%1

Madison’s Karben4 Brewing has filed for bankruptcy, but the filing won’t result in the closure of the business or employee layoffs or loss of pay, the brewery’s attorney said on Wednesday, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. The brewery is still recovering from COVID-related financial losses and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, attorney Jerry Kerkman said. “Part of the difficulty is that the sales mix has changed,” Kerkman said. “The company is changing the mix of the type of products they have to regain profitability, but their margins aren’t there yet.” Karben4 Brewing co-owner Zak Koga said that since COVID hit in 2020 that the brewery has pivoted every few months to adjust its business focus. “As pandemic aid dried up and inflation ramped up, we have been running out of room to pivot," Koga said.

Binance Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said it has recovered $4.4 billion worth of digital assets for its users who mishandled their deposits in the past two years, Bloomberg News reported. Users can mishandle their funds for a variety of reasons including entering wrong wallet addresses, depositing incompatible tokens and problems from blockchain upgrades, according to Thursday’s report. Binance said it resolved 381,616 cases of cryptocurrency that was deposited by users but not credited in 2022 and 2023. The report, which also mentions efforts to deal with hackers and other crimes, comes as the exchange is reshaping itself after pleading guilty last year to US charges of anti-money laundering and sanctions violations. The district judge approving the company’s plea deal, which includes a $4.3 billion fine, noted last week Binance had left participants in the financial system vulnerable to exploitation by bad actors. “To nurture the ecosystem’s growth in its still-early period, industry leaders like Binance should use their reach and resources to lend support to other participants of the emerging marketplace, protecting users and upholding the integrity of the space,” Binance said in the report.

Bankrupt Brazilian airline Gol received U.S. court approval on Wednesday for a $1 billion loan, after resolving the concerns of a group of lenders that feared they would be sidelined by the new loan, Reuters reported. Gol had previously proposed borrowing $950 million in bankruptcy, but it allowed the objecting lenders to kick in an additional $50 million on the new loan and receive interest on that new debt, Gol's attorney Justin Cunningham said at a hearing in Manhattan. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn approved the loan at the hearing in Manhattan, saying he was pleased to see a compromise. "It's nice when more people want to put money in," Judge Glenn said. The previously objecting lenders, a group of investment funds that had loaned money to Gol in 2020, will not receive the same level of fees as the original group of lenders, who could receive up to $47.5 million in additional commitment fees and backstop fees under the loan agreement, according to court documents. Gol instead agreed to pay them $800,000 for attorneys' fees and costs related to the renegotiation of the loan. Gol filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on Jan. 25. The airline had been suffering from long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel and has had difficulty sourcing sufficient Boeing 737 Max aircraft to meet a surge in post-pandemic demand for air travel, according to court documents. Judge Glenn previously approved a portion of the loan, allowing Gol to borrow up to $350 million at a court hearing in January.

Essence Magazine’s parent company is in talks to acquire Vice Media’s women’s lifestyle site Refinery29, the Wall Street Journal reported. The price being discussed couldn’t be learned but Essence would likely pay a fraction of the $400 million Vice paid in cash and stock when it bought Refinery29 in 2019. News of the discussions, which could still fall apart, comes just days after Vice’s largest shareholder, Fortress Investment Group, said it would stop publishing content on the company’s namesake site, Vice.com, and was laying off hundreds of staffers. Vice Media was once valued at $5.7 billion and was among the most promising digital-media ventures, but has struggled to stay afloat. Fortress, which took over Vice in bankruptcy last year, is now focusing on its remaining assets, which include its production studio, TV network and ad agency Virtue.

Cumulus Media is facing backlash from some of its lenders over a debt-exchange proposal that would push existing creditors down the repayment line if they don’t participate, Bloomberg News reported. The proposal, announced on Tuesday, calls for a debt swap at below-par prices. Non-participating creditors would also see collateral moved away from them — a sore spot for some debtholders because the value of the loan would diminish. A group of creditors holding secured debt retained Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and plan to bring in a financial adviser to evaluate the proposal. Bank of America Corp. is working with the company on the debt exchanges. Cumulus joins a long list of U.S. companies with distressed debt undertaking contentious maneuvers to reduce their debt load. Software firm GoTo Group Inc. recently reached a deal with a majority of its creditors that would extend its debt maturities and rework the pecking order for creditor payouts. Apex Tool Group also struck a deal with some of its lenders that would give the firm fresh capital while allowing a handful of creditors to jump ahead in the repayment line. The radio-broadcasting operator is asking creditors to swap its 6.75% first-lien notes into longer-dated, higher-coupon debt. The company is also looking to exchange its term loan for new debt, according to a press release. Its nearly $346 million first-lien bonds traded at 60.75 cents on Monday, according to Trace. Cumulus’ roughly $328
million first-lien loan due in 2026 is quoted at around 72.63 cents on the dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Holders of each tranche of both the notes and the loan are being asked to swap at around 80 cents on the dollar.

Gemini Trust Co., the crypto exchange founded by twin entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, will return at least $1.1 billion to customers though the Genesis Global Capital bankruptcy as part of settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services, Bloomberg News reported. The New York-based firm will also pay a $37 million fine for various compliance failures to the New York Department of Financial Services, Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris said in a statement Wednesday. Gemini is returning the funds to customers who lost money through the Gemini Earn program that the exchange ran together with now-bankrupt lender Genesis Global. Gemini also agreed to contribute $40 million to Genesis’s bankruptcy for the benefit of Earn customers in coordination with the bankruptcy court. “Gemini failed to conduct due diligence on an unregulated third party, later accused of massive fraud, harming Earn customers who were suddenly unable to access their assets after Genesis Global Capital experienced a financial meltdown,” Harris said. “Today’s settlement is a win for Earn customers, who have a right to the assets they entrusted to Gemini.” The Earn program, which was launched in early 2021, let more than 200,000 Gemini users — including almost 30,000 New Yorkers — lend out their coins through Genesis for yield. Genesis stopped withdrawals in late 2022, and filed for bankruptcy in early 2023. Gemini failed to conduct ongoing due diligence into Genesis, or to maintain adequate reserves throughout the running of Earn, the department said.

Thrasio Holdings Inc. has filed for chapter 11 as part of a deal with lenders to provide it with fresh capital and get rid of about $495 million of debt, Bloomberg News reported. The company, a Amazon.com Inc. seller, initiated the process in New Jersey, according to a filing dated Feb. 28. It is seeking to pay employees’ wages, as well as suppliers, while the case is ongoing. “Thrasio is one of the largest third-party sellers on the Amazon marketplace, and with a strengthened balance sheet and new capital, we will be better equipped to support our brands,” Greg Greeley, chief executive officer of Thrasio, said in a statement. During the pandemic, investors pumped billions of dollars — mostly in debt — into startups rolling up popular brands sold on Amazon.com, betting on the online sales boom. But as people returned to their old consumption patterns, Amazon sales slowed, and the companies began to grapple with rising interest rates on their debt. In 2021 Thrasio borrowed $500 million from a syndicate of lenders including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Private Credit Group and BlackRock Inc.