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Vitamin World, a seller of vitamins and nutritional supplements, plans to file for chapter 11 protection, hoping to end costly lease agreements for some of its stores, the company’s chief executive officer said yesterday, Reuters reported. Long Island, New York-based Vitamin World plans to file bankruptcy in order to exit real estate leases that were negotiated by its previous owners, the said CEO Michael Madden. The vitamin seller, which has about 345 stores, plans to file bankruptcy as soon as this month. “This action will empower us to move forward as a stronger organization that can and will continue to service our millions of loyal customers with premium offerings via retail and online channels,” Madden said. Private equity firm Centre Lane Partners acquired Vitamin World from global vitamin maker NBTY Inc last year for about $25 million. NBTY sold the business because it had shifted to investing in its core brands, such as Nature’s Bounty and Sundown Naturals, found in major retailers across the U.S.

Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn yesterday tossed a lawsuit filed by creditors of LyondellBasell Industries AF to claw back more than $5.9 billion the chemical company’s shareholders received from a failed 2007 leveraged buyout, the Wall Street Journal reported. Judge Glenn in a brief, three-page order dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit brought by a trustee on behalf of creditors of LyondellBasell’s bankruptcy. The creditors were seeking to claw back the billions in cash from hundreds of former shareholders — pension and mutual funds, Wall Street banks, hedge funds and retail investors — of Lyondell Chemical Co. The creditors had also sued billionaire deal maker Leonard Blavatnik over the 2007 merger of Lyondell Chemical and Basell AF that created what was then one of the largest chemical companies in the world.

A.M. Castle & Co., a global distributor of specialty metal and supply chain solutions, announced that it has emerged from its voluntary chapter 11 proceedings before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware commenced on June 18, 2017, the ABL Advisor reported on Friday. A.M. Castle in June executed commitment letters with PNC Bank for a $125 million senior-secured, revolving credit facility that would close when the company completed its pre-packaged financial restructuring. That proposal was reiterated in early August in an amended plan detailed in a regulatory filing that includes, among other things, "a new exit financing facility — the New ABL Facility — in an amount up to $125 million to be provided to the reorganized Company by PNC Bank, National Association."

Owners of about 16.5 million Honda and Acura vehicles with potentially defective Takata air bags are eligible for financial aid in getting their cars fixed and up to $500 in compensation under the terms of a new consumer settlement, <em>USA Today</em> reported on Friday. Japanese automaker Honda agreed to a $605 million class-action settlement covering economic losses suffered by the U.S. owners of vehicles fitted with Takata air bags. Victims of the defect will receive compensation from a separate fund. The deal comes after similar agreements between Takata air bag vehicle owners and Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Mazda and Subaru.

Admitting it failed to adjust to changing market conditions, Cherry Growers Inc. (CGI) filed for chapter 11 protection on Aug. 31, MLive.com reported on Friday. Headquartered in Grawn, Mich., CGI is a 78-year-old cooperative in which ownership is shared by 53 Michigan cherry and apple growers. The fruit processor employs about 75 workers who just completed processing this year's cherry harvest and will begin processing apples on Tuesday, Eric MacLeod, president and general manager, said on Friday. CGI has "fought to overcome setbacks due to a failure to recognize in a timely matter (sic) that a change in its core business model was necessary," according to a news release on Friday, Sept. 1. Their problems were "exacerbated by the 2012 crop failure and the necessary exit from processing apples after 2013," the company said. In its chapter 11 petition, the company said it had total assets of $8.1 million and liabilities of $16.8 million, including $9.4 million owed to secured creditors.

Two affiliates of Lehman Brothers, the U.S. investment bank that collapsed in 2008 and fueled an economic crisis, filed for chapter 11 protection on Thursday, a reminder of the complexity of unwinding a global financial institution, Reuters reported on Friday. The two affiliates, Lehman Brothers U.K. Holdings (Delaware) Inc. and Lehman Pass-Through Securities Inc., were put into bankruptcy as part of a deal that will generate $485 million cash for the Lehman estate, according to court documents. The affiliates own residential mortgage-backed securities, real estate and stock in First Data Corp. (FDC.N), which helps process credit card transactions, among other assets, according to papers filed in the U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan. Affiliates of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. of Canada (BAMa.TO) are buying stakes in the Lehman affiliates, which were put into bankruptcy to carry out the deal. Administrators have spent years winding down Lehman’s holdings and have distributed around $147 billion to creditors, according to court records. More than 100 people still work for Lehman and the case remains one of the largest U.S. bankruptcies, even after the distributions to creditors. The estate holds $7 billion of assets, much of it cash, as it works through hundreds of remaining creditor claims and legal disputes.

The lender for the shuttered Melrose Resort on Daufuskie Island, S.C., will acquire the failed property after fending off an unexpected last-minute rival bid at a U.S. Bankruptcy Court sale on Wednesday, the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier reported yesterday. A federal judge said that he will approve the ownership transfer to Odeon Singapore Ltd. Affiliated with a Netherlands-based maker of sausage casings, the firm has sunk more than $27.5 million into Melrose. Odeon was able to use that debt to bid on the 420-acre seaside property and take title to it. It set the minimum sale price at $19 million in June and had hoped to sell it to another buyer, said its attorney, Michael Weaver.

A new filing in the Alaska Dispatch News bankruptcy case is an Aug. 30 request to liquidate Alice Rogoff’s corporate holdings after the purchase agreement moves forward to save the ailing newspaper from the financial brink, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported yesterday. The motion by the U.S. Trustee is to convert the case to a chapter 7 bankruptcy, after the sale is approved, expresses concern that the people and businesses owed money won’t receive any compensation, said Attorney Kathryn Perkins, acting for the U.S. Trustee Office. She makes the case that after the Sept. 11 sale closes, Rogoff “will face no reasonable likelihood of rehabilitation,” or legalese for restoring payments to those owed money. Under a deal struck between Rogoff and the Binkley Co., Rogoff is selling assets related to operating the ADN for $1 million. Bankruptcy Judge Gary Spraker is expected to approve the asset purchase agreement in a hearing set for Sept. 11.

A judge has put the company that promoted Fyre Festival in bankruptcy following pressure from disgruntled lenders who hope federal court will in time reveal what happened to money they sunk into the doomed music festival and whether they can get any of it back, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The bankruptcy comes months after Fyre Festival, hyped as a “transformative” cultural event held in the Bahamas with Instagram videos of models riding on boats and jet skis, was abruptly called off. Concertgoers posted photos that went viral on social media showing an unfinished festival ground and bad food. Lawsuits from lenders, ticket holders and vendors followed soon after against those who promoted the event, including William “Billy” McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. Three lenders who loaned $530,000 sought to force Fyre Festival LLC into chapter 7 bankruptcy in July, days after McFarland was arrested and charged with fraud. He was released on bail. On Tuesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in New York ordered the company to prepare documents listing whom it owes money to.