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The Alaska Dispatch News has announced it is filing for chapter 11 protection and is in the process of transitioning to new ownership, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The newspaper's potential buyers might pay as much as $1 million for the paper. Those buyers included four siblings — Ryan Binkley, Wade Binkley, James Binkley and Kai Binkley Sims — as well as Alaska Media LLC, publisher of the Arctic Sounder, The Bristol Bay Times and the Dutch Harbor Fisherman. A statement from Dispatch News publisher Alice Rogoff called the decision bittersweet. But she expressed pride in the paper's work under her tenure since buying the former Anchorage Daily News in 2014 for $34 million. She renamed the print publication the Alaska Dispatch News. A number of creditors have filed lawsuits against the Dispatch News, the state's largest newspaper.

After flirting with a public stock offering and trying to catch the eye of many potential buyers, the 46-store “sexual wellness” retailer Peekay Boutiques filed for chapter 11 protection to clear the way for a sale, the Seattle Times reported today. The chain, founded in 1982 by Phyliss Heppenstall as a family business, has been owned since 2012 by private equity investors who borrowed heavily to acquire several regional retailers in hopes of building a national franchise. It does business under four names: Christals, Lovers, ConRev and A Touch of Romance. The company’s debts to its primary lenders, originally $38.2 million, have since grown through unpaid interest and fees to nearly $52 million, according to the chapter 11 filing by Peekay Acquisition in bankruptcy court in Delaware. The owners of the various retailers that were acquired also provided seller financing totalling $12.7 million, which has grown to $19 million due to unpaid interest.

Liquid Asset Partners is buying the assets of Skip Barber Racing School, a 40-year-old institution whose alumni includes racing drivers Michael Andretti, Danica Patrick, Juan Pablo-Montoya, Bill Elliot, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Petty, MLive.com reported. The school, which filed for chapter 11 protection in late May, will be sold to the Grand Rapids firm for $830,000 under an agreement approved by a New York bankruptcy court on Tuesday, Aug. 8. The school was founded by race car driver Skip Barber in 1975. Barber sold the school and its name in 1999. Based outside Atlanta, the firm operates racing schools, driving schools, racing championships, corporate events and special projects. According to TheDrive.com, the school owed more than $10 million to its creditors while claiming assets worth $5.3 million when it filed for chapter 11. Bill Melvin Jr., owner of Liquid Asset Partners, said he hopes to revive the Skip Barber brand name after selling off most of the school's physical assets, which includes a fleet of race cars and related equipment.

Avaya Inc.’s recent deal to exit bankruptcy has put some of the telecom company’s pensioners at ease, but a small group stands to lose a significant portion of their retirement income, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Under a deal announced on Monday to bring Avaya out of chapter 11, benefit payments to nearly 8,000 participants in a legacy pension plan for salaried workers will be taken over by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., the federal government’s retirement guarantor. For those retirees, not much would change if the deal wins court approval — they would begin receiving their monthly checks from the PBGC, the largest single creditor in Avaya’s bankruptcy, instead of the company itself. The PBGC guarantees pensions up to a certain amount depending on age; for a 65-year-old pensioner, that cap is $64,432 a year. Early analysis by the PBGC shows that 100 percent of those 8,000 retirees’ benefits are guaranteed by the agency. And payments to another 6,900 people in a separate plan covering hourly employees will remain the company’s responsibility after it surfaces from bankruptcy.

Knight Energy Holdings LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, court records show, KATC.com reported. The petition, filed on Tuesday in federal court, indicates that the company has about $50 to $100 million in assets, compared to $100 to $500 million in debt. The company has been embroiled in controversy for several years. In 2015, Mark Knight, former Knight Oil Tools CEO, was indicted along with two former law enforcement officers on charges of drug racketeering. Knight, former Lafayette Parish Sheriff Deputy Jason Kinch and former Louisiana State Trooper Corey Jackson, are accused of conspiring to plant drugs in Bryan Knight's, Mark Knight's brother's, vehicle so he would be discredited during legal talks over the future of the company. Their trial is set for later this month. Last year a fourth man indicted in the case pleaded guilty. 

Payless ShoeSource is set to emerge from bankruptcy as soon, one of the largest retail chains to do so, and is banking on a strategy focused primarily on bricks-and-mortar sales at a time when e-commerce is casting an ever-growing footprint on retail sales, Reuters reported. Payless' emergence essentially gives the company a do-over after disposing of half of $847 million of debt it had built up under its private-equity ownership. With a cleaned-up balance sheet, Payless is seeking to position itself to compete in a tight U.S. market, open more stores across Latin America — a major part of its growth strategy — and develop new franchises in Asia.

Japanese auto supplier Takata Corp. filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection yesterday in an effort to pause lawsuits against the company over faulty air bag inflators — more than a month after its U.S. unit filed for bankruptcy in the same court, Reuters reported. In its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, Takata said that the chapter 15 petition was critical to ensure the "continuation of Takata's business, preserving tens of thousands of jobs and ensuring that Takata's business partners continue to have access to critical components that ensure the safety of drivers worldwide." The petition came as Takata's U.S. business separately asked a federal bankruptcy judge to suspend lawsuits against automakers that have been brought by air bag victims. Major automakers including BMW AG, Ford Motor Co., Honda Motor Co Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corp. sided with Takata in backing a six-month delay in lawsuits. Takata and automakers face hundreds of lawsuits including actions brought by Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and New Mexico.

South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping Co., which roiled global trade and temporarily marooned more than half a million cargo containers when it filed for bankruptcy, says it has raised only a fraction of what it needs to repay creditors, whose claims total about $10.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. In court papers filed on Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newark, N.J., the trustee overseeing the carrier’s bankruptcy proceeding in Seoul said Hanjin has raised about $220 million since filing for bankruptcy nearly a year ago. Hanjin, once one of the world’s largest container-shipping companies, filed for receivership in South Korea in August last year. The company has since been selling ships, stakes in seaport terminals and other assets, with proceeds destined to repay creditors, whose claims must pass muster with a Korean court. In Friday’s court papers, Hanjin said that it was unclear when distributions to creditors would begin. But it made clear those distributions would be carried out according to a plan worked out in South Korea and consistent with Korean bankruptcy law. A Korean judge ordered Hanjin’s liquidation earlier this year. Hanjin filed for chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. just days after filing for receivership in South Korea. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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Houston oil and gas investment firm Sheridan Production Partners is in talks to shore up a troubled $1.8 billion fund that is struggling under approximately $1 billion in debt, the Wall Street Journal reported today. A London-based asset manager, Pantheon, has stepped up with a proposed deal to provide $350 million in junior capital to the fund, said two of the people familiar with the matter. The offer would be one relief option for a 2010 fund backed by Warburg Pincus executives and other investors. The Sheridan fund borrowed heavily to buy producing oil fields — several of which are in Texas — but slumped after energy prices nose-dived in 2014. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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