40 wells since 2018, said problems with a service partner resulted in unplanned outages at facilities in April and May, reducing volumes in part of South Texas by 70%. Operations returned to normal by mid-May, but the company said the downtime would still significantly hurt its financial results.

U.S. plant-based foods company Tattooed Chef announced that it will file for chapter 11 and intends to market “substantially all of its assets,” Vegconomist reported. The publicly-listed company will also solicit competing bids from interested parties. The news follows several difficult quarters for the frozen foods company, which said in a statement that increased business costs and an inability to raise needed capital led to the decision to seek bankruptcy protection. Founded in 2018, Tattooed Chef is known for its range of plant-forward frozen meals and entrees, which include pizzas, heat-and-serve bowls, cauliflower burgers and smoothie bowls. While they offered a growing range of vegan items, much of the brand’s product line also contained dairy or eggs. Beginning in late 2022, the company began to report financial challenges due to inflationary pressures and decreasing sales in at least one key retailer. In 2022, Tattooed Chef’s revenues were up 11% to $230.9 million, but it posted a $141.5 million net loss. In Q1 2023, net revenues fell 12.7% to $59.1 million, while net losses reached $19 million due to increased costs of labor, packaging and raw materials, it said. While Tattooed Chef prided itself as a “leader in plant-based foods,” in December 2022 CEO Salvatore Galletti revealed the firm was considering a highly unusual move and might begin selling meat products. In March 2023, Tattooed Chef revealed it was working on several strategies to improve its fiscal outlook, noting that higher expenses related to labor, freight, energy costs, equipment, and its supply chain were all affecting the company’s quarterly performance. In May, Galletti said the brand’s focus had “shifted from growth to profitability,” but by June, it received notification from Nasdaq that its stock had failed to reach the $1 per share minimum bid price required for listing on the exchange. The company was given 180 days to comply or risk delisting.

U.S. electric truck manufacturer Lordstown Motors filed for bankruptcy protection and put itself up for sale after failing to resolve a dispute over a promised investment from Taiwan's Foxconn, Reuters reported. Shares of Lordstown tumbled 35% in trading on the Nasdaq. The company's bankruptcy is not the first among the crop of EV startups that went public during the pandemic-era SPAC boom. But Lordstown was a high-profile member of that class because it was challenging the core of the legacy Detroit automakers' business of high-margin pickup trucks, and because of its location. The automaker, named after the Ohio town where it is based, filed for chapter 11 protection in a Delaware bankruptcy court. In the complaint, Lordstown accused Foxconn of fraudulent conduct and a series of broken promises in failing to abide by an agreement to invest up to $170 million in the electric-vehicle manufacturer. Foxconn previously invested about $52.7 million in Lordstown as part of the agreement, and currently holds an 8.4% stake in the EV maker. Lordstown contends that Foxconn is balking at purchasing additional shares of its stock as promised and misled the EV maker about collaborating on vehicle development plans. Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry and best known for assembling Apple's iPhones, has said Lordstown breached the investment agreement when the automaker's stock fell below $1 per share.

Weight loss firm Jenny Craig is set to be resurrected as an online business, just two months after it filed for bankruptcy, Daily Mail reported. The firm, which was founded in 1983, has been snapped up by fellow wellness brand Wellful and will continue as a direct-to-consumer delivery business later this year. Jenny Craig was famed around the world for its personalized weight loss centers and ready-made meal plans which promised to help clients shed pounds. But, after four decades in business, it found itself struggling to compete with growing competition from other fashionable diets and weight loss drugs like Ozempic. In May, executives announced its physical operations would be wound down as it filed for bankruptcy. At the time it had around 1,000 employees in the U.S. Wellful, which owns Nutrisystem, plans to keep the weight loss centers closed but will continue to retail its meal plans online. Coaching sessions will also be available digitally. It has not been revealed how much Wellful spent to acquire the Jenny Craig brand but court filings from June valued the brand's intellectual property as high as $10 million. Entrepreneur Jenny Craig launched the business with her husband Sid, opening their first center in Melbourne, Australia, before expanding into the U.S. It also attracted a series of celebrity endorsements, including actresses Kirstie Alley and Valerie Bertinelli. The chain has a turbulent history and has frequently changed hands.

New vehicle sales in the U.S. for top global automakers rose in the second quarter on improving supply and strong demand, signaling that rising interest rates have not yet had a meaningful impact on purchases, Reuters reported. Vehicle production took a hit after the pandemic disrupted supply of semiconductor chips and other raw materials, hurting automakers' ability to meet the upsurge for personal transport. Companies are now rushing to make up for the lost production as supply chain snags gradually ease. Toyota Motor's North America unit reported a 7.13% rise in U.S. sales to 568,962 units for the quarter ended June. General Motors, however, surpassed Toyota in the quarter, with a near 19% rise in U.S. sales to a total of 691,978 units, including 15,652 electric vehicles. Compared to peers, the Japanese automaker has struggled to ship enough cars and trucks on time to dealers. Earlier in the week, FCA US, a unit of Stellantis, and Korean peer Hyundai Motor's U.S. unit reported a 6% and 14% increase, respectively, in total auto sales. Overall, U.S. new vehicle sales in June were 1.37 million units, with an annual sales rate of about 15.7 million, according to data released by Wards Intelligence.