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SAExploration Holdings Inc., a publicly traded oil-field services provider, has made a $20 million offer to buy nearly all the assets of Geokinetics Inc., a seismic-data supplier that filed for bankruptcy earlier this week for the second time since 2013, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Geokinetics, founded in 1980, serves the oil and natural gas industry, collecting and processing seismic data both on land and in water and in 2-D, 3-D and time-lapse 4-D. The Houston-based company lost $53.5 million last year and in a filing earlier this week said it wasn’t able to meet obligations on millions of dollars in debt maturing this month. Geokinetics and various subsidiaries, including ones that aren’t part of the bankruptcy, have about 1,600 employees world-wide, including about 300 in the U.S.

There's been some progress in the bankruptcy of the Diocese of Duluth, now halfway through its third year, but a resolution is not near, MPRNews.com reported. Insurance companies have agreed to kick in $25 million to a fund that would compensate survivors of clergy sexual abuse. But contributions from the diocese and parishes are not yet settled. "We don't have a timeline," said Josh Peck, one of the attorneys representing 125 abuse survivors. "But we are making progress. Our hope is that the archdiocese bankruptcy settlement will be somewhat of a blueprint to get things moving along." Next week, a federal judge will rule on requests to pay $1.1 million to lawyers and other professionals working on the bankruptcy for the Duluth diocese. They've already been granted $2.5 million, court records indicate. Attorneys for abuse victims will get a share of the settlement. The Duluth diocese filed for bankruptcy in December 2015, saying that was the only way it could compensate clergy sex abuse victims and continue the church's mission.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is one step closer to resolving its bankruptcy and paying hundreds of victims of clergy sex abuse, the church said, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The church filed a reorganization plan yesterday in bankruptcy court that signifies an “important step” in paying out a record $210 million settlement announced last month, said Thomas Abood, chairman of the archdiocese’s reorganization task force. The church said that the plan involves “significant” contributions from insurance policies purchased by the archdiocese and parishes, money from medical and “other insurance excess reserves” and “meaningful cash contributions” from the church and its parishes. The archdiocese funded its cash contributions partly through the sale of properties and plans to continue offering $1 million a year for five years.

A federal appeals court yesterday blocked new litigation against the estate of a Florida investor accused of helping Bernard Madoff commit fraud, after the estate had reached a $7.2 billion settlement to benefit Madoff’s customers, Reuters reported. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit is a victory for Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC after its December 2008 implosion. Picard has said that allowing the $11 billion lawsuit by A&G Goldman Partnership and Pamela Goldman against Jeffry Picower’s estate would undermine his authority to obtain settlements, while assuring settling parties they would not be sued again.

Hedge funds anxious to move ahead with lawsuits over losses from Patriot National Inc. pressed the judge overseeing the insurance-service company’s bankruptcy for action yesterday, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Hudson Bay Master Fund Ltd. and CVI Investments Inc. said their suits against Patriot for breach of contract have been stalled too long, first by the company’s January bankruptcy filing, then by a litigation stay that was supposed to boost chances of a mediated deal. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross yesterday set an Aug. 10 deadline for Patriot to come to terms with the hedge funds, as well as with shareholders and insurers in a mediation that could wrap up the legal trouble that has dogged the company for years. Accused of misleading investors under the leadership of former chief executive Steven Mariano, Patriot has been trying to work out an agreement that would end litigation in courts in New York, Delaware and Florida. “This is the final extension,” Judge Gross said at a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.

As Gibson Brands Inc. targets an exit from chapter 11 protection later this year, the iconic guitar maker plans a return to traditional guitars after an ill-fated attempt at computerizing them and possibly a foray into ukuleles, CEO Henry Juszkiewicz told Reuters yesterday. Nashville-based Gibson, the maker of guitars played by the likes of B.B. King and Slash, filed for chapter 11 protection in May with roughly $500 million in debt and a plan to reorganize its musical instrument business under the new ownership of its lenders. Juszkiewicz said that he was examining ways Gibson could expand its appeal beyond its pricey guitar models, which include the Les Paul and SG, to entice younger players and female players. He is also considering capitalizing on an industry-wide boom in sales of ukuleles, the small-bodied Hawaiian instrument. While the company sells some so-called ukes under its lower-priced Epiphone brand, Gibson has not made one under its flagship brand since the 1930s, and Juszkiewicz said Gibson would “absolutely” consider a return to that business.

Orianna Health Systems LLC is “within striking distance” of a broad settlement that could resolve considerable opposition to its chapter 11 restructuring plan, its lawyer said yesterday, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. During a hearing at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas, Orianna attorney Thomas Califano told Judge Harlin DeWayne Hale the nursing-home operator is closing in on a resolution to the contentious case with the help of a mediator. Judge Hale approved the appointment of a mediator, retired bankruptcy judge Bruce Markell, earlier this month, hoping he could help Orianna, its landlord, creditors and the restructuring plan’s sponsor work out their remaining differences. Califano said that he expects to have an update for Judge Hale by Friday. Earlier this month, Orianna held an auction for about half of its nursing facilities. Court papers say that the lead bidder, SC-GA 2018 Partners LLC, came out on top after several rounds of bidding.

Creditors Tuesday persuaded an investment group offering to buy Elements Behavioral Health Inc. to make a key concession in the bidding for the debt-burdened addiction-rehabilitation center, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. An investment vehicle that includes hedge fund BlueMountain Capital and Platinum Health Care founder Ben Klein has set its sights on Elements Behavioral, and will lead the bidding at a planned July bankruptcy auction. The buyout group is also Elements Behavioral’s top-ranking lender, and, as such, was in position to dominate the auction, creditors feared. At a hearing yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., the BlueMountain buyout group agreed to limit the amount of “credit-bidding” it will do to $65 million.

Parker Drilling Co., which provides drilling rigs and tools to oil and gas producers, has reached out to a group of its bondholders to initiate talks to address its heavy debt load and an upcoming bond maturity, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Houston-based company has suffered from years of tepid drilling activity outside the U.S. and in Alaska, where the company earns a majority of its revenues. Parker Drilling is looking for ways to reduce its $578 million debt burden and possibly extend its maturity, the person said. While the company is facing a $225 million bond maturity in 2020, it has a number of options to push out or even pay down its debt partially. Parker Drilling is working with Moelis & Co. and Kirkland & Ellis LLP to find ways to reduce its debt, while a group of bondholders has hired Houlihan Lokey Inc. and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. The drilling services company is challenged by its high debt levels relative to its cash flow and “exposure to the volatile contract drilling industry,” Moody’s Investors Service said in a January report.