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A New York hedge fund taking more than 1,700 RadioShack stores out of bankruptcy named former Dell Inc. executive Ron Garriques to oversee the electronics chain’s plan to return to profitability, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Garriques will join the company, being run by Standard General LP, after having worked several years at Dell Inc., where he was in charge of its communications and consumer divisions. He also held posts at Motorola Inc. and Bell Labs. Standard General Managing Partner Soohyung Kim outlined the plan to keep a slimmed-down chain open for business after a bankruptcy court approved its plan to take over the stores. Most locations that survived liquidation will carve out space for Sprint Corp., which has been seeking to grow its retail footprint, to operate its own wireless stores. Other stores will focus on prepaid phones.

Bankrupt Hutcheson Medical Center promised last week to eventually pay Walker County, Ga., millions, but legal experts say that promise is worthless, the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press reported today. With almost 800 creditors waiting for about $80 million from Hutcheson, the bankrupt hospital's governing body issued a promissory note on March 25 pledging $4.6 million to Walker County. Floating in chapter 11 bankruptcy, Hutcheson cannot promise to make a new payment like this one. But Bobby Guy, former co-chair of ABI’s Health Care Committee, said that the note is legal because it's not coming from the hospital; it's coming from the Hospital Authority of Walker, Catoosa and Dade Counties. The hospital authority is Hutcheson's governing body, and technically, it's not in bankruptcy. To pay off the note, the authority would need money from the hospital. Jessica Dawn Gabel, a Georgia State law professor, said that other hospital creditors lined up ahead of Walker County would likely object in court.

A federal bankruptcy judge yesterday said that she would approve an $82 million sale of Atlantic City's Revel Casino Hotel to Florida developer Glenn Straub, Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Court Judge Gloria Burns said that she would sign off on the deal, the third one she has approved. The previous two agreements failed. The offer, from polo club owner and distressed real estate mogul Straub, is a far cry from the $2.4 billion it cost to build the gleaming casino complex. Revel opened in 2012 to much fanfare, but it never turned a profit and went bankrupt twice. Judge Burns delayed the approval in part to see if other interested buyers could finalize deals, but none did. The judge noted that Revel's estate was losing money every day as it waited.

Teen clothing retailer Wet Seal Inc. won court approval yesterday to be acquired by an affiliate of Versa Capital Management LLC in a deal that keeps at least 140 stores open, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi signed off on the sale, calling it an “excellent” outcome in a “challenging retailer environment.” Versa outbid B. Riley Financial Inc. for the Wet Seal business and will be paying $7.5 million in cash, holding on to some top managers and keeping many employees on board. The private-equity firm will also be absorbing many of Wet Seal’s liabilities.

Doral Financial Corp. wants court permission to sell its insurance arm to Anglo-Puerto Rican Insurance Corp. for $10.75 million, subject to higher bids at an auction, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Doral said in a Tuesday bankruptcy court filing that without the sale, its Doral Insurance Agency unit would likely experience a “rapid and substantial decline” in value. A judge has set an April 9 hearing to consider the procedures of an auction, which would be held May 12 if competing bids are made. Doral Financial, whose primary asset was Puerto Rico’s Doral Bank, which failed in February, didn’t place the insurance unit into chapter 11 when it filed for bankruptcy in March. But because about 40 percent of Doral Insurance’s commissions come from business generated by Doral Bank customers, that flow would be gone if Doral Bank is placed in receivership in Puerto Rico.

EveryWare Global Inc., a marketer of cookware and tabletop products, said that it expects to file for a pre-packaged bankruptcy that will give its lenders control of the company after it emerges from bankruptcy within 60-75 days, Reuters reported yesterday. Though the company did not say when it would file for bankruptcy, EveryWare said that secured lenders will own 96 percent of its common stock and that the company will no longer be publicly traded after it emerges from bankruptcy. EveryWare, which has reported losses for six straight quarters, said that its term lenders have agreed to provide up to $40 million in debtor-in-possession financing. EveryWare was formed through the merger of Anchor Hocking LLC and Oneida Ltd. in March 2012 and markets and distributes products such as bakeware, storageware, cookware and other kitchen products in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Asia.

The owners of Atlantic City's former Revel casino hope to sell it "soon," even as they seek an extension through the end of June to wrap up its bankruptcy case, the Associated Press reported yesterday. In a court filing made on Monday, Revel AC said that it is working toward finalizing the $82 million sale to Florida developer Glenn Straub's Polo North Country Club. A bankruptcy court judge is scheduled to consider the sale tomorrow.

Oil producer Samson Resources disclosed in a regulatory filing on yesterday that it might try to reorganize under chapter 11, the New York Times reported today. When a group of investors led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought the oil producer Samson Resources for $7.2 billion more than three years ago, analysts regarded the deal as a triumph. Now, burdened by tumbling oil prices and a heavy debt load, Samson may have to turn to bankruptcy protection. As of yesterday, the price of West Texas intermediate crude oil was $47.69 a barrel, less than half of what it was at the time of the transaction. The price of natural gas also tumbled, further squeezing the company’s profits. Samson’s troubles are readily apparent from its 2014 results. Cash flow from operations fell 29 percent from the year before, to $488 million. And its net debt load grew to $3.9 billion. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/business/dealbook/energy-company-samson-hints-at-bankruptcy.html?_r=0

Looking for more information about the current distress in the oil industry? Read the feature article in the March edition of the ABI Journal, "The New Energy Crisis: Too Much of a Good Thing (Debt, That Is)."  

For more on oil and gas bankruptcies, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI's When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy. Click here to order your copy. 

General Electric would commit to financing a new natural gas plant in Puerto Rico under a debt restructuring plan proposed by creditors of the island's struggling power utility, Reuters reported today. The plan, which also includes creation of more than 3,400 new jobs, comes during ongoing negotiations between the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and its creditors to restructure the utility's $9 billion in debt. An ad hoc group of PREPA creditors, including OppenheimerFunds and Franklin Templeton, on Saturday offered $2 billion to finance a turnaround at PREPA, $1.2 billion of which would fund a new natural gas facility. While it remains to be seen if PREPA will accept the proposal, new financing could stave off a messy default that would reverberate around the U.S. municipal bond market, and allow the utility to modernize its business, a key element in fixing Puerto Rico's ailing economy.