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American Apparel Inc. has reached an agreement with creditors for a $90 million asset-based infusion, averting default, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Still, the retailer warned on Monday that a bankruptcy threat remains given its financial results thus far and its projections for the next four fiscal quarters. The retailer had warned last week it had about $13 million of available cash, roughly the amount of an interest payment due on Oct. 15 — and risked default unless it raised another cash infusion or refinance its debt. As of Aug. 11, the retailer said on Monday, it was down to $11.2 million in cash. The company, which has been staving off bankruptcy through a series of cash infusions, last amended its $50-million line of credit with Capital One in March, according to regulatory filings.

After a flurry of negotiations, a bankruptcy judge yesterday said that he would authorize Patriot Coal Corp.'s creditors to begin voting on the company's plan to pay them, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips said that he would approve an outline of Patriot's chapter 11 plan. At the heart of the plan is the sale of Patriot's mines to new owners. Before Tuesday's hearing, creditors had lined up to criticize what they said were gaping holes in the payment plan, including how much they could expect to be paid, the terms of new debt the company hopes to issue and the scope of liability releases.

Arch Coal Inc. is seeking a compromise with lenders opposing a debt-swap deal that would help the struggling coal miner avoid a bankruptcy filing, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Holders of the coal miner’s $1.9 billion loan may be offered better terms as an incentive to drop their opposition to a proposal to swap as much as $2.38 billion of junior-ranking borrowings for new senior obligations. The opposing group, claiming to represent the majority of senior creditors, is demanding to be paid a comparable yield on a new loan the company is seeking as part of the exchange, Arch Coal said in a July 29 statement. The lenders say that new creditors would receive preferential treatment over existing investors, which would violate provisions of the loan pact.

Apollo Global Management LLC, one of the owners of Caesars Entertainment Corp., received an ultimatum from creditors who are the staunchest opponents of the casino operator’s bankruptcy plan, demanding that the private-equity firm surrender control of the still-solvent parent company to them, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The opponents, junior bondholders of Caesars’ bankrupt unit, made their demand in a meeting this month. Through the parent, creditors would then take charge of several profitable units outside of the bankruptcy case. In exchange, the creditor group would withdraw the pile of lawsuits it has filed related to the bankruptcy. Apollo rejected the offer, but the two sides are continuing negotiations. The second-lien group includes Appaloosa Management, Oaktree Capital Group LLC and Tennenbaum Capital Partners, according to a February court filing. 

RadioShack’s creditors committee has secured court backing for a settlement with senior lenders that removes a potential impediment to approval of the company’s bankruptcy plan at a confirmation hearing next week, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Separately, a hearing on a demand by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that holders of gift cards receive information from the court was rescheduled for Aug. 26, the date of the confirmation hearing. When RadioShack sold assets this year, including more than 1,700 stores to the Standard General hedge fund, senior lenders got $12 million from the proceeds. The money was put into escrow accounts for paying expenses and settlements of lawsuits in which the senior lenders have indemnification from RadioShack, which changed its name to RS Legacy Corp. after the sale. The unsecured creditors’ committee threatened to sue, claiming defects in the senior lenders’ lien package. By settling, lenders agreed to collect only from the escrow account in compensation for indemnification claims, in return for the unsecured creditors’ agreement not to sue.

What’s left of the Standard Register Co. going through chapter 11 bankruptcy is now officially called SRC Liquidation Co., the Dayton (Ohio) Business Journal reported today. Late last week the court authorized the name change, a formality that allows its new owner to keep the Standard Register brand name after the bankruptcy is complete. The fact that Minnesota-based Taylor Corp. will continue to market the Standard Register name is good news — at least in the short term — for the more than 750 Dayton-area employees that remain. Taylor Corp. closed on the deal to buy Standard Register on July 31.

American Apparel Inc. said that it may not be able to sustain operations as a going concern for the next 12 months, even after the clothing chain increased its credit line, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. A group of lenders, including hedge fund Standard General, replaced its $50 million credit facility with a larger $90 million one, the Los Angeles-based retailer said yesterday. The company said last week that Standard General intended to take this step. The clothing maker has been in turmoil since it suspended and then fired founder and Chief Executive Officer Dov Charney for alleged misconduct. Charney, who was replaced as CEO by Paula Schneider, has sued over his ouster and said the allegations against him are baseless. The retailer also yesterday confirmed second-quarter results that it reported on a preliminary basis last week. Sales sank 17 percent to $134.4 million, and the net loss expanded to $19.4 million from $16.2 million. As of Aug. 11, the chain had $11.2 million in cash. It has a bond-interest payment of about $13.9 million due on Oct. 15.

The opening of the $3.5 billion Baha Mar mega-resort in the Bahamas is expected to be delayed beyond the start of the Christmas season, with the developer deep in an escalating legal battle with the Chinese companies that are providing most of the finance and construction work, Reuters reported yesterday. Even if construction on the unfinished resort resumed this month, there is little chance the project could be completed by mid-December, the start of the high season for Bahamas resorts, according to local contractors who have worked on the project. Baha Mar missed a March 27 opening because of construction delays and dwindling cash. Missing the high season, when resorts charge premium prices, would further hurt its finances. Sarkis Izmirlian, whose Baha Mar Ltd is developer of the project, is trying to restructure the project's finances in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. But the Bahamian government, along with China's Export Import Bank and China Construction America (CCA), are trying to block that move as they initiate a separate liquidation proceeding in Nassau. China ExIm has bankrolled most of the project and CCA is the main contractor.

A judge on Monday held off ruling on whether Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. can modify parts of its collective-bargaining agreements (CBAs) with unions, something the grocer has indicated would be the first step toward a more drastic overhaul of the CBAs, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain met with lawyers for the company and the unions after hearing testimony yesterday, and he later said that they should negotiate more and come back to court on Wednesday with a compromise. A&P wants to change a provision in the contracts that allows senior employees in stores that are closing to take the jobs of lower-paid employees with less seniority at other locations. The other change would cut the amount of severance pay A&P has to immediately pay to employees being laid off.

Patriot Coal Corp. hopes to unload more than $400 million in debt in a newly announced deal to sell its remaining West Virginia mines, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Patriot said yesterday that an affiliate of the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund (VCLF), an environmentally focused nonprofit, is in line to acquire two Patriot mining complexes in West Virginia as well as mining permits. As part of the deal, which Patriot hopes to subject to higher bids through a court-overseen auction process, VCLF would take responsibility for more than $400 million in liabilities — workers’ compensation, black lung and environmental — tied to the assets. VCLF Chief Executive Tom Clarke said that mining operations would continue at Patriot’s Federal complex in northern West Virginia, where the organization will seek to reduce carbon emissions. The deal covers most of the assets that would remain if Patriot closes a previously announced sale of most of its mines to Blackhawk Mining LLC. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

In related news, busloads of United Mine Workers of America miners and retirees roared in protest outside Patriot Coal headquarters yesterday, as the bankrupt company looks to nix a union contract that includes pension contributions and health benefits, the New York Times reported today. From a makeshift stage on the bed of a tow truck, UMWA President Cecil Roberts bellowed out to a camouflage-clad crowd of 1,500 to 1,800 miners and led them in a march to nearby Patriot headquarters. UMWA packed 22 buses of miners from Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, according to union spokesman Phil Smith. Read more.