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Global Geophysical Services Files for Bankruptcy Protection

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Global Geophysical Services LLC, a seismic-data provider for the oil industry, filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday and will go out of business, less than two years after the company emerged from an earlier trip through bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Sean Gore, the company’s chief executive officer, blamed stubbornly low oil prices for its failure. Although benchmark U.S. oil prices have rebounded to more than $40 a barrel since hitting a 13-year low in February, they are still well below the $115 per barrel producers were getting as recently as the summer of 2014. The company, based in Missouri City, Texas, filed for chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi, listing assets and debts each in the range of $100 million to $500 million. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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Logan’s Roadhouse Said to Plan Bankruptcy Amid Restaurant Slump

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Logan’s Roadhouse Inc., a Nashville, Tenn.-based steakhouse chain with hundreds of locations, is preparing to file for chapter 11 protection, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The chapter 11 filing may come as soon as this month. The company, which uses the slogan “Where Steak Rules the Road,” has about 250 restaurants in 26 states. The move would follow an announcement that Logan’s was skipping debt payments due in April and planned to delay filing annual and quarterly earnings reports. The company also forged a forbearance agreement with lenders that expires on Aug. 15. Logan’s has suffered from declining sales and a broader restaurant slowdown, which has forced chains to rely more heavily on discounts. 

Dex Media Completes Financial Restructuring, Emerges from Chapter 11

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Dex Media, Inc., one of the largest national providers of local marketing solutions for local businesses, announced that it completed its financial restructuring and emerged from chapter 11 when its confirmed reorganization plan went into effect on July 29, the ABL Advisor reported yesterday. Dex Media was able to shed approximately $1.8 billion of debt during the restructuring. Dex Media is now a privately-owned company as previous shares of common stock have been canceled with no distribution to the holders of those shares. Per the reorganization plan, Dex Media’s previous Board of Directors has disbanded and its new six-member Board of Directors includes representatives from the holders of the company’s newly issued common stock.

Judge Refuses Bonuses for Executives at Bankrupt Sports Authority

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Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath yesterday refused to allow Sports Authority to pay up to $2.85 million in bonuses to four executives for overseeing the winding down of the national sporting goods chain, Reuters reported. Englewood, Colo.-based Sports Authority filed for bankruptcy in March with hopes of keeping some of its 464 stores open, but battles among lenders and suppliers eventually scuttled those plans. Its final stores closed last month. "I think it’s just inappropriate to pay senior executives a bonus when all the employees are losing their jobs," Judge Walrath said during a hearing. Sports Authority said that the bonuses were essential to ensure executives squeeze the most value out of its assets by adhering to a budget and preventing waste.

International Shipholding Files for Bankruptcy Protection

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International Shipholding Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday, unable to sell off assets quickly enough to hold its lenders at bay, the Wall Street Journal reported today. For more than a year, the Mobile, Ala., company has been negotiating with lenders for time to fix its overloaded balance sheet. The company has lined up $16 million in bankruptcy financing to support its efforts to restructure under court protection. International Shipholding has been reining in and selling off businesses, such as its dry bulk carrying unit, hoping to reorganize around the most profitable lines. At the end of first quarter 2016, sales and payments had chopped funded debt to $117 million, down from $243 million at the end of 2014, court papers say. Asset sales continue, but they aren’t bringing in the money International Shipholding needs to comply with liquidity covenants with lenders. The company lost $8.4 million in the first quarter of 2016, following a loss of nearly $180 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2015.

Caesars Brings More Creditors on Board with Restructuring

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Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. (CEOC) has broadened the support for its $18 billion debt-restructuring plan, adding certain junior bondholders to the list of top creditors that have pledged to back the proposal, the Wall Street Journal reported today. CEOC said yesterday that holders of about 37 percent of its $5.2 billion in second-lien bond debt have signed a restructuring support agreement with the bankrupt casino operator and its corporate parent, which isn’t in chapter 11. CEOC has previously reached similar deals with its parent, senior bank lenders, senior bondholders and unsecured creditors. For the restructuring support agreement with the second-lien bondholders to take effect, CEOC said it must secure the support of creditors holding more than 50.1 percent of that debt. A prior support agreement with a minority of second-lien bondholders crumbled last year when CEOC couldn’t meet that threshold. Other holders of second-lien bond debt have been vocal opponents of CEOC’s restructuring, although CEOC said that it will continue to work toward a consensual plan.

Flying Star Owners Bid to Maintain Control of Company

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Flying Star’s owners have filed a reorganization plan in bankruptcy court that would allow them to retain control of the restaurant chain they built in exchange for surrendering their own claims against the company and putting up $1.5 million in new capital to pay off creditors, the Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal reported on Saturday. But their creditors are working on their own competing plan that would mean selling the restaurant chain to another local firm. Flying Star owners Jean and Mark Bernstein filed their reorganization plan in court on Friday. Under their plan, the Bernsteins would bid $1.5 million for new shares of stock in the company and continued management. The infusion would allow Flying Star to pay taxes and other priority claims immediately, pay other creditors, like lenders, in full on an installment basis, and pay the unsecured creditors a total of $790,101. That amounts to 21.5 percent of the unsecured creditors’ $3.67 million in claims, according to the filing. The attorney for Flying Star’s unsecured creditors committee said earlier on Friday — before the Bernsteins filed their plan — that he was working on a “competing plan” based on Southwest Brands’ indication that it wanted to buy Flying Star for $2.5 million.

No Criminal Charges Filed in 38 Studios Collapse

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After a four-year investigation, Rhode Island authorities summed up a $75 million financing package used by the state in 2010 to lure Curt Schilling’s video game company from Massachusetts as a flawed deal, but not a crime, the Boston Globe reported on Saturday. Schilling’s 38 Studios filed for bankruptcy in 2012, and it owes $89 million on the loans it received. “A bad deal doesn’t always equate to an indictment,” said Steven G. O’Donnell, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police. O’Donnell and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin said their probe, which included interviews with more than 140 people and a review of hundreds of documents, found problems with the deal but no criminal violations. Kilmartin said the case would remain open in case new evidence arises out of a civil lawsuit and a fraud case that the Securities and Exchange Commission is pursuing over allegations that a state economic development agency and Wells Fargo Securities misled investors over the municipal bonds issued to finance the project.

Gawker’s Denton Can’t Halt Hulk Hogan from Enforcing Verdict

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Gawker Media founder Nick Denton lost his latest bid to halt enforcement of the $140 million verdict won by Hulk Hogan in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit, according to a court document provided by the former pro wrestler’s attorney, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. Florida Judge Pamela Campbell said on Friday that she would let Hogan try to collect the jury award — in part because, she said, Denton misled her at a June 10 hearing about the value of his company stock. Denton had told the court at the hearing that he would use stock in Gawker worth $81 million as security to guarantee payment of the jury verdict. But the media company had, just the day before, approved resolutions to put itself into bankruptcy, according to the court document. Also, in May, a potential buyer had offered to make an opening bid of $90 million for the company’s assets, meaning Denton’s shares would be worth much less than what the court was told. The judge said Denton hid “material information about the value of that stock which a reasonable person, under similar circumstances, should have disclosed.”