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The Metropolitan College of New York needs to save itself financially. But first it needs bondholders’ help, Bloomberg News reported. The college, located in New York City’s Financial District with about 1,500 students, wants to pause debt payments for about five years as it works to sell two floors of the office building that houses its main campus, according to a regulatory filing this month. Such a sale would leave it with about one and a half floors. The campus is close to the World Trade Center and is “underutilized” after enrollment dropped, the college told bondholders earlier this month. Metropolitan College tends to focus on older students and was hit hard by the pandemic, it said. It has less than half the number of students it had in 2014. Across the U.S., institutions of higher learning have been cutting back or shutting down altogether after enrollment dropped over the last three years. More pressure is coming as a dropoff in births after the financial crisis is expected to translate to a decline in graduating high school seniors starting in the 2025-2026 academic year. A third of US universities face an “unsustainable financial future,” Bain & Co. consultants said in a 2022 report. Metropolitan College says it faces extra pressure because more than 70% of its students are women balancing work and family, and more than 80% are economically disadvantaged. Its students were more likely to face challenges like job loss and the death of a loved one during the pandemic, the college said in its filing.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. told a court it wants a faster breakup from its bankrupt sports broadcasting unit after the company was accused of draining more than $1.5 billion from the subsidiary, Bloomberg News reported. Sinclair on Monday provided a defense against allegations it wrongly extracted substantial sums from its Diamond Sports Group subsidiary before the unit filed bankruptcy earlier this year. Sinclair said it agreed to waive millions of dollars in management fees and provided other financial assistance in hopes restructuring Diamond’s balance sheet. But instead of continuing to work with its parent company on a plan to get the business out of bankruptcy, Sinclair told a Texas bankruptcy judge that Diamond and some of its creditors “pivoted to an all-out ‘shoot-first’ litigation war on Sinclair.” Diamond accused Sinclair of charging excessive fees under a management services agreement that costs more than $100 million a year. In response, Sinclair said Diamond should terminate the deal if it believes it’s too expensive, but claimed the subsidiary is dragging its feet because it wants benefits it gets under the deal while paying its parent company a significantly lower rate in bankruptcy. On Monday, Sinclair demanded Diamond make a choice: either accept the management agreement and drop some of the allegations in its complaint or end the deal with its parent company. Scuttling the agreement would mean Sinclair would no longer be forced to subsidize Diamond’s business or litigation against the parent company, Sinclair said.

Fitch on Monday downgraded Hawaiian Electric Industries's credit rating to junk status, becoming the third ratings agency to flag risks associated with the utility's potential exposure to Maui wildfire-related liabilities, Reuters reported. It cut the utility's long-term issuer default rating to "B" from "BBB+" and put the stock on "Rating Watch Negative." "The rating action reflects potential exposure to large third-party wildfire-related liabilities if utility equipment is determined to have ignited recent wildfires in Maui," Fitch said. The agency said potential liabilities could be above $3.8 billion, which represents an 'existential threat' to the company. Its shares were down 4.5% in afternoon trading. Last week, Moody's and S&P Global downgraded the company to junk status. Hawaiian had said it was not looking to restructure but was seeking expert advice amid investor worries over its role in the Maui wildfires that have claimed at least 114 lives.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. approved $36 million in special financial assistance to prevent a struggling multiemployer pension plan from going insolvent, Pensions & Investments reported. The Retirement Plan of the Retirement Fund of Local 305 will receive the funds under the Special Financial Assistance Program, the PBGC announced Aug. 18. The Mineola, N.Y.-based plan covers 918 participants in the service industry and was projected to go insolvent in 2024, according to a PBGC news release. Without the SFA Program, the Local 305 fund would have been required to reduce participants' benefits to the PBGC guarantee levels upon plan insolvency, which is roughly 15% below the benefits payable under the terms of the plan, PBGC added. The $36 million in aid will enable the plan to continue to pay retirement benefits without reduction for many years into the future. The plan had a funding ratio of 24% with $29 million in projected benefit obligations as of Jan. 1, 2021, according to the plan's most recent Form 5500 filing. As of Dec. 31, 2021, the plan had $6 million in assets, the filing showed. As of Aug. 18, the PBGC has approved more than $52.4 billion in SFA funds to plans that cover more than 757,000 workers, retirees and beneficiaries. Created by the American Rescue Plan Act that Democrats passed in March 2021, the SFA Program is designed to shore up struggling multiemployer pension plans through 2051.

Old Dominion Freight Line stepped up competition for bankrupt trucker Yellow’s sprawling North American real-estate holdings, outbidding a rival operator with a $1.5 billion offer for the properties, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The bid surpasses a $1.3 billion proposal by Estes Express Lines and signals a potentially spirited bankruptcy court-supervised auction for the network of 169 truck terminals that would provide Yellow with more than enough money to roughly cover the loans the company accumulated before its chapter 11 filing this month. Yellow was in business for 99 years before the company collapsed this summer. Its terminals include sought-after sites close to major metropolitan areas that are ideal for trucking and logistics companies looking to store and deliver goods quickly to homes. A lawyer for Yellow said earlier this month in bankruptcy court that the company had received formal expressions of interest in Yellow’s assets from almost 100 parties. Executives at several rival trucking companies have said they would be interested in buying some of Yellow’s locations. ODFL’s bid was disclosed in a court filing, setting up the Thomasville, N.C.-based operator as the stalking horse bidder, meaning its offer is subject to higher or better proposals at a court-supervised auction, for Yellow’s properties.

Survivors who say they endured sexual abuse during their involvement with the Boy Scouts of America are one step closer to receiving compensation, CBSNews.com reported. According to a statement from the trustee of the Scouting Settlement Trust, Hon. Barbara J. Houser (ret.), the processing portal for all general claimants opened on Aug. 17 which is estimated to include 75,000 people or their legal counsel. The trust first opened the portal on Aug. 4 only to those survivors who elected to have expedited claims. The trust's team says 7,000 people are included in that group. Last fall, the U.S. District Court of Delaware approved a $2.46 billion bankruptcy reorganization plan for the BSA approximately two years after it filed for bankruptcy protection. The protection allows the organization to continue to operate while compensating thousands of people who submit claims against the trust.

A senior-living company filed for bankruptcy this week after it exhausted an emergency loan, the latest to falter because of COVID-19, Bloomberg News reported. Nashville Senior Care LLC’s plight illustrates the pressures bearing down on the senior-living sector. Higher staff and supply costs on top of tepid demand for such facilities have caused defaults to outpace the rest of the municipal bond market this year. About 8% of the $43 billion in outstanding senior-living bonds is in default, compared with less than 1% of the total municipal bond market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At Nashville Senior Care, the pandemic shutdown lowered the number of residents “precipitously,” while expenses rose “dramatically,” leaving the facilities without the means to make needed investments, executive director Thomas Johnson said in a court filing. Read more.

The financially troubled healthcare sector, including a spotlight on struggling senior care centers, will be the focus of the ABI Healthcare Program, September 18-19, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. For more information and to register, click here.

London-based digital-first healthcare platform Babylon Health has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy for two subsidiaries — Babylon Healthcare and Babylon Inc. — as it shuts down core U.S. operations, according to documents filed on Aug. 9 in a Delaware bankruptcy court, Becker's Hospital Review reported. The filing comes shortly after a planned combination Babylon's core operating subsidiaries with MindMaze, digital neurotherapy company, collapsed. Both Babylon subsidiaries list hundreds of creditors with liabilities between $100 million and $500 million, according to the filing signed by COO Paul-Henri Ferrand. After administrative expenses are paid, only secured creditors — where the debt is backed by collateral — will be able to get paid. Earlier this month, Babylon closed its Austin, Texas, headquarters, laid off 94 employees and abruptly canceled patient appointments.

China Evergrande, which is the world's most heavily indebted property developer and became the poster child for China's property crisis, yesterday filed for chapter 15 protection from creditors in a U.S. bankruptcy court, Reuters reported. An affiliate, Tianji Holdings, also sought chapter 15 protection yesterday in Manhattan bankruptcy court. Evergrande's filing comes amid growing fears that problems in China's property sector could spread to other parts of the country's economy as growth slows. Since the sector's debt crisis unfolded in mid-2021, companies accounting for 40% of Chinese home sales have defaulted. The health of Country Garden (2007.HK), China's largest privately run developer, is also worrying investors after the company missed some interest payments this month. Evergrande recently had $330 billion of liabilities. A late 2021 default triggered a string of defaults at other builders, resulting in thousands of unfinished homes across China. In a filing in the Manhattan bankruptcy court, Evergrande said it was seeking recognition of restructuring talks under way in Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. Evergrande has said creditors may be able to vote this month on a restructuring, with possible approval by Hong Kong and British Virgin Islands courts in the first week of September. The company proposed scheduling a chapter 15 recognition hearing for Sept. 20.