The company behind the Hampton Luxury Liner filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday, citing cash-flow problems brought on by Hurricane Sandy, the Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported yesterday. The bus company says in court papers that it lost more than $1.5 million as a result of the 2012 superstorm, leading to its eventual default on its loans. Its last forbearance agreement is set to expire at the end of the year, and efforts to refinance led to the company taking on a loan with an interest rate, fees and expenses that it says may amount to usury. The company reported assets of $6.6 million and debts of $5.1 million in its chapter 11 petition, filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip, N.Y.
Struggling surfwear maker Quiksilver Inc. said that it filed for chapter 11 protection for its U.S. units yesterday, Reuters reported. The company listed assets of more than $100 million and liabilities of more than $500 million in the filing. The European and Asia-Pacific businesses are not part of the filing as those "operations remain strong," Quiksilver said. Quiksilver added that holders of its Eurobonds, sufficient to waive any technical default arising from the filing, had agreed to allow it to reorganize its U.S. operations under chapter 11. The company said that it had requested the court to approve $175 million in new debtor-in-possession financing with affiliates of private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management and Bank of America.
The U.S. government's bankruptcy watchdog blasted an agreement aimed at bringing Energy Future Holdings out of chapter 11 because it requires Texas's biggest power company to pay millions of dollars in fees to lawyers, according to a court filing, Reuters reported yesterday. Energy Future Holdings struck a "plan support agreement" in August that binds key parties to work together to end the contentious bankruptcy, which began in April 2014. The support agreement is aimed to preventing pitched legal battles if the current bankruptcy exit proposal, based on the sale of the Oncor power distribution business, fails. However, the plan support agreement also requires Energy Future's creditors "to vote in favor of a plan that provides for millions of dollars (and possibly billions)" for 45 professionals working for undisclosed parties, according to the U.S. Trustee. Energy Future's bankruptcy exit plan also contains "illegal provisions," according to the U.S. Trustee, including a management incentive plan and legal settlements. Energy Future said in a separate court filing that the objectors to the plan support agreement were misreading the document, which the company said allowed it to pursue any proposed deal that was more favorable to creditors. Under the bankruptcy exit plan, a group of investors including an affiliate of Hunt Consolidated Inc. will finance a $12.2 billion deal that will give them control of Energy Future's Oncor power distribution business. The plan has the support of creditors on Energy Future's generation and retail utility side of its business, while paying off creditors on the Oncor side.
Grower’s Organic LLC, doing business as GO Transportation, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, ThePacker.com reported on Friday. The Denver-based distributor reported assets of less than $50,000 and debts of $1 million to $10 million in the Aug. 28 bankruptcy petition. Co-founder and managing member Brian Freeman said in court documents that many of the company’s creditors are covered by the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. Of the top 20 creditors, at least nine are organic produce growers or shippers. The total owed to those 20 creditors holding the largest unsecured claims is more than $473,000. Freeman has temporary permission to use cash collateral to pay employees, according to a Sept. 3 order from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Brown. She set a final hearing on the cash collateral for Sept. 16.
Cambridge Endoscopic Devices, a Framingham, Mass., medical device manufacturer, has filed for bankruptcy after its sales declined and it couldn’t find a buyer, the Boston Globe reported on Saturday. The company listed assets of $3 million and liabilities of $17 million in filings in federal bankruptcy court. According to court filings, its advanced endoscopes and laparoscopes, which are used to make surgery less invasive, became too expensive for many hospitals to buy after the passage of the Affordable Care Act. More than 40 potential buyers contacted over the past two years but didn’t make a “viable offer” for the company, it said in a filing. It listed $355,000 in income in 2013, $328,000 last year, and $70,000 so far this year. The vast majority of its assets were intellectual property, including patents filed for surgical instruments.
A North Carolina real estate investment firm that owns the Wyndham Garden Hotel and other Manhattan real estate has put four properties into chapter 11 with a plan to sell them at a bankruptcy auction, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The four New York properties — three hotels and a vacant lot — are valued at some $200 million and are located in choice neighborhoods across Manhattan. The properties filed for bankruptcy court protection on Thursday amid a legal battle between their owners. Gemini Equity Partners LLC, the Huntersville, N.C.-based owner of the properties, has lined up initial offers for the hotels and land, subject to higher bids at a bankruptcy-court-supervised auction. Proceeds from the sales are slated to fully repay creditors, owed a total of about $135 million, according to Gemini vice president Christopher La Mack.
A judge in the Bahamas said on Friday that a liquidator could take control of the stalled Baha Mar resort project, but limited the official’s powers, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Justice Ian Winder of the Supreme Court of the Bahamas, taking the middle ground in the ruling read in court on Friday, appointed a liquidator specifically for the purpose of preserving the $3.5 billion project’s assets, rather than authorizing the liquidator to develop a plan for the project’s completion. Justice Winder also set a Nov. 2 hearing date to consider the request of the owner of the project to have the Bahamian insolvency proceeding thrown out completely. The owner of the project, known as Baha Mar Ltd., had opposed a Bahamian government request for the appointment of a liquidator and has proceeded instead with a restructuring process in the U.S. under chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.
An oil investment firm that was legally based in Texas but had been run from Cape Cod, Mass., and had assets and liabilities valued in the millions of dollars, filed today for chapter 11 protection under the bankruptcy code, the Boston Business Journal reported today. Buckingham Oil Interests Inc. in its filing reported assets in the range of $3 million to $10 million and liabilities in the range of $10 million to $50 million. The executive and owner who ran the firm, Darryl A. Buckingham, died in August of cancer, according to an obituary published by Capenews.net. According to a court filing, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission launched a probe into Buckingham's business dealings shortly after his death. Francis C. Morrissey, the attorney who filed the bankruptcy for the company, described Buckingham Oil Interests in an interview as a "one man show." Given the complexity of the business, Morrissey said, the company entered chapter 11 proceedings to gain access to "a fiduciary who could protect the assets of the creditors, the investors and the stakeholders."
