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Riverstone Holdings LLC’s Talen Energy Corp. placed a collection of power plants into bankruptcy, planning to hand control of the business to bondholders after a cash crunch caused by surging natural-gas prices last year, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A group of unsecured bondholders have agreed to provide $1.65 billion in equity financing to Talen Energy Supply LLC, the entity in bankruptcy, to take control of its fleet of nuclear-, gas- and coal-fired facilities, one of the largest in the country, court papers say. Bondholders would also convert $1.4 billion in debt to equity, while the company’s $2.9 billion in secured debt would be paid in full. The Riverstone-backed company faced a liquidity crunch stemming from a gas-price rally last year that forced the company to post additional collateral under energy hedging contracts, according to court papers filed on Monday by the company’s financial adviser, Ryan Leland Omohundro. Talen operates 18 generation facilities with a collective capacity of roughly 13,000 megawatts, Mr. Omohundro said. Talen kept out of bankruptcy a cryptocurrency mining operation being constructed located close to the company’s Susquehanna, Pa., nuclear plant. Called Cumulus Growth, the project comprises a digital currency mining center as well as data centers and renewable energy and battery storage projects, the filing shows. Scheduled to begin mining bitcoin in the third quarter, it is one of several partnerships between crypto ventures and nuclear plant operators that aims to address environmental criticisms of bitcoin production by linking them to carbon-free nuclear generation.

When the Buffalo Diocese was flush with clergy in the 1970s and 1980s, it usually took years for a priest to earn an appointment as pastor of his own parish, a key vocational milestone. But that wait time decreased dramatically, in some cases to less than a year, as a growing priest shortage forced bishops to rush newly ordained clergy into pastorates. Bishop Michael W. Fisher soon will be taking a different approach with pastor appointments, the Buffalo News reported. Instead of a pastor for each of the diocese’s 160 parishes, Fisher will name just 36 pastors — one for each of the “families” of parishes designated earlier this year as part of the diocese’s “Road to Renewal” effort. The initiative aims to reinvigorate the spiritual lives of area Catholics while at the same time addressing financial constraints brought on by a clergy sex abuse scandal, the diocese’s chapter 11 bankruptcy, and a downturn in church attendance and religious adherence. Diocese leaders yesterday invited 132 active priests to apply for the 36 open pastor slots.

Armstrong Flooring Inc., a publicly traded manufacturer founded in 1860, has filed for bankruptcy, saying it couldn’t raise prices enough to counter supply-chain disruptions and higher costs for materials and transportation, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Lancaster, Pa.-based company, along with subsidiaries AFI Licensing LLC, Armstrong Flooring Latin America Inc. and Armstrong Flooring Canada Ltd., filed for chapter 11 protection Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. In November, Armstrong warned about whether it could continue as a going concern long-term, and earlier this month said it was seeking a buyer and would likely seek bankruptcy protection. Chief Executive Officer Michel Vermette said in court papers Armstrong last year sought to raise prices by up to 10% for residential products and 15% for commercial products. But profit margins were still narrowed by product and transportation cost increases of $85 million in 2021 alone, he said. Armstrong was cash flow negative last year and expects to continue to be cash flow negative this year, Mr. Vermette said. Remaining liquidity under an asset-based lending credit facility would be exhausted by 2023, he added. Armstrong’s customers include specialty retailers and wholesale flooring distributors that resell its products, including vinyl tiles, to retailers, builders, contractors, installers and others. The company last year posted sales of roughly $650 million.

A Kalamazoo, Mich., cannabis company’s recent chapter 11 filing will test some particularly murky legal waters and could potentially set a legal precedent for other cannabis-related businesses facing insolvency, MiBiz.com reported. Master Equity Group LLC on April 20 filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of Michigan under subchapter V of the federal bankruptcy code, a relatively new but frequently used measure designed to expedite the bankruptcy process for small- to mid-sized companies. In court filings, Master Equity CEO Adam Tucker described Master Equity as a “holding and management company for several related-entity businesses operating in the cannabis industry.” In this role, Master Equity Group buys or leases property to sublease to cannabis businesses along with providing accounting, payroll and other centralized functions. Kalamazoo-based Cannamazoo Recreational Weed Dispensary is one such brand. Represented by Mark Shapiro of Southfield, Mich.-based Steinberg Shapiro & Clark, Master Equity Group faces between $100,001 and $500,000 in total liabilities. The company owes its top 18 creditors a total of $176,255, per the filing. Master Equity Group profits from its involvement — albeit indirectly — in the production, marketing, sale and distribution of marijuana, which is still illegal at the federal level. As part of the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is listed as a Schedule I controlled substance, which is deemed to have no accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse. U.S. Trustees generally do not allow businesses affiliated with cannabis to seek protection under the bankruptcy process, leaving the fate of the Master Equity Group case hanging in the balance.

The largest manufacturer of opioids in the United States once cultivated a reliable stable of hundreds of doctors it could count on to write a steady stream of prescriptions for pain pills, the Washington Post reported. These doctors were among 239 medical professionals ranked by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals as its top prescribers of opioids during the height of the pain pill epidemic, in 2013. That year, more than 14,000 Americans died of prescription opioid overdoses. More than a quarter of those prescribers — 65 — were later convicted of crimes related to their medical practices, had their medical licenses suspended or revoked, or paid state or federal fines after being accused of wrongdoing, according to a Washington Post analysis of previously confidential Mallinckrodt documents and emails, along with criminal and civil background checks of the doctors. Between April and September of that year, Mallinckrodt’s sales representatives contacted those 239 prescribers more than 7,000 times. The Mallinckrodt documents are part of a cache of 1.4 million records, emails, audio recordings, videotaped depositions and other materials the company turned over as part of its $1.7 billion bankruptcy settlement in 2020.

Fairport Baptist Homes, a non-profit provider of senior housing, services, and care for more than a century, is filing for bankruptcy, RochesterFirst.com reported. Officials from Fairport Baptist Homes said in a statement to News 8 WROC Monday that this plan involves stabilizing the organization’s finances while continuing to operate. “Like many nursing homes around the country, Fairport Baptist Homes has experienced significant pandemic-related financial operational challenges,” organization officials said in part in a Monday statement. According to the statement, the organization will continue to implement “operational efficiencies,” and work with Friendly Senior Living to provide guidance during the bankruptcy process. Officials say the vision for Fairport Baptist Homes, subject to approval by the bankruptcy court and the New York State Department of Health, will become a Friendly Senior Living community affiliate.

KKR & Co. Inc.’s Envision Healthcare went around some of its lenders to borrow from Centerbridge Partners LP and Angelo Gordon & Co., touching off another clash between distressed-debt investors fighting to deploy capital where opportunities are scarce, according to a WSJ Pro Bankruptcy commentary. Envision wasn’t in desperate need of cash and had until October 2023 before it would run into its next major debt hurdle, according to S&P Global Ratings. The physician-staffing business still launched a market competition to restructure roughly $7.5 billion of debt. Soon, it was talking to competing camps of distressed-debt investors, taking advantage of the intense pressure on investors to deploy capital in picked-over debt markets. Envision settled on borrowing $2.6 billion from Centerbridge, Angelo Gordon and HPS Investment Partners LLC, while handing them nearly that much in asset collateral that had previously been pledged to term lenders, people familiar with the matter said. The financing helps the company avoid a potential cash crunch, but has alienated most of its lender base. That group, including Blackstone Credit and SVPGlobal, lost access to Envision’s valuable ambulatory-service unit, AmSurg Corp., and were pushed down in the repayment order. The lenders are now weighing their legal options, saying they were blindsided by a deal that raided their collateral, according to people familiar with the matter. Blackstone and SVP declined to comment. The new loans taken out by Envision free up KKR from needing to invest more into the company, while buying it time to weather the headwinds it has faced since its 2018 buyout. The business took a hit from declining emergency room visits during the COVID-19 pandemic and from legal battles against insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. Now Envision has $600 million less in debt after it retires $1.9 billion of a term loan at a discount. Lenders that agreed to the discounted deal include Pacific Investment Management Co., King Street Capital Management LP and Sculptor Capital Management Inc., said the people familiar with the matter. That left creditors holding the remainder of the original $5.5 billion term loan in a worse place.

Chile's LATAM Airlines received backing by a majority of its unsecured creditors in its chapter 11 bankruptcy exit plan, the airline said on Friday, Reuters reported. LATAM, which filed for bankruptcy in the United States in 2020 after being hit by the coronavirus-related travel downturn, said around 65% of its low-ranking creditors had backed the plan, which it said was "fair and considered all stakeholders." A committee representing junior creditors filed an objection to the restructuring plan in court Monday, calling it "fundamentally flawed" and alleging it would improperly benefit shareholders such as Delta Airlines at their expense. LATAM Airlines, created in 2012 following the merger of Chile's LAN with Brazilian rival TAM and with operating units in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Peru, still has to bring dissenting stakeholders on board. The plan, in which LATAM hopes to raise $5.4 billion, has also received objections from a Chilean bank representing local bondholders and the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog. The airline's lawyers will ask a New York judge to approve its proposal in court May 17.

A Missouri-based trucking company, which contracted with the U.S. Postal Service to haul mail, recently ceased operations and filed chapter 7 bankruptcy, Freight Waves reported. Family-owned Rooney Trucking Inc., headquartered in Polo, Mo., filed its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri. Attorney Ryan Blay told FreightWaves that “fuel and labor expenses were certainly issues that affected Rooney Trucking Inc.” “The bigger issue, though, was the decision by the U.S. Postal Service to take away some routes and cancel certain contracts,” Blay said. “The business couldn’t function profitably with a restricted income stream. This was the biggest factor in deciding to declare bankruptcy for the company.” In its filing, the trucking company states that it will be unable to fulfill its 14-month contract to haul U.S. mail within a 150-mile radius of Kansas City, Missouri, “due to expected loss of staff as a result of bankruptcy filing and prior cuts to service from USPS.”

The Walgreens pharmacy chain has reached a $683 million settlement with the state of Florida in a lawsuit accusing the company of improperly dispensing millions of painkillers that contributed to the opioid crisis, state officials said Thursday, the Associated Press reported. State Attorney General Ashley Moody said the deal was struck after four weeks of government evidence was presented at trial. Walgreens was the 12th and final defendant to settle with Florida, which will bring in more than $3 billion for the state to tackle opioid addiction and overdoses. “We now go into battle armed and ready to fight back hard against this manmade crisis,” Moody said at a news conference in Tampa. “I am glad that we have been able to end this monumental litigation and move past the courtroom.” Walgreens, based in Deerfield, Ill., said in a statement that the company did not admit wrongdoing in the deal, during which $620 million will be paid to the state over 18 years and a one-time sum of $63 million for attorney fees. Walgreens operates more than 9,000 stores in all 50 states, according to the company website. About 820 of those locations are in Florida.