California retailer Anna's Linens Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection on Sunday with plans to sell its chain of home goods stores, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In court papers filed yesterday, Anna's Linens said that it is currently in talks with New York investment firm DW Partners LP to sell its retail chain in a deal it hopes will save employees' jobs. It has until Friday to confirm a bid, which could then be put to test at a bankruptcy-court-overseen auction. The retailer's backup plan, should a going-concern sale not pan out, is liquidation.
Mediterranean restaurant chain Olga’s Kitchen Inc. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, Crain’s Detroit Business reported on Friday. Olga’s, founded in Birmingham, Mich., in 1970 by Olga Lorizon, owes millions of dollars to dozens of creditors, including $2.4 million to Citizens Bank, $1.2 million to food distributor Sysco Corp. and $103,843 to Detroit-based law firm Dickinson Wright PLLC. The restaurant chain also owes taxes to the state of Michigan and the Internal Revenue Service, though the amounts were not listed in the bankruptcy filing. Olga’s listed assets and liabilities of $1 million to $10 million in the filing.
RadioShack Corp. filed a bankruptcy liquidation plan explaining how the remaining assets of the once-iconic consumer-electronics retailer will be distributed, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. The plan follows the sale of about 1,700 of the Fort Worth, Texas-based chain’s stores -- as well as the rights to its name -- to Standard General LP. The hedge fund plans to run the locations under a co-branding arrangement with Sprint Corp. In addition to buying the stores for about $145.5 million, Standard General purchased data on about 67 million customers in a $26.2 million deal for assets including the RadioShack name. The plan filed on Friday in bankruptcy court doesn’t include specific distribution amounts.
U.S. gun maker Colt Defense LLC said it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and that its current sponsor, Sciens Capital Management LLC, has agreed to act as a stalking-horse bidder, Reuters reported today. Colt said that it intends to continue normal business operations through the accelerated sale process with the help of $20 million in credit facilities that its existing lenders have agreed to provide. Sciens Capital proposed to buy all of Colt's assets and assume secured liabilities and those related to employees, customers, vendors and trade creditors, Colt said. Sales of Colt's modern sports rifles and handguns fell 30 percent last year and its cash dwindled to $11.1 million by May 22, according to regulatory filings.
Nirvana, a Forestport, N.Y.-based water bottling company, and affiliates Millers Wood Development, Nirvana Transport and Nirvana Warehousing, on June 3 filed for chapter 11 protection, TheStreet.com reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Diane Davis on June 4 granted joint administration of the cases as well as interim use of cash collateral. A final hearing is set for June 15. According to a first-day affidavit from president and co-founder Mozafar Rafizadeh, the company hopes to sell its assets through a competitive bidding process, but it has yet to file a bidding procedures motion.
NextEra Energy Inc. has emerged as the frontrunner in an auction for bankrupt Energy Future Holdings Corp.’s Oncor Electric Delivery Co., Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Energy Future could name NextEra the stalking-horse bidder for its 80 percent stake in Oncor, which is the biggest owner and operator of power lines in Texas, in the next few weeks. Oncor is worth more than $10 billion, its chief executive said in April. Oncor is the crown jewel of Dallas-based Energy Future, which filed for chapter 11 protection last April after taking on too much debt in a $48 billion leveraged buyout, the largest on record. Oncor is considered a prize because Texas is adding electricity customers and state regulators support power line investments. A squabble among creditors over the fate of Oncor derailed Energy Future’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy in less than a year. “It’s a great regulated franchise and has good growth,” Kit Konolige, a utility analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, said yesterday. “NextEra has already done some transmission in Texas and they feel like they have some institutional knowledge in the state.”
Visteon Corp. rose the most in a month after the auto-parts supplier said it plans to return as much as $2.75 billion to shareholders during the next year, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Visteon, spun off from Ford Motor Co. in 2000, said that it completed the $3.6 billion sale of its majority stake in Halla Visteon Climate Control Corp. The Van Buren Township, Michigan-based company will buy back $500 million of its shares by the end of this year and intends to make a special distribution to stockholders in 2016, according to a statement Tuesday. The company said it will seek growth from its current businesses as well as through acquisitions. Visteon, which exited bankruptcy in 2010, has also sold its interiors unit and is focusing on vehicle cockpit electronics and connectivity.
Famed U.S. gun maker Colt appears to be headed into a bankruptcy duel in the coming week if its private equity backers and bondholders cannot overcome widely differing views on the best way to heal the company's financial wounds, Reuters reported yesterday. Sales of Colt's modern sports rifles and handguns fell 30 percent last year and the company's cash had dwindled to $11.1 million by May 22, according to regulatory filings. Colt Defense LLC, whose M1911 was the primary sidearm for the U.S. military for most of last century, missed a $10.9 million payment last month to holders of $250 million in its senior bonds. But with Colt forecasting sales growth of 24 percent in 2015 and 2016, the company's private equity owners, Sciens Management, intend to retain ownership, even if bondholders get stuck with big losses. The West Hartford, Connecticut-based company has proposed issuing $450 of new securities for every $1,000 of outstanding bonds — a 55 percent discount. Colt has said that as of June 1, it has the consent of just 5.9 percent of bondholders, represented by the law firm Brown Rudnick. Without near unanimous bondholder consent by Saturday, Colt could opt for bankruptcy, according to regulatory filings.
Boomerang Tube LLC, a maker of pipes and tubes for oil and natural gas companies, filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday, becoming the latest victim of the slide in oil prices, Reuters reported yesterday. The proposed restructuring will convert about $214 million of the company's debt under its term loan into equity, Boomerang Tube said in its filing. The reorganized company will also issue $55 million in new debt, the filing said. St. Louis, Missouri-based Boomerang Tube, which was bought by Access Tubulars LLC in 2008, said that it had total assets of about $299 million and total liabilities of about $461 million, as of March 31.
