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Revlon Inc. will emerge from bankruptcy under new ownership and a new board of directors that includes former executives from Bloomin’ Brands Inc., Sephora and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported. The reorganized beauty products company’s new board was selected by Glendon Capital Management LP, King Street Capital Management LP, Angelo Gordon & Co. and Nut Tree Capital Management LP, lenders to the business that are taking control in chapter 11. Revlon’s bankruptcy ended nearly four decades of ownership by billionaire financier Ronald Perelman, who bought the company in 1985. It sought protection from creditors last year as it faced a heavy debt load, inflation and supply-chain pressures. Debra Perelman, his daughter, has been Revlon’s chief executive officer. She will remain CEO as well as a board member as it passes to new owners.

Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Genesis Global Holdco and a key creditor group have agreed to meet with a mediator in an effort to save a proposed bankruptcy exit plan backed by the company’s parent, Digital Currency Group, Bloomberg News reported. Genesis lawyer Sean O’Neal said on Friday that the crypto lender has agreed to a 30-day mediation period including its committee of unsecured creditors, which has opposed the proposed restructuring deal. Genesis is hoping to hold two “substantive” mediation sessions before May 8, O’Neal said. Final terms of the deal will also be made public when mediation is terminated, he said. Genesis and the committee still need to pick a mediator who will oversee the discussions. O’Neal told Judge Sean Lane that they have started reaching out to a list of mediators and will submit an order to the court outlining the process once a mediator is picked. The creditors’ committee is opposed to Genesis’s current restructuring proposal and is seeking better terms, Bloomberg News has reported. Philip Abelson, a lawyer representing the creditors’ committee, said his client’s position hasn’t changed “and we do not want our participation in the mediation to be misconstrued.”

The bankers running the sale process for Subway have given the private-equity firms vying for the sandwich chain a $5 billion acquisition financing plan, hoping to overcome a challenging environment for leveraged buyouts and fetch the company's asking price of more than $10 billion, Reuters reported. Interest rates have been rising and concerns about an economic slowdown have increased since Subway said in February it was exploring a sale, making debt more expensive and less available for buyout firms pursuing deals. So far, bids for Subway have ranged between $8.5 billion and $10 billion, one of the sources said. Subway's financial adviser, JPMorgan Chase & Co., is now hoping a $5 billion debt-financing package it has put forward will show buyout firms they can borrow enough to structure an attractive deal even at a $10 billion-plus valuation. The debt financing is based on a mix of loans and bonds and its size is equivalent to 6.75 times Subway's 12-month earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about $750 million.

To resolve a split of circuits, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Tyler v. Hennepin County to decide whether a real estate tax foreclosure violates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment when a municipality takes title but doesn’t give the owner the difference between the unpaid taxes and the value of the property. Oral argument on April 26 was the last argument of the term that began in October. Given the significance of the case in terms of constitutional law, the Court allowed almost two hours for argument. The Court will hand down a decision before the term ends in late June. The decision in Tyler may (or may not) resolve a long-standing circuit split on the question of whether a tax foreclosure can be attacked in bankruptcy as a fraudulent transfer.​​​​

Distressed U.S. companies are increasingly resorting to debt restructurings to avoid expensive bankruptcy proceedings, but many borrowers ultimately end up in court anyway — with their deals amounting to little more than “can-kicking” exercises, the Financial Times reported. Almost three-quarters of U.S. corporate debt defaults last year were out-of-court “distressed exchanges,” where a company offers creditors assets worth less than their original bonds or loans, according to a report by Moody’s this month. That is up from roughly half in 2020, the rating agency said. Moody’s predicts that far-reaching private-equity ownership of companies with very weak ratings will further fuel the growth of distressed exchanges because this type of restructuring can protect such backers’ investments. However, many businesses default again following such restructurings. The “re-default” rate monitored by Moody’s currently stands at 47 percent. Some companies are “just kicking the can” with distressed exchanges and merely delaying an inevitable bankruptcy, said Sinjin Bowron, head of high-yield and leveraged loans at Beach Point Capital Management.

U.S. officials are coordinating urgent talks to rescue First Republic Bank as private-sector efforts led by the bank's advisers have yet to reach a deal, Reuters reported. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are among the government bodies that have in recent days started to orchestrate meetings with financial companies about putting together a lifeline for the troubled lender. The government's involvement is helping bring more parties, including banks and private-equity firms, to the negotiating table. It is unclear whether the U.S. government is considering participating in a private-sector rescue of First Republic. The government's engagement, however, has emboldened First Republic executives as they scramble to put together a deal that would avoid a takeover by U.S. regulators, one of the sources said. First Republic became the epicenter of the U.S. regional banking crisis in March after the wealthy clients it courted to fuel its breakneck growth started withdrawing deposits and left the bank reeling.

A defunct talc supplier owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has filed for bankruptcy, adding to the pileup of cosmetic talc businesses entering chapter 11 to weather mass lawsuits alleging that once-popular consumer products exposed their users to asbestos, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Former talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. and several of its affiliates filed for protection in New Jersey Wednesday, citing liabilities to more than 1,000 personal-injury plaintiffs who allege that asbestos made its way into talc-containing cosmetic products such as Old Spice powder and Mary Kay cosmetics decades ago. Whittaker Clark filed chapter 11 despite the recent appointment of a receiver over its affairs after it was hit by a $29 million verdict in South Carolina in March and found by the trial judge to be in danger of insolvency. Whittaker Clark’s chief restructuring officer, Mohsin Meghji, said in court filings that the company “disputes the validity and enforceability of the receivership order.” His court filing said that Whittaker Clark filed chapter 11 because it lacks any alternative mechanism to efficiently and equitably address its asbestos liabilities. Berkshire Hathaway indirectly owns Whittaker Clark’s parent company, Soco West Inc., which also filed for chapter 11, court papers show. Berkshire Hathaway said Thursday that Whittaker Clark had ceased operations in 2004 and had sold off its operating assets, though it continued to defend against the tort and environmental claims it faced.

David’s Bridal LLC’s chief executive officer is betting the retailer’s reputation with brides will help it find a rescuer in bankruptcy, even in an era of backyard weddings and scaled-down events, Bloomberg News reported. David’s CEO Jim Marcum said in an interview that the company held discussions with private-equity firms and potential strategic buyers since the retailer filed chapter 11 and that he’s optimistic they’ll complete a sale to keep many of its nearly 300 locations open. Company advisers are fielding potential bids through the end of May, he said. “We have quite a few NDAs signed; we’ve got people doing a lot of work,” Marcum said. “It’s pretty active.” Facing a severe cash crunch, David’s was forced to file bankruptcy this month without a deal to sell the business in hand. The filing marks David’s second trip to bankruptcy court after it emerged in January 2019 from an earlier chapter 11 with a plan that slashed about $450 million in debt from its balance sheet. Marcum joined David’s in 2019 from Apollo Global Management and later oversaw an out-of-court restructuring that swapped another $276 million of term loan debt for equity in the business and injected $55 million in capital. Soon after, COVID-19 forced David’s to temporarily shut its stores and set off a major upheaval in the wedding industry, which still hasn’t fully recovered.