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JCPenney landed in bankruptcy court after foundering during the pandemic, but the reorganized retailer now sports a relatively big liquidity cushion and its sales are growing, Bloomberg News reported. The company has more than $1.2 billion of cash and credit availability, interim Chief Executive Officer Stanley Shashoua said in an interview. And the 119-year-old company, whose financials are no longer public, has improved sales since it left bankruptcy in December. “We are very pleased to be running ahead of plan,” Shashoua said. “With improving sales and cash flow, and a strong liquidity position, we are turning our focus from stabilization to growth and we’re excited about JCPenney’s opportunities.” JCPenney, which entered chapter 11 last May as the pandemic collided with its struggling turnaround plan, was part of a wave of retail bankruptcies tied to the pandemic. More than three dozen clothing sellers have sought to reorganize in 2020 and 2021, including Ann Taylor parent Ascena Retail Group Inc., Francesca’s Holdings Corp. and Neiman Marcus Group Inc. Since then, retailers have enjoyed a sales boom as Covid restrictions ease and consumers spend cash from stimulus checks. Data last month showed retail sales hitting a record high in March. Yet they’ve also had to contend with sluggish supply chains and vendors reluctant to advance shipments after taking losses last year.

Many concert venue owners have been waiting on relief from the government, which in December passed a bill that set aside $16 billion in grants for venues that host live events. Eligible applicants include concert halls and theaters. But more than five months have lapsed since the bill created the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program (SVOG) and venue owners still haven't received any money, Bloomberg News reported. The Small Business Administration took four months to open the portal that allowed eligible businesses to apply. The portal then shut down just four hours after it opened. When the portal reopened in late April, venue owners thought they’d finally reached the promised land. Only now they are being told they have to wait until late May, at the earliest, to get their money. Time is of the essence for many of these clubs. After a year in hibernation, the live music business is expected to come roaring back. Outdoor venues are planning to open back up again in the summer, while indoor arenas aim to open in the fall. Promoters, venue owners and agents all believe the concert business will come back stronger than ever. Most people who bought tickets to shows postponed by the pandemic have held onto those tickets. “There’s a tremendous amount of pent-up demand with fans,” Dan Beckerman, the chief executive officer of the second-largest promoter in the U.S., Anschutz Entertainment Group Inc., told me. “There’s a lot of pent-up supply as well from artists who want and need to get back on the road. It’s going to be an incredible return in the next 18 months.”

A Southern California man was arrested on federal charges on Friday after federal authorities say he fraudulently obtained millions of dollars through coronavirus relief funds to buy luxurious cars, take lavish vacations and cover personal expenses, USA Today reported. Mustafa Qadiri, a 38-year-old resident of Irvine, Calif., located nearly 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles, obtained approximately $5 million in Payment Protection Program funds after claiming to own four businesses in nearby Newport Beach, none of which are currently in business, according to a federal indictment. Qadiri submitted claims for All American Lending, Inc., All American Capital Holdings, Inc., RadMediaLab, Inc., and Ad Blot, Inc. in May and June 2020 with altered bank accounts, fake federal tax return forms and someone else's identity, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office of California. He then, the indictment adds, used the money he received to spend on vacations, personal expenses, and Ferrari, Bentley and Lamborghini sports cars. All cars and $2 million from Qadiri's bank account were seized by federal agents when he surrendered himself to authorities on Friday morning. He is charged with six counts of money laundering, four counts of bank fraud and wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Thousands of venture-capital-backed startups applied for U.S. government-assistance loans when the pandemic hit. Many of them then went on to raise hundreds of millions of dollars each by going public, the Wall Street Journal reported. More than 30 venture-funded tech startups with valuations of more than $150 million announced a deal with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, within about a year of receiving taxpayer-funded forgivable loans designed to help small businesses pay their employees through the pandemic. Another 15 companies, each valued at more than $200 million, had traditional initial public offerings within about a year of taking a loan, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data provided by research firm PitchBook Data Inc. As much as $4 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans went to venture-backed startups, according to PitchBook. The fast track from the PPP to a lucrative public-market debut shows how after a brief time of uncertainty last spring, when startups braced for the economy to collapse, the tech industry quickly emerged as a beneficiary of the pandemic. Low interest rates drove investors into tech, the public markets welcomed tech IPOs and a record number of SPACs sought out companies to take public through mergers. (Subscription required.)

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said it’s seeing a boost in travel demand despite reporting a 33% drop in revenue in the three months through March 31, Bloomberg News reported. The company reiterated that it’s on track to emerge from bankruptcy in June. It’s weighing plans from two sets of suiters to take the company out of chapter 11. As the nation emerges from COVID-19 restrictions, travel demand has come back and more consumers are seeking car rentals. Hertz is in talks with potential bankruptcy plan sponsors and said in a regulatory filing Friday that a group including Centerbridge Partners, Warburg Pincus and Dundon Capital Partners intends to counter a proposal from Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management that the car renter had deemed superior. An auction to determine the highest bidder between the dueling groups is scheduled for May 10, with a hearing to approve the final result set for May 14.

Companies are not massively defaulting on their office leases, and that’s the good thing. But they have put a historic amount of vacant office space on the sublease market, while continuing to pay rent to the landlord, according to a commentary on WolfStreet.com. They decided they no longer need that much space, now that some form of flexible work, or hybrid work-from-home, or even permanent work-from-anywhere is being integrated into office real estate plans, cost cutting efforts, and footprint-reduction strategies. Now, 14 months into the pandemic, office occupancy — workers actually showing up at the office — is still dreadfully low. As of the end of April, office occupancy in the 10 largest metros averaged only 26.5% of where it had been just before the pandemic, according to Kastle Systems today, whose electronic access systems secure thousands of office buildings around the country. In other words, the number of people entering these offices was still down by 73.5% from pre-pandemic levels and has barely made headway in recent months. The epicenters of work-from-home show the biggest drops in office occupancy rates, according to Kastle’s “Back to Work Barometer” at the end of April: in San Francisco, the occupancy rate was at 14.8% of the pre-pandemic level, in New York City at 16.2%, and in San Jose at 18.0%.

The Crabcake Factory at 120th Street in Ocean City will head to auction this month after the business declared bankruptcy back in the fall, having owed thousands to various groups, the Salisbury (Md.) Daily Times reported. Bidders will have until May 19 to place bids on the restaurant's "furniture, fixtures, equipment, royalties and tangible and intangible assets," according to Alex Cooper Auctioneers, organizer of the auction. The opening bid for the restaurant is currently set at $325,000. Interested parties will be able to purchase tangible assets like Crabcake Factory's t-shirts, hats and memorabilia, as well as dining and kitchen equipment, according to the auction company. The restaurant is putting its royalties on the auction block as well, which were valued at about $62,769 in 2019 and $51,580 last year, according to the auction company. Crabcake Factory will also auction off its liquor license, business name, website domain and customer list.

A group of investment firms including Centerbridge Partners is preparing a new offer to buy Hertz Global Holdings Inc. out of bankruptcy, setting up a final showdown over the company in an auction next week, Bloomberg News reported. The group, led by Centerbridge, Warburg Pincus and Dundon Capital Partners, plans to sweeten a previous offer that was surpassed by a plan from Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management. Terms of the new bid couldn’t immediately be learned, but any exit plan would be subject to bankruptcy court and board approval. The Knighthead and Certares plan assigned Hertz an enterprise value of around $6.2 billion and offered shareholders a mix of cash and warrants worth around $2.25 a share, Bloomberg previously reported. Hertz will review final proposals from both groups to determine if they meet its qualifications, and pick a winner in an auction currently scheduled for Monday. The Centerbridge group has until the end of Friday to submit a formal counteroffer, which kicks off the court-supervised auction process.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) has ordered all federal, pandemic-related unemployment programs in the state to end on June 30, citing workforce shortages, The Hill reported. In a memo to South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce Director Daniel Ellzey, McMaster said that businesses “face an unprecedented labor shortage” attributed caused by pandemic-related benefits given on top of state unemployment benefits. McMaster said what was intended to be short-term assistance turned into “dangerous federal entitlement, incentivizing and paying workers to stay at home rather than encouraging them to return to the workplace.” South Carolina is the second state that will end expanded unemployment benefits next month. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) announced Tuesday that the state will stop participating in expanded benefits. The state will instead use funds from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill to give $1,200 to people who had an active unemployment claim as of May 4, accepted a job offer and completed at least four weeks of paid work.

Alexandria, Va.— Total U.S. bankruptcy filings in April 2021 increased 6 percent from the previous year, according to data provided by Epiq. Bankruptcy filings totaled 40,911 in April 2021, up from the April 2020 total of 38,459, when filings sharply declined in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 38,833 consumer bankruptcy filings in April 2021 were a 7 percent increase from the April 2020 consumer total of 36,156. Total commercial filings decreased 10 percent in April 2021, as the 2,078 filings were down from the 2,303 commercial filings registered in April 2020. Total commercial chapter 11 filings experienced the largest decline, as the 287 filings dropped 49 percent in April 2021 from the 567 commercial chapter 11 filings in April 2020.

“Massive stabilization efforts by the government, continued low interest rates and leniency by many lenders have helped lay the foundation for an economic recovery, but growing debt loads and financial uncertainty remain for many families and businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” said ABI Executive Director Amy Quackenboss. “Bankruptcy provides a proven shield to struggling households and small businesses facing overwhelming financial distress.”

April’s total bankruptcy filings represented a 6 percent decrease when compared to the 43,449 total filings recorded the previous month. Total noncommercial filings for April also represented a 6 percent decrease from the March 2021 noncommercial filing total of 41,156. The commercial filing total represented a 9 percent decrease from the March 2021 commercial filing total of 2,293. Commercial chapter 11 filings decreased 26 percent from the 386 filings in March 2021.

The average nationwide per capita bankruptcy filing rate in April was 1.43 (total filings per 1,000 population), a slight increase from the 1.38 filing rate during the first three months of the year. Average total filings per day in April 2021 were 1,860, a 6 percent increase from the 1,748 total daily filings in April 2020. States with the highest per capita filing rates (total filings per 1,000 population) in April 2021 were:

1. Alabama (3.33)

2. Nevada (2.99)

3. Delaware (2.64)

4. Tennessee (2.61)

5. Kentucky (2.26) 

ABI has partnered with Epiq in order to provide the most current bankruptcy filing data for analysts, researchers and members of the news media. Epiq is a leading provider of managed technology for the global legal profession. To view the full monthly statistical tables provided by Epiq, be sure to visit ABI’s Newsroom.

For further information about the statistics or additional requests, please contact ABI Public Affairs Manager John Hartgen at 703-894-5935 or jhartgen@abi.org.

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ABI is the largest multi-disciplinary, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy issues. The ABI membership includes nearly 10,000 attorneys, accountants, bankers, judges, professors, lenders, turnaround specialists and other bankruptcy professionals, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information. For additional information on ABI, visit www.abi.org. For additional conference information, visit http://www.abi.org/calendar-of-events.

Epiq, a global technology-enabled services leader to the legal services industry and corporations, takes on large-scale, increasingly complex tasks for corporate counsel, law firms, and business professionals with efficiency, clarity, and confidence. Clients rely on Epiq to streamline the administration of business operations, class action and mass tort, court reporting, eDiscovery, regulatory, compliance, restructuring, and bankruptcy matters. Epiq subject-matter experts and technologies create efficiency through expertise and deliver confidence to high-performing clients around the world. Learn more at https://www.epiqglobal.com.