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With its revenues slashed in half by mandatory store closings in 2020, Solstice Sunglasses sought bankruptcy protection. It now has been able to emerge from chapter 11 with fewer shops and smaller rents, ChainStoreAge.com reported. RCS Real Estate Advisors reports that it was able to help Solstice pare its real estate portfolio and reduce rents by 2/3 in the stores the chain kept. “We believe in Solstice’s future because we now have turnaround plan to remain one of America’s leading purveyors of sunglasses,” said Solstice CEO Mikey Rosenberg. “There’s room in the market for a retailer that makes it convenient and more affordable to buy luxury eyewear." Solstice stocks top designer brands such as Dior, Gucci, Jimmy Choo and Givenchy, ranging in price $135 Carrera aviators to $875 Dita navigators. It currently operates 40-plus stores, primarily on the East Coast and in California and Texas and runs an online business.

Lawyers for the Boy Scouts of America are scrambling to mitigate potential damage they say was caused by an “inflammatory” email sent to thousands of men who say they were sexually abused by troop leaders ahead of a key deadline in the youth organization’s bankruptcy, Reuters reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein in Delaware said during a virtual hearing on Friday that she thinks the email distributed by lawyers for the official committee representing survivors in the bankruptcy may constitute "a breach of professional ethics." The email, authored by plaintiffs’ lawyer Tim Kosnoff, urged survivors to vote against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) reorganization plan, which rests on a proposed settlement of more than 80,000 sex abuse claims. It also included what BSA described as attacks on other lawyers in the case and inaccurate statements about the plan. BSA's lawyers said the email could have “disastrous effects” by confusing survivors and tainting their votes on the plan, which are due Dec. 14. The organization needs the votes to settle the claims and exit bankruptcy.

Business-travel firm CWT won court approval to leave bankruptcy less than 24 hours after filing for chapter 11 protection, putting the company on track to complete a prearranged restructuring that cuts nearly $900 million in debt, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Hammered by the pandemic slowdown in corporate travel, CWT said it wanted to enter, and exit, bankruptcy within 24 hours to maintain its usual course of business while restructuring its balance sheet and ceding control to creditors. CWT entered chapter 11 on Thursday with support for the negotiated restructuring from most of its financial backers, including 100% of its bank lenders and over 90% of its secured creditors. Justice Department bankruptcy overseers tried to resist rapid confirmation of the plan, saying the breakneck speed circumvents the notice and due process that bankrupt companies must give affected stakeholders. But Judge Marvin Isgur of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston largely overruled those concerns at a hearing Friday, citing the importance of keeping the business on a stable footing. “Our failure to act promptly would jeopardize a number of jobs, but also decimate the value of the business in a way that would be injurious to the creditors and parties providing support,” he said. However, Judge Isgur also said he would sign off on a supplemental judgment that would give parties who felt their due process rights were overrun the opportunity to object to the plan and seek remedies.

Airline Grupo Aeromexico SAB received a proposal to emerge from bankruptcy by having lead lender Apollo Global Management Inc. convert some debt into equity. A previous exit package didn’t include the U.S. firm getting a stake, Bloomberg News reported. The carrier, which filed for chapter 11 in 2020 after the pandemic decreased travel, said that a group of new and existing creditors and investors will repay the rest of the loan held by Apollo, which led the carrier’s debtor-in-possession financing. Amounts were not disclosed. Apollo orchestrated a $1 billion rescue plan of the struggling airline last year. The second tranche of the loan, worth $800 million, gave the creditors the option to receive shares in the restructured company. Aeromexico’s largest shareholder, Delta Air Lines Inc., supports the plan and has already said it will acquire $185 million of that tranche. Foreign ownership requirements will be complied through a group of long-term Mexican investors, Aeromexico said. The company’s board has approved the plan, and a revised version will be filed before a federal bankruptcy court in New York. The hearing to confirm the plan will be set by the court at a later date. The new plan will replace one filed on Oct. 1 that included $1.2 billion in equity and as much as $537.5 million in new debt. However, that deal didn’t include Apollo converting any debt into equity. That plan estimated Aeromexico to be worth $5.4 billion.

SL Green Realty Corp., the property manager of a bankrupt Manhattan skyscraper backed by Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, said the building owner’s chapter 11 filing should be thrown out because it was filed in bad faith to keep it from losing control of the property, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. SL Green, which is also a preferred equity investor in the HNA-backed building owner of 245 Park Avenue, said in court papers that the chapter 11 filing of PWM Property Management LLC was meant to thwart a forced sale. New York-based PWM sought protection from creditors last month in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., blaming SL Green for alleged substandard property management. SL Green has denied mismanaging the property and said the bankrupt “shell companies” that went into chapter 11 have no employees and aren’t insolvent, with assets exceeding liabilities by roughly $300 million. PWM has said it would use the bankruptcy proceedings to end its agreement with SL Green and hire a new property manager. On Friday, PWM lawyer Thomas Lauria said that the allegations in SL Green’s motion to dismiss the chapter 11 cases are without merit. SL Green, which has invested roughly $150 million in the building, said one reason that 245 Park was placed in bankruptcy is to prevent SL Green from exercising its rights to force a sale of 245 Park. SL Green said that its consent was required, but not sought, for 245 Park to file for bankruptcy.

The shuttered Limetree Bay refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands received a $20 million stalking horse bid from a company looking to restart the facility, according to a Sunday court filing in a Texas bankruptcy court, Reuters reported. The refinery, which had been shut for nearly a decade, reopened earlier this year under the ownership of private equity firms EIG and ArcLight Capital after investors poured $4.1 billion into reviving it. The investors wanted to restart the facility to produce 210,000 barrels a day of gasoline and other fuels. Its planned restart was delayed for more than a year, and it operated for only a few months before U.S. regulators shut it down after its stacks spewed oil on homes and contaminated drinking water. St. Croix Energy LLLC has been named the stalking horse bidder for the facility and is currently the only qualified bidder, according to the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division. The auction is set for Monday but Limetree’s general counsel proposed on Sunday it be extended to later in the week. 

A bankruptcy trustee overseeing the estate of Tom Girardi's defunct law firm has dropped her opposition to allowing a lawsuit against Girardi's estranged wife, "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Erika Jayne Girardi, ahead of a key Tuesday hearing, Reuters reported. Chapter 7 trustee Elissa Miller said in a Thursday filing she has no objection to Chicago law firm Edelson pursuing its own claims that Erika Girardi used misappropriated settlement funds obtained by her husband's law firm to fund a "glitz-and-glam" lifestyle. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barry Russell has scheduled a Tuesday hearing on whether to allow Edelson's lawsuit to proceed in Chicago federal court. The move is a notable reversal for Miller, who last month argued that allowing Edelson's lawsuit to proceed against Erika Girardi would disrupt her administration of the Girardi Keese estate. Edelson PC's lawsuit against both Girardis, which said they used settlement funds meant for the families of victims of the 2018 Lion Air crash for themselves, triggered a flood of claims by Girardi's former partners and others that forced Girardi and his firm into bankruptcy. Edelson's claims against Tom Girardi and Girardi Keese have been stayed due to the bankruptcy proceedings. "The further this moves away from a reality TV atmosphere into courts of law, the closer we will be to uncovering the truth," Edelson partner J. Eli Wade-Scott said in a statement. "We’re gratified that we’re on that path and we’ll be getting into real discovery." Miller is also substituting the special litigation counsel tasked with investigating whether Girardi Keese assets were fraudulently transferred to the reality star. Miller on Thursday said it was in the estate's "best interests" to swap out Ronald Richards, of Ronald Richards & Associates, for Larry Gabriel, a Los Angeles-based partner at Jenkins, Mulligan and Gabriel.

A U.S. judge is expected to announce on Wednesday whether Johnson & Johnson must continue defending against tens of thousands of claims that its baby powder and other talc-containing products caused mesothelioma and ovarian cancer, Reuters reported. The pharmaceutical giant is banking on a ruling that would halt ongoing litigation as part of its legal strategy of shifting its talc liabilities onto a newly-created subsidiary, and placing that entity into bankruptcy. J&J, which has maintained that its talc products are safe, has already spent nearly $1 billion defending itself in talc-related lawsuits. Settlements and verdicts have cost it about $3.5 billion more, although it has prevailed in some of the cases. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Whitley is expected to rule in a hearing of the chapter 11 bankruptcy case of the new J&J entity, LTL Management LLC, in Charlotte, North Carolina. LTL has asked Judge Whitley to extend protection against litigation that is typically given to bankrupt entities to the non-bankrupt parent company. LTL has argued that allowing litigation to continue against J&J will defeat the purpose of the bankruptcy, which would allow the company to consolidate and resolve all of the roughly 38,000 talc-related claims. Some of the plaintiffs suing J&J, however, argue that it should not be able to reap the benefits of bankruptcy protection without filing for bankruptcy itself and that halting litigation will prevent them from having their day in court. One major case that has been pending for five years is on the verge of trial.

Theater chain National CineMedia’s 10-Q SEC filing cited concern about its ability to meet its debt covenants, Bloomberg Law reported. “The Company does not expect to meet its financial covenants within one year following the date that these financial statements are issued," according to the filing. "If these financial covenants are not met a majority of the lenders of the Senior Secured Credit Facility are permitted under the Credit Agreement to accelerate the debt which could also result in a cross-default under NCM LLC’s senior notes. Considering current liquidity sources, the company in its filing said that it would not be able to repay its total outstanding debt balance. "These conditions and events raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern," according to the filing.

Abarta Oil & Gas Co. LLC, a Pittsburgh-based oil and gas drilling company, filed for chapter 11 protection on Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported. The company, also known as Abarta Energy and headquartered at 200 Alpha Drive in Pittsburgh, reported liabilities of $25.4 million and assets of $4.2 million. In court filings, Abarta Oil & Gas said that it wants to sell its remaining oil and gas assets and wind down its business, which stretches back to the late 1970s and included wells in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. It's asking the bankruptcy court’s approval for the sale of its interest in a 1,722-acre natural gas field and gathering pipeline in Bradford County. Its parent company is Abarta Inc., to which it owes $10 million. By far the largest creditor is Dominion Field Services, a pipeline company based in Pittsburgh whose parent company is energy giant Dominion. Abarta Oil & Gas owes $2.8 million as part of a settlement to Dominion made in 2016 when Abarta terminated a gas transmission agreement in Pennsylvania. It also owes $170,000 to another pipeline company, BHE Eastern Gas Transmission, from an agreement that wasn't picked up when Abarta Oil & Gas sold oil and gas assets in West Virginia. In a filing yesterday, Abarata Oil & Gas said that its trouble began in 2015 during an earlier period of natural gas commodity declines, which dragged on the company, as did what it termed in a filing as substantial debt.