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Appvion Inc., which operates a paper and pulp mill in Blair County, Pa., has been approved by a U.S. bankruptcy court to sell all its assets by the end of May, WJACTV.com reported. The company said that the group buying the assets, Franklin Advisers Inc., submitted a stalking-horse bid in February for $340 million plus the assumption of substantial liabilities, including Appvion's contractual obligations. The transaction will reduce Appvion's debt to from $585 million to less than $175 million. Appvion filed for chapter 11 protection in October and said it would be cutting 200 jobs at its Appleton, Wis., location and bring some of the work to Roaring Spring, Pa. The sale does not include the assumption of the employee stock ownership plan or its pension plan, and the ESOP will be terminated following the completion of the sale.

The owner of a controversial Oregon dairy wants to sell the facility and cattle rather than immediately liquidate the herd as sought by a major creditor, the Sacramento Bee reported. Greg te Velde, owner of Lost Valley Farm in Boardman, has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission hire a real estate broker to sell the dairy and nearly 7,300 acres for $95 million. Roughly 8,750 milk and dry cows and 3,380 heifers would be listed for $14 million under the proposed agreement with Schuil & Associates, a brokerage firm specializing in agriculture. A potential investor may already be interested in the dairy. During a recent court hearing, an attorney for Washington Agri Investments, a limited liability company based in Spokane, Washington, said the firm is looking at buying the property. However, Rabobank — which loaned more than $60 million to te Velde — still wants to hold an auction as soon as possible to sell off Lost Valley Farm's cattle, arguing the herd is losing its worth.

Enduro Resource Partners LP, a private equity-backed oil and gas producer, has filed for bankruptcy protection as part of an agreement with lenders to sell its properties and liquidate the business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Enduro and its affiliates filed for chapter 11 protection Tuesday in Wilmington, Del., after reaching agreement with senior and junior lenders owed about $350 million. The company was founded in 2010 by energy investment firm Riverstone Holdings LLC. A publicly traded trust that holds an interest in certain Enduro properties isn’t part of the bankruptcy, the company said. Enduro, based in Fort Worth, Texas, said that it began a sale process for its assets in January and comes to court with deals to sell portions of those assets for $77.5 million, subject to higher or better bids. Any sale has to be approved by a bankruptcy judge. Enduro is seeking to establish a deadline of about seven weeks for receiving new bids, court papers say.

A federal judge said that bankrupt FirstEnergy Solutions should not have to pay $58 million a year to a pact overseeing coal-fired electric generation plants — a pact that includes Dayton Power & Light (DP&L), the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News reported. DP&L, with other Ohio power companies, make up the Ohio Valley Electric Corp. (OVEC), which operates the older, coal-fired power plants on the Ohio River. OVEC members are arguing that the bankrupt company cannot withdraw from contributing to the operation of the aging plants, leaving DP&L, American Electric Power of Ohio and Duke Energy — and their customers — to take on the plants’ costs themselves. OVEC filed a complaint to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in March — a few days before FirstEnergy Solutions declared bankruptcy — to prevent FirstEnergy Solutions from withdrawing from financial obligations for the joint operation of the plants.

The second-biggest Applebee’s franchisee yesterday squared off briefly in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., with the chain that has sought to end their partnership, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Atlanta-based RMH Franchise Holdings Inc., owner of 159 Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar restaurants in 15 states, sought chapter 11 protection May 8. RMH in its filing had said that its parent had unexpectedly sought to terminate the franchisee’s rights, but on Tuesday its parent presented a different version of events, saying the franchisee had been in default on its royalties since June. The franchisee, whose restaurants represent slightly less than 10 percent of all Applebee’s locations, said that it had been negotiating with its parent, Applebee’s International Inc., since last year, but that a day before the bankruptcy filing, the tenor of the talks changed, with Applebee’s International “unexpectedly” saying it planned to “issue a notice of termination” of the franchisee’s rights to 37 locations in Arizona and Texas. In response to the parent’s “unexpected threat and to further address various operational challenges,” RMH sought protection from creditors by filing for chapter 11.

iHeartMedia Inc. Chief Executive Robert Pittman collected more than $14 million in the 12 months leading up to the bankruptcy of the company he leads, his best year since taking the helm of the nation’s largest radio broadcaster, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In bonus pay alone, Pittman collected more in 2017 than he had received in total compensation as iHeart’s CEO since 2011, according to new bankruptcy court papers and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The year of big rewards for iHeart’s leader was a tumultuous time for the company. It was grappling with mounting competition from new digital rivals and getting pressure from creditors owed $20 billion. In 2017, iHeart had to pay $1.4 billion in cash interest on its debt, putting a significant strain on revenue of $3.6 billion. In 2017, Pittman collected more than $9 million in bonuses, in addition to base pay of $1.25 million. The figure represents a major uptick for a top executive who had made less than $5 million total in the two previous years.

Thomas DeRosa is making a $4 billion bet that he can build a national, low-cost healthcare network for America’s aging population that will succeed where so many other models have struggled, Reuters reported. His secret: strip out the “for-profit” business model, and leverage the real estate in nursing homes for outpatient care. DeRosa’s strategy starts with buying out the property of the huge bankrupt nursing home chain HCR ManorCare, and teaming up with a non-profit hospital operator, ProMedica, to create a 30-state healthcare system. His own company, real estate investment trust Welltower Inc., is purchasing the ManorCare real estate for $2.7 billion under a deal unveiled April 24 and awaiting approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court. ProMedica is buying ManorCare’s operations for $1.3 billion and combining them with its own surgery centers, clinics and health plan to form a network with $7 billion of annual revenues and 70,000 employees. “This is about a health system moving into a beleaguered sector of healthcare,” DeRosa said. “We’re breaking down the wall of what has traditionally been acute care services and services for the aging.” The aim is to strip out $300 million in costs from the operation, mainly from cheaper rent, once HCR ManorCare emerges from its chapter 11 bankruptcy this year, according to interviews with Welltower and ProMedica executives.

Remington Outdoor, one of the country’s oldest and largest gun makers, is getting ready to emerge from bankruptcy. The question is whether somebody — anybody — will buy the company, especially at such a politically and emotionally polarized time for the gun industry, according to a New York Times commentary. The usual suspects of potential buyers are circling, including rival gun manufacturers like Sturm, Ruger & Company and some small financiers willing to accept whatever criticism would come from buying Remington. What if the big banks that have provided financing to Remington during its bankruptcy were to back — and partner with — one or more of the big private equity firms in an effort to transform the company into the most advanced and responsible gun manufacturer in the country, the commentary asks.

A bankruptcy judge has given Tops Friendly Markets permission to close underperforming stores, but the troubled supermarket chain still isn't saying which stores might go dark, Syracuse.com reported. Judge Robert Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the request of Tops to close unprofitable stores and to hold store closing sales before shutting them down. The Williamsville, N.Y.-based supermarket chain has not said which stores could close. In a court filing in April, Tops said the vast majority of its 169 stores in Upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania and Vermont are profitable, with strong sales and sustainable cost structures. However, it said that a few have "consistently underperformed" and asked the court for approval to close them as it sees fit.