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Jumio Inc., an identity verification company, won court approval to sell its assets to an affiliate of Centana Growth Partners Friday, settling a court-supervised sale process rife with controversy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. A bankruptcy judge approved the deal following an auction on Thursday in which the New York-based private-equity firm won the right to buy Jumio’s business. Jumio chose Centana’s $850,000 offer over a much larger offer from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, which the company’s shareholders vehemently opposed. The sale is scheduled to close today. Jumio’s software helps companies quickly verify passports and driver's licenses via mobile apps and the web, and its customers include Airbnb Inc. and United Airlines Inc. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company says that its products can speed up checkout time, cut down on users’ data-entry errors, increase transaction completion rates and reduce fraud. The Centana sale included Jumio’s name, and the company will continue operating under the Jumio brand, according to a source familiar with the deal. The sale process was delayed last week after the company failed to attract any formal offers to compete with Mr. Saverin by a court-ordered deadline. But by Thursday, Jumio’s lawyer said two other bidders had come forward with serious offers. A 12-hour auction ultimately produced Centana’s winning bid, which drew no opposition at Friday’s hearing.

A government watchdog warned that the restructuring plan of bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources could be held up because a unit of consulting firm McKinsey & Co. failed to fully disclose connections with potential buyers of the coal miner's assets, Reuters reported on Friday. Alpha hired McKinsey Recovery & Transformation Services to lead its turnaround plan after filing for bankruptcy in August, hit by a sharp drop in coal prices. The U.S. Trustee said in a court filing on May 3 that McKinsey RTS has not disclosed the names or nature of its connections to Alpha's lenders, creditors and competitors as required by bankruptcy law. In the filing, the U.S. Trustee said the lack of full disclosures may "cast a cloud" over Alpha's restructuring strategy.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. said on Friday that it appointed a retired bankruptcy judge to the new role of chief restructuring officer after it warned it could be forced into chapter 11 protection, Reuters reported on Friday. Caesars is facing billions of dollars of lawsuits by creditors of its bankrupt casino operating unit, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. (CEOC), who have accused the parent of pillaging the unit before it filed for chapter 11 protection last year. Caesars has denied the allegations. However, it said in a statement on Friday that in the event it had an adverse court ruling or if CEOC lingered in bankruptcy, "it is likely that Caesars Entertainment would seek reorganization under chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code." Caesars said that due to mounting legal costs its independent director committee had recommended the appointment of Robert Gerber, who retired as a U.S. Bankruptcy judge for the Southern District of New York in January, for the new role. An independent examiner said in March that Caesars may be responsible for up to $5.1 billion for transactions involving CEOC prior to its bankruptcy. Read more. 

Learn more about a CRO’s responsibilities with ABI’s The Chief Restructuring Officers Guide to Bankruptcy: Views from Leading Insolvency Professionals.

Moody’s Investors Service said in a report that SunEdison Inc.’s bankruptcy threatens the dividend payments of the two TerraForm yieldcos it formed and controls, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. While the yieldcos haven’t been dragged into SunEdison’s bankruptcy proceedings, as many as 10 of TerraForm Power Inc.’s wind and solar farms and five of TerraForm Global Inc.’s face defaults because they have project-level debt with clauses linked to the health of the parent company, according to a report by Moody’s analyst Swami Venkataraman. These cross-default clauses reveal the complicated and interrelated structure of SunEdison, the world’s biggest clean-energy developer, and the two TerraForm companies it formed to buy power plants, along with the many wind and solar farms that typically are structured as their own corporate entities. “There might be a price to pay, and possibly a stoppage of distribution from these projects to the yieldcos,” Venkataraman said. “They will need some sort of settlement.” He estimates that the risk affects less than half of the cash flow at TerraForm Power because many of its projects have no debt.

CHC Group Ltd. filed for chapter 11 protection as one of the world’s largest helicopter operators joined a slew of oil-field services companies caught by the downturn in global energy prices, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The filing came just days after a fatal crash of one of its helicopters in Norway forced the company to ground much of its fleet. CHC is one of two global companies alongside Houston-based Bristow Group Inc. that dominate the business of ferrying workers and cargo offshore for energy companies and have been forced to shrink and cut costs. CHC operated a fleet of 231 helicopters on Jan. 31 and had been exploring a debt-restructuring for several months even before the April 29 crash of an Airbus Group SE EC225 helicopter. The accident killed its two pilots and 11 oil workers flying back to the Norwegian mainland, and led regulators in the U.K. and Norway to ground the EC225, a workhorse helicopter with a history of technical problems. CHC leased 157 helicopters and operated 42 EC225s, and had orders with manufacturers including Airbus, the Sikorsky unit of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Leonardo SpA’s AgustaWestland.

Companies in bankruptcy are typically at the mercy of the lenders that hold the purse strings. Teen clothing retailer Aéropostale Inc. is trying to tip the scales in its favor, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The company immediately took aim at lender Sycamore Partners after filing for bankruptcy yesterday, saying that the private-equity firm directed a company it controls to cut off credit to the struggling retailer, hastening its demise. Sycamore, a private-equity firm that focuses on retail and consumer investments, owns MGF Sourcing, which manufactures clothing for Aéropostale and other retailers. MGF earlier this year demanded Aéropostale pay for goods in advance instead of allowing it to pay after delivery. Aéropostale in 2014 signed a 10-year supply agreement with MGF, formerly known as Mast Global Fashions, under the terms of a $150 million loan deal with Sycamore. In court papers, Aéropostale said that Sycamore essentially directed MGF to tighten Aéropostale’s payment terms to force it into bankruptcy. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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A Canadian court yesterday closed the door on legal challenges to a ruling that divvied up the $7.3 billion raised from the liquidation of Nortel Networks, a former Canada-based telecoms equipment maker that went bankrupt in 2009, Reuters reported. The decision barred U.S. parties from appealing a May 2015 ruling by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, which issued an opinion that was coordinated with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. The two courts have been working in tandem to oversee the Nortel bankruptcy, and last year's simultaneous decision ruled that every creditor would receive roughly 71 cents on the dollar. That formula was advocated by representatives of Nortel's British pensioners, but opposed by the Nortel businesses in the United States and Canada.

Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane approved a deal between bankrupt Republic Airways Holdings Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. that will increase the regional carrier’s rates for ferrying Delta passengers and provide it with $75 million in financing, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Judge Lane cleared the deal, which becomes effective on May 6, Republic said in a statement Tuesday. Delta had sued last year, accusing Republic of failing to complete some scheduled flights for regional unit Delta Connection. Republic, which ferries passengers from smaller cities to hub airports for Delta, American Airlines Group Inc., and United Continental Holdings Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection in February after struggling with a shortage of pilots. The carrier had agreed to a new contract with the workers late last year but was unable to negotiate new deals with the three bigger airlines to help cover the costs of higher pay, leading to the filing. The agreement announced Tuesday will allow Republic to stop flying 50-seat aircraft, which have fallen out of favor in the industry, and move exclusively to more profitable 70- to 88-seat aircraft. Delta will provide Republic with $75 million in debtor-in-possession financing, according to the statement.

Sports Authority Inc., still seeking a buyer, has no current plan to liquidate, a lawyer for the bankrupt retailer said, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. “Liquidation is not in our vocabulary,” Robert Klyman of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, who represents the ailing sporting-goods chain, told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath yesterday. That doesn’t mean the company has found a committed buyer for some of its more than 450 locations. Klyman told the judge that a stalking-horse bid hasn’t been designated. Sports Authority filed for bankruptcy court protection in March, saddled with debt piled up from a $1.3 billion buyout 10 years ago. At the time of filing, the Englewood, Colo.-based retailer announced plans to slim down and continue operating after exiting chapter 11. Still, if no viable bids come in by next week’s deadline, the chain could face liquidation. An asset auction is set for May 16, as is a separate auction for about 140 leases on stores the company does intend to liquidate. At that sale, two bidders will compete for some of those leases, according to court papers Sports Authority filed yesterday. Read more.

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