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Rig contractor Ocean RIG UDW Inc. filed for chapter 15 protection in a U.S. court amid a deep and prolonged downturn in the industry, Reuters reported yesterday. The Cyprus-based company, which had $3.25 billion in debt as of Dec. 31, filed for bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for Southern District of New York on Monday. The company said on Tuesday it entered into an agreement with creditors representing over 72 percent of Ocean RIG's outstanding consolidated indebtedness for a financial restructuring. Ocean RIG's chief executive, George Economou, said last year that the company would consider alternatives, including a possible reorganization under U.S. bankruptcy laws.

Toshiba Corp.’s U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse filed for chapter 11 protection from creditors today, just three months after huge cost overruns were flagged, as the Japanese parent seeks to limit losses that threaten its future, Reuters reported. Bankruptcy will allow Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse, once central to Toshiba's diversification push, to renegotiate or even break its construction contracts, though the utilities that own the projects could seek damages. It could even pave the way for a sale of all or part of the business. For Toshiba, the aim is to fence off soaring liabilities and keep the group afloat. Toshiba said that Westinghouse-related liabilities totaled $9.8 billion as of December, making it one of the industry's most costly collapses to date; it had earlier estimated writedowns would swell to $6.3 billion.

Struggling electronics retailer RadioShack may lay off as many as 150 people and close its headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, the Dallas Morning News reported. The Fort Worth retailer sent a notice to the state about the coming layoffs, which are expected by late May. In a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission, the company said that it is trying to "reorganize and emerge from bankruptcy as an ongoing business." It may have to close the headquarters, if it cannot come up with a way to restructure. Even if it does restructure, however, it may have to lay off employees, the letter said. RadioShack is going through its second bankruptcy filing in just over two years. It filed its most recent petition in bankruptcy court in Delaware in March. As part of that filing, the company said that it would close about 200 stores and consider options for the remaining 1,300 stores.

The trustee in Spice Modern Steakhouse’s bankruptcy case is asking the court to liquidate the Orlando restaurant after its third bankruptcy reorganization filing in seven years, the Orlando Sentinel reported on Saturday. Court documents filed in federal bankruptcy court in Orlando by the trustee said the company might have been involved in “criminal activity consisting of underreporting sales and the amount of sales tax due.” The documents say Spice Modern Steakhouse and parent company Level 1 Inc., owe $262,105 to Florida Department of Revenue for back sales-tax payments. That number has accumulated starting with the company’s first bankruptcy filing in 2009, court records show. The most recent bankruptcy reorganization petition was filed by Spice ownership in November. Read more. 

Why is your favorite restaurant closing? A panel of experts at ABI’s Annual Spring meeting will discuss and analyze the various and peculiar restructuring issues related to restaurant chapter 11 cases, and forecast whether this industry will continue to incur financial distress. Click here to register- rates go up Friday! 

A struggling Portland, Ore.-based aviation company is one step closer to emerging from bankruptcy, the Associated Press reported today. A bankruptcy judge in Dallas on Tuesday confirmed Erickson Inc.'s reorganization plan less than five months after the company entered court protection in November. Erickson president and CEO Jeff Roberts said on Wednesday that the company now has a clear path out of bankruptcy. When Ericson filed for chapter 11 in November, it listed $561 million in debt. The company went public in 2012 and acquired Evergreen Helicopters and Air Amazonia in 2013, leaving the company with $355 million in debt just as the oil and gas market began to decline.

Failed brokerage MF Global Holdings Ltd. and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said yesterday that they have settled their high-profile accounting-malpractice lawsuit in which the brokerage contended bad advice from PwC contributed to its 2011 collapse, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed. Both sides said the case has been settled to “the mutual satisfaction of the parties” and declined to discuss the agreement further. The settlement came during the third week of an expected five-week trial in federal court in New York, in which MF Global’s bankruptcy administrator had sought $3 billion in damages and interest from PwC. MF Global contended that PwC had advised it to treat its “repo-to-maturity” trades involving European sovereign debt as sales rather than borrowings. This move enabled MF Global to record $100 million in immediate profit and take $6.3 billion in securities off its balance sheet, reducing its leverage and making the firm look less risky. PwC insisted it had given MF Global the correct accounting advice, and that MF Global collapsed because of its own faulty strategy and bad decision to bet on the risky European debt.

Japan's Toshiba Corp. has informed its main lenders it is planning for its U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric Co LLC to file for bankruptcy on March 31, Reuters reported today. Toshiba expects a chapter 11 filing for Westinghouse would expand charges related to the U.S. unit in the current financial year to around 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) from publicly flagged estimates of 712.5 billion yen. Toshiba is seeking to limit future losses at Westinghouse with a chapter 11 filing. Westinghouse has been plagued by huge cost overruns at two U.S. nuclear projects.

ABI will be holding a media webinar today at 10 a.m. ET with experts examining the decision. The panel includes Prof. Jonathan Lipson, who is Counsel of Record for an amicus brief from law professors in favor of the petitioner, David R. Kuney, Senior Counsel at Whiteford Taylor Preston LLP, who is the Counsel of Record for an amicus brief by another set of law professors in support of the respondents, and ABI Resident Scholar Prof. Andrew Dawson. The moderator will be ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle. A limited number of spots are available for ABI members to participate in the hour-long program. If you are interested in participating, please register by clicking here.

Rebel creditors of Peabody Energy Corp.'s reorganization plan have said they intend to appeal a bankruptcy judge's decision to allow the world's largest private sector coal producer to exit chapter 11 protection, Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Barry Schermer in St. Louis approved last week a plan by Peabody, which has valuable coal assets both in the U.S. and Australia, to emerge from bankruptcy in early April with about $2 billion of debt. In a notice of appeal filed with the bankruptcy court in St. Louis, about a dozen money managers who voted against the plan asked an appellate court to review six issues decided by Judge Schermer in approving Peabody's reorganization. Their complaints mostly center around the terms of a private stock sale that formed part of Peabody's plan to slash more than $5 billion of debt and exit bankruptcy. To participate in the private offering, Peabody required creditors to support the reorganization plan. The objecting creditors have said this "premature" buy-in violated the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Nick Denton will leave bankruptcy, having weathered a multimillion-dollar judgment from an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit that forced the chapter 11 sale of his Gawker media business, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein said yesterday that he will dismiss Denton’s personal chapter 11 case and approve a legal settlement extinguishing his remaining personal liability to Terry Bollea, a former wrestler also known as Hulk Hogan. The bulk of the judgment was resolved in a separate settlement between Bollea and Gawker Media LLC. The decision concludes Bollea’s litigation against Denton, who along with Gawker and editor A.J. Daulerio were sued in 2012 after the online media company published portions of a sex tape featuring Bollea. Denton was jointly liable with Gawker and Daulerio for $115 million in compensatory damages. Denton was also assessed $10 million in punitive damages individually.