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Borrowing money is more expensive than it has been in a decade. Companies are paying the price. Large companies with top credit ratings issued bonds at a record clip this week despite a rise in Treasury yields that sent borrowing costs to a roughly 15-year high, the Wall Street Journal reported. Nineteen companies on Tuesday sold 47 bond tranches in the U.S. investment-grade market, according to PitchBook, a record since the data provider began tracking deals in 2012. Duke Energy, Southern Co., and Philip Morris International PM -0.29%decrease; red down pointing triangle were among the borrowers. Tuesday’s bond sales totaled almost $38 billion. It was the best sales day since April 2020 when the Federal Reserve had cut rates to near-zero. High-grade firms paid an average of 5.7% to borrow this week, a level many haven’t paid since the global financial crisis. Companies on Wednesday sold 10 more bonds totaling $13.5 billion in the U.S.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating billionaire Ryan Cohen’s ownership — and surprise sale — of Bed Bath & Beyond shares at a time when such so-called meme stocks were all the rage with investors, the Wall Street Journal reported. Cohen took a $120 million stake in Bed Bath & Beyond and pushed for changes to the housewares retailer’s sales strategy, but abruptly sold his 11.8% interest in August 2022, just days after tweeting positively about the company. The five-month investment netted him a profit of nearly $60 million. Cohen’s interest in the company spurred a frenzy of trading that caused its stock to soar 34% in a day before collapsing when he disclosed the sales, prior to which he had gotten three new members appointed to the board. The SEC has requested information from Cohen about his trades and his communications with officers or directors at Bed Bath & Beyond. The regulator has also sought records from some of the company’s current and former board members. Cohen founded online pet retailer Chewy and later developed a deep fan base of individual investors who herd into the stocks he buys. He most notably took control in 2021 of video game retailer GameStop, where he currently serves as executive chairman. A group of Bed Bath & Beyond investors sued Cohen last year in Washington, D.C., federal court, alleging he committed fraud because he was aware of bad news about the company that hadn’t been disclosed when he sold his shares. They claim his statements on Twitter and in SEC filings were part of a pump-and-dump strategy that left small investors nursing big losses.

Party City Holdco Inc. on Wednesday received court approval to exit bankruptcy and emerge with a leaner balance sheet, avoiding the fate of retail peers who stumbled in chapter 11 and ceased operations, Bloomberg News reported. The New Jersey-based retailer is set to hand ownership of the company to lenders and reduce its debt load by some $1 billion, according to court papers. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones on Wednesday said he would approve the company’s restructuring plan. “This plan sets the company up for success going forward,” Ken Ziman, an attorney for the company, said during the hearing. “And most important, your honor, this is a plan that preserves thousands of jobs.” Other major retailers have not been so fortunate. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. liquidated after failing to find a way to keep operating after chapter 11. The story is similar for home goods retailer Christmas Tree Shops LLC, while Jenny Craig Inc. opted to go straight into a liquidation after failing to find a rescuer. As part of the chapter 11 process, the company shuttered more than 60 stores across the country, but was able to keep the vast majority of its more than 700 stores open, according to court papers. “It wasn’t a wholesale exiting of lease locations,” said Ziman.

WeWork launched a renegotiation of its office leases globally, testing its leverage against landlords that stand to lose if the embattled co-working space provider goes out of business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. WeWork’s current lease liabilities are “dramatically out of step with current market conditions,” interim Chief Executive David Tolley said Wednesday. WeWork held calls with landlords to inform them that it would be seeking concessions on its office leases, which account for more than two-thirds of its operating expenses. The company last month raised doubts that it would continue as a going concern, citing its dwindling cash and market headwinds. Once among the world’s most valuable startups at $47 billion, WeWork recently installed several directors with bankruptcy and restructuring experience to its board. Some of its major creditors have held preliminary talks among themselves to explore a bankruptcy filing for WeWork. For years, WeWork succeeded by taking out discount long-term leases from landlords and subletting them at a markup to entrepreneurs and small businesses. That model is now threatening the company’s existence as work-from-home continues to sap interest in flexible office space. WeWork said last month that its ability to negotiate concessions from landlords in the next few months will determine whether the business survives as it faces weaker-than-expected demand and higher member churn. If WeWork is able to renegotiate a sufficient number of its high-cost office leases and bring down its cost of rent, the company may not need to file for bankruptcy and it could avoid restructuring its debts. Since the end of 2019, WeWork has amended or canceled hundreds of its leases, resulting in an estimated reduction of $12.7 billion in fixed lease payments, according to securities filings.

Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Genesis Global Holdco LLC sued its parent, Digital Currency Group, seeking to recover about $620 million in outstanding loans despite ongoing settlement talks, Bloomberg News reported. Genesis sued Barry Silbert’s DCG and DCG International Investments Ltd. on Wednesday in New York bankruptcy court but asserted that the companies will keep discussing a potential deal that could end the dispute. The lawsuits were filed after Genesis unveiled a $1.4 billion debt repayment plan backed by some of its customers but which isn’t supported by other key creditors. “Genesis has agreed to stay the turnover action so that we can move forward with documenting the deal in principle that was reached with Genesis, the UCC, and DCG,” a spokesperson for DCG said in an emailed statement. DCG will begin repaying the loans after a standstill agreement is filed with the bankruptcy court, the spokesperson said. The lawsuits concern loans to DCG that Genesis says matured in May. The outstanding debt includes a $500 million loan to DCG and loan to DCGI comprised of about 4,550 Bitcoin, according to the lawsuits. Genesis is also seeking to recover accrued interest and late fees. The complaint comes after months of court-ordered mediation involving Genesis, its key creditors and DCG. Gemini filed chapter 11 in January, following several other large crypto firms into bankruptcy.

A cybersecurity company founded by former Pentagon brass said in a regulatory filing that it would furlough most of its workers and explore options including bankruptcy reorganization or liquidation, the Wall Street Journal reported. IronNet, co-founded in 2014 by former National Security Agency director and retired Army Gen. Keith Alexander and other former intelligence and defense officials, announced the layoffs and the possibility of bankruptcy in an 8-K filing Tuesday to the Securities and Exchange Commission, also saying it would “substantially curtail” its operations. IronNet, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, said the furlough would last until its financial position improved enough for it to rehire a “portion” of affected employees and restart its operations. It has retained several employees to guard against service interruptions, it said. “In the absence of additional sources of liquidity, the Company’s existing cash and cash equivalents and anticipated cash flows from operations are not sufficient to meet the Company’s operating and liquidity needs,” IronNet said in its filing. The company posted losses in its last two fiscal years, $111 million for the year ended in January, and $242.6 million the previous year.

Sam Bankman-Fried yesterday lost his bid to be freed immediately from a Brooklyn jail so he could prepare better for his criminal trial, less than a month away, over the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Reuters reported. In rejecting Bankman-Fried's request, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan nonetheless said that it would ask the next available three-judge panel to consider it. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Aug. 11 revoked Bankman-Fried's $250 million bail after finding that the former billionaire likely tampered with witnesses at least twice. Bankman-Fried quickly appealed, arguing he would be unable to properly prepare for his scheduled Oct. 3 trial from behind bars. Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried stole billions in FTX customer funds to plug losses at Alameda Research, his hedge fund.

SEPTA may lose the $24 million it spent on structurally flawed Proterra electric battery buses now that the troubled manufacturer has filed for bankruptcy, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The 25 buses were pulled from Philadelphia’s streets in January 2020 after six months when SEPTA found cracks in their frames and other problems. One of the electric battery buses burst into flames late last year in a South Philly depot. The transit agency and Proterra had been negotiating over repairs that would get the EV buses back in service. Those talks have not produced a solution, and they were canceled abruptly after the Aug. 7 bankruptcy filing, SEPTA officials said. “At this point we don’t know what the path forward would be and what SEPTA’s [legal] remedies are, and we can’t say when the buses would come back into service,” said Andrew Busch, an agency spokesperson. The company says it intends to continue operating, seeking more capital or a buyer while holding creditors at bay. Some transit agencies say Proterra has told them buses they ordered will be delivered. SEPTA was an earlier purchaser of the company’s buses, and they were in use on several routes. Busch said there had been “progress” in talks over getting Proterra to fix the sidelined buses.

Four creditors on Thursday filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the owner of the shuttered South City Hospital in south St. Louis, the St. Louis Business Journal reported. The chapter 11 petition, seeking to put SA Hospital Acquisition Group LLC in bankruptcy, says that the four have claims totaling $3.8 million. They are Matthew Haddad of Los Angeles, $2.6 million; Goldberg Healthcare Partners LLC of Beverly Hills, $535,000; Frank Saidara of Los Angeles, $110,000; and Yoel Pesso of Los Angeles, $500,000. The petition was filed in bankruptcy court in Delaware by Chicago attorney Aaron Hammer. It lists a principal place of business for SA Hospital, tied to Lawrence Feigen and Jeff Ahlholm, of Newbury Park, Calif. A California bankruptcy judge last month tossed an attempt by SA Hospital to file for bankruptcy, since the hospital is in receivership. A former nurse at the facility sued SA Hospital in August, seeking class-action status over claims that it violated federal law by failing to timely file notice of the facility's closure that month. The closure impacted 563 employees, according to the hospital's filing with the state. Read more.

The financially troubled healthcare sector will be the focus of the ABI Healthcare Program, September 18-19, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. For more information and to register, click here.

The Mitchell Gold Co. has filed for protection under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code listing assets and liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million, Furniture Today reported. The company, which suddenly shut down Aug. 23 telling its 533 employees the business couldn’t secure needed funding via a sign on the factory gate, said in the bankruptcy petition that funds would be available for distribution to unsecured creditors. The company estimated its number of creditors to be between 200 and 999. The filing said that the abrupt closure was necessary when PNC bank denied funding, and at that time the company ceased accepting customer deposits at all store locations. In its filing, the board of The Mitchell Gold Co. has approved the appointment of Dalton Edgecomb, senior managing director of Riveron, a consulting company, to act as chief restructuring officer.