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Electronic music concert producer SFX Entertainment Inc. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday to execute a deal that wipes $300 million in debt from its balance sheet and takes the company private, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The deal, a debt-for-equity swap with bondholders, provides $115 million in bankruptcy financing to allow the company to continue normal operations during the bankruptcy case. The deal will also usher in a new chief executive, to succeed current CEO and Chairman Robert F.X. Sillerman. SFX’s bankruptcy filing comes weeks after the company skipped a $3 million interest payment to bondholders, who quickly declared the company in default on the $5.8 million balance of the bond. The company’s $220 million in senior bond debt and $30 million revolving credit facility each contained cross-default provisions, but neither investor group declared a default at that time. In the days that followed, SFX announced $20 million in fresh financing that allowed the company to continue negotiating with debtholders.

Cloud-based trading platform provider Liquid Holdings Group Inc. won approval from a bankruptcy judge on Friday to move forward with its case as it is in negotiations with an interested bidder, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Liquid filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, blaming a series of problems facing the company including securities-breach lawsuits, a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, losing its largest customer and failing to file its financial statements for more than a year. The Hoboken, N.J.-based company hired an investment banker in October to sell the company, but was unable to find a buyer willing to do a deal outside of the bankruptcy process.

The bankrupt operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp will soon ask a U.S. judge to shield its parent from $12 billion of lawsuits to facilitate a debt-cutting rescue deal, but approval could set a bad precedent for creditors, Reuters reported on Friday. Hedge fund bondholders have sued Caesars in New York and Delaware over guarantees on the bankrupt unit's debt. While Caesars has said that the lawsuits are without merit, it has warned it could join its operating unit in bankruptcy if rulings go against it. Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar in July denied a request by Caesars to stay the lawsuits, but a U.S. appeals court has since said that ruling should be reviewed. The case returns to Judge Goldgar this week.

RCS Capital Corp, a brokerage firm tied to real-estate investor Nicholas Schorsch, filed for chapter 11 protection to reduce debt and as per the plan its key lenders will assume control of the company, Reuters reported today. The company listed total assets of $1.98 billion and debts of $1.39 billion, on a consolidated basis, in its bankruptcy filing. RCS Capital said in early January that it planned a voluntary bankruptcy filing to improve its capital structure by eliminating certain non-core assets and liabilities and to focus on its retail advice division, Cetera Financial Group. The company also reached an agreement at that time with its key stakeholders for a new investment of $150 million in Cetera. RCS Capital, however, said that Cetera's current employees, advisers and trade vendors will not be affected by its bankruptcy.

New York area retail vets Ronny Shmoel and Albert Liniado are betting that the third time will be a charm for Circuit City, Twice Magazine reported on Wednesday. They acquired the Circuit City Corp. brand, domain and associated trademarks in October from IT supplier Systemax, which bought them in a bankruptcy auction but abandoned the U.S. retail channel last fall. Once the No. 1 big-box tech chain, Circuit City succumbed to a rapidly changing marketplace in 2008, and misfired in its second incarnation as an online-only sister site to Systemax’s TigerDirect. This time, what Shmoel and his top lieutenant Liniado have in store for Circuit is an ambitious, multi-tiered plan that calls for retail outlets, web sales, branded and private-label products, licensed kiosks, mobile shops and franchise opportunities, all under the iconic red-and-white banner. The company opens its first store in June, most likely in the Dallas market, and relaunches CircuitCity.com.

The operator of 13 nursing homes in Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio got permission from a bankruptcy judge to spend restricted money while its lawyers come up with a survival plan, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. With his signed court order, Bankruptcy Judge Nicholas W. Whittenburg approved the spending request from New Beginnings Healthcare & Rehab LLC officials. The Hixton, Tenn.-based company sought bankruptcy protection on Jan. 22. The nursing-home operator, which employs about 1,300 people, blamed its financial troubles on Georgia health regulators who have withheld Medicaid money that pays for some of the 800 residents at its nursing homes. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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Biomedical company Nuo Therapeutics Inc., which makes a gel to treat skin ulcers, filed for bankruptcy and plans to sell its assets to health care-focused hedge fund Deerfield Management, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported yesterday. The Maryland company, which filed for chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., said that it expects Deerfield to serve as the stalking-horse bidder for its assets at a bankruptcy-court-supervised auction. Those assets include the company's flagship, Aurix, a "hematogel" that uses a patient's own platelets and plasma as a catalyst for healing. It is the only therapy of its kind cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for use for the treatment of a variety of ulcers and wounds, according to David E. Jorden, the company's acting chief executive.

Bond sales by companies worldwide slowed to an 11-year low in January as investors shunned risk amid a meltdown in capital and commodities markets, Bloomberg News reported today. About $329 billion of debt has been issued so far this month, the least for a January since 2005, when $299 billion of securities were sold, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Since the Fed raised rates last month, a rout in Chinese equities has fueled concern that a slowdown there would spread to the global economy. The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index has since plunged 6.8 percent, oil prices have declined 20 percent over the same period and junk bonds have lost about 1.8 percent. January is on track for the slowest month for initial public offerings on U.S. exchanges since December 2008, when no companies filed to raise shares after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.