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Sports Authority Inc.’s name, and the right to keep it on the home stadium of the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos, went unsold at a bankruptcy auction on Monday, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Instead, three liquidators bought the rights to run going-out-of-business sales at the insolvent chain’s stores, which will raise enough money to pay two top lenders. It’s unlikely the company will raise enough money to repay the approximately $646 million it owes lower-ranking creditors. Tiger Capital Group, Gordon Brothers Group and Hilco Trading Co. won the auction with a joint bid that will guarantee an upfront cash payment for the inventory. The winning bid is enough to pay off an asset-backed loan that was as much as $345 million when Sports Authority filed bankruptcy in March but has been shrinking since. There’s also enough to cover a separate, $95 million loan. Read more.

Listen to the latest ABI Podcast featuring Prof. Juliet Moringiello of Widener University School of Law talking with ABI Resident Scholar Melissa Jacoby about recent retail bankruptcies and their intersection with Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. 

Ohio’s Columbus Steel Castings Co., which operated as the country’s largest single site steel foundry until halting operations on May 9, has filed for bankruptcy protection, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Lawyers who put the factory into chapter 11 protection on Monday blamed the factory’s financial troubles on a broken furnace that, for six weeks last year, halted shipments for steel castings it manufactured that are installed into freight and passenger railcars, locomotives, mining equipment and construction equipment. The breakdown cost roughly $15 million, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Columbus Steel Castings’ lawyers said they found a potential buyer for the company’s 90-acre operations in Columbus, Ohio, but they didn’t identify the buyer or state the value of its offer. Columbus Steel Castings filed for bankruptcy along with three other U.S. manufacturers of metal-based products that plan to continue operating during the case: Zero Manufacturing Inc., Jorgenson Forge Corp. and the operator of Commercial Metal Forming. All four companies are owned by parent company Constellation Enterprises LLC, which also filed for chapter 11 and said the companies collectively face $238 million in debt.

Samson Resources Corp., one of the largest energy companies to file for bankruptcy in the commodity downturn, proposed a new chapter 11 exit plan yesterday that would swap ownership of the natural gas producer to banks in return for reductions in the company’s debt, Reuters reported yesterday. The new plan slashes the recovery for junior lenders, who were going to take ownership of the company under a prior proposal that became unworkable as the company's value dwindled during its eight months in bankruptcy. The proposal filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, would slash Samson's $4.9 billion in liabilities to approximately $535 million. The banks that would become the owners of Samson include affiliates of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Bank of Montreal, Citigroup Inc (C.N) and Wells Fargo & Co. The lenders would name six of seven directors under the proposed plan. The company also plans to perform a market test of certain holdings to see if it is possible to increase recoveries for creditors through asset sales.

Phone book publisher Dex Media Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday after reaching a restructuring deal with creditors, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Earlier this month, Dex said that it would file for bankruptcy to implement a restructuring deal reached with about two-thirds of its secured lenders and its bondholders. The restructuring plan would likely leave senior lenders with ownership of Dex and is subject to a broad creditor vote and court approval. Dex has said that it hopes to complete the restructuring in the third quarter of this year. The Texas company reported $1.27 billion in assets and $2.65 billion in debts as of Dec. 31 in the chapter 11 petition it filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.

KDA Group Inc., formerly Ketchum Directory Advertising, has filed for chapter 11 protection, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on Saturday. A filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh said the firm’s liabilities total between $10 million and $50 million and it has assets of less than $500,000. Last year, the business was acquired by YPM Inc. of Irvine, Calif. YPM declined to comment. Ketchum Directory at one time was part of Pittsburgh-based Ketchum Communications, which was sold in 1996 to Omnicon Group of New York.

An affiliate of casino giant Caesars Entertainment Corp., which is in danger of following its biggest unit into bankruptcy proceedings, is considering a sale of its fast-growing mobile- and social-games business, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Friday. Caesars Entertainment's interactive unit is working with investment bank Raine Group LLC to evaluate unsolicited bids that have exceeded $4 billion. Suitors include financial firms and gaming, media and entertainment companies. Caesars Interactive Entertainment, or CIE as the unit is known, is one of the largest online, mobile- and social-gaming companies, with annual sales of nearly $800 million. It notched year-over-year revenue growth of 28.8 percent in the first quarter.

Teen apparel retail chain Aéropostale, which filed for chapter 11 protection earlier this month, has reached a settlement with supplier MGF Sourcing that — if approved by a bankruptcy judge — should have inventory flowing back into stores and remove some acrimony from the proceedings, the New York Business Journal reported on Friday. New York-based Aéropostale had claimed that MGF Sourcing, which is owned by Aéropostale’s biggest lender, Sycamore Partners, placed stricter payment terms to force the retailer into bankruptcy. MGF had called the allegations “frivolous.” If the agreement is approved by Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane at a May 23 hearing, the final MGF deliveries to Aéropostale stores will start that day, Aéropostale attorney Jacqueline Marcus said. After the delivery happens and payments are made, the two companies will end a relationship that stems from a 10-year sourcing agreement they signed two years ago. At the time New York-based Sycamore took an 8 percent stake in the retailer and provided a loan, with the MGF supplier agreement part of the deal.

Sports Authority Holdings Inc. will head to auction next week with bids in place from two groups of liquidators plus smaller offers from rivals Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. and Modell’s Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported today. However, the bids from Dick’s and Modell’s were considered “disappointing” and for fewer stores than initially expected. Dick’s, which one equity analyst said could make an offer for 180 stores, instead placed a bid for less than 20 stores; Modell’s made an offer for a small handful of stores. Meanwhile, two groups of liquidators placed bids on the struggling sports retailer’s assets. A consortium of Hilco Global, Tiger Capital Group and Gordon Brothers Group made an offer. Another bid came in from a liquidator group that includes SB Capital Group, Great American Group and 360 Merchant Solutions.

SandRidge Energy Inc. and master limited partnership Breitburn Energy Partners LP filed for chapter 11 protection today, the latest U.S. oil and gas companies to fall victim to weak oil prices, Reuters reported. SandRidge said in a court filing that it had total assets of $7.01 billion and total debt of $4 billion as of March 31. Breitburn listed assets and liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion. SandRidge, which has been in talks with creditors on a restructuring deal, said on Wednesday it would not be able to file financial results for the quarter ended March 31 on time.

Vanguard Healthcare, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based operator of skilled nursing and rehab facilities, has filed for chapter 11 protection, the Nashville Business Journal reported today. The company said that the petition to restructure its debt, filed May 6, "comes after months of working unsuccessfully to restructure unfavorable loan terms with a single lender." There are two filings associated with the company, one referring to Vanguard Healthcare and the other referring to Vanguard Healthcare Services. Both describe the company as having between $50 million and $100 million in liabilities and between $100 million and $500 million in assets. The first filings lists $28,551 in claims against the company, the largest ($22,287) from a West Virginia law firm. The second lists $254,074 in claims, the largest ($41,185) from a California investment bank. Read more.

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