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Coyne International Enterprises Corp., a leading U.S. commercial laundry service company, filed chapter 11 protection, the ABL Advisor reported today. Pending the completion of the sales, Coyne will continue to operate under the supervision of the bankruptcy court. Coyne employs approximately 620 people at its nine locations. Under the three proposed sales, seven of Coyne’s nine locations will remain open and approximately 525 jobs will be preserved. To finance its operations in chapter 11, Coyne has obtained a commitment for $3.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing from NXT Capital, LLC, a financial institution based in Chicago. NXT is also the agent for Coyne’s senior secured debt.

The Southern Regional Medical Center near Atlanta filed for bankruptcy on Thursday while executives look for buyers for the 331-bed hospital, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Officials who put the nonprofit hospital into chapter 11 protection said that the Riverdale, Ga.-based facility faces more than $100 million in debt. The 685,475-square-foot hospital's operations have already drawn interest from potential buyer California-based Prime Healthcare Services, which operates roughly 35 hospitals and has made offers for other bankrupt hospitals. Prime Healthcare would continue to operate the hospital, one of Clayton County's largest employers with about 1,350 people, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta. Read more.  (Subscription required.)

For more on hospital and health care insolvency issues, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s Health Care Insolvency Manual, Third Edition.

Alpha Natural Resources Inc. is expected to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today to cut its more than $3 billion debt load as a severe slump in coal prices continues to wreak havoc on the industry, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Bristol, Va.-based company, one of the largest U.S. coal producers, hasn’t completed the terms of a restructuring plan but will likely sell some of its best mines or turn them over to creditors and close others during its trip through bankruptcy court. Alpha has secured as much as $600 million in bankruptcy financing from senior lenders and secured bondholders to fund its operations during its chapter 11 case. A steep drop in coal prices has Alpha and its rivals bleeding cash and choking on debt taken on to finance acquisitions around the start of the decade, when the industry’s outlook was rosier. In 2011, Alpha paid $7.1 billion for rival mining company Massey Energy Inc., a deal that extended Alpha’s lead as the largest miner of the type of coal used in steelmaking.

Relativity Media filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday against a swarm of disgruntled investors and other creditors, Variety Magazine reported today. The 11-year-old company that founder Ryan Kavanaugh had styled as a “next-generation global media company” will be sold at auction, a statement from the company said. The upcoming sale will center on the enterprise’s film and television units. Left outside of the insolvency action are Relativity Sports; Relativity EuropaCorp Distribution, a joint venture with the European film operator; and Relativity Education. All those units will continue on as independent concerns. The company’s fashion operation, M3/Relativity, was shut down this week and its employees laid off on Wednesday. Kavanaugh and his board proposed the immediate auction of the company, which stated liabilities of up to $1 billion.

Colt Defense LLC 's preparations to test the market at a bankruptcy auction have added to creditor anxieties about the unsettled state of the lease on the gun maker's manufacturing plant, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. When it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June, Colt was determined to put itself up for auction in August, with private equity owner Sciens Capital Management as lead bidder. Sciens took its buyout offer off the table after a bondholder coup shifted the balance of power in the case against the equity stakeholder. Colt is moving forward with the auction plan despite the lack of a lead bidder to set a floor price and despite uncertainty about whether the gun maker will be evicted from its Connecticut plant, bondholder lawyer Jeff Jonas said at a court hearing Wednesday.

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. received a judge’s approval to keep control of its bankruptcy case into early next year, as well as the right to transfer to Trump Taj Mahal the financing agreements related to slot machines moved from the shuttered Trump Plaza, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross in orders signed on Tuesday approved Trump Entertainment’s request to extend until Dec. 3, 2015, the amount of time it has to file a reorganization plan without the threat of rival proposals, and until Feb. 3, 2016, to solicit votes on such a plan. Without the approvals, those periods would have expired on Aug. 5, and Oct. 6, respectively. While Trump Entertainment already has a plan in place that would put the company in the hands of top lender Carl Icahn, the company is still waiting for the plan to become effective. Part of the deal includes the rejection of collective bargaining agreements with the Taj Mahal’s union workers, which the union is appealing.

Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. was denied permission to pursue a quicker-than-normal appeal of a ruling that allows bondholder lawsuits against its parent to proceed while the operating unit reorganizes in bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The casino giant is racing to overturn the July 22 ruling, in which a judge declined to protect Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment Corp. from four lawsuits that the company has said might push it into bankruptcy alongside its main operating subsidiary. Bankruptcy Judge A. Benjamin Goldgar yesterday turned back a request to appeal his decision directly to the federal circuit court, bypassing the district court. “I’m not convinced a direct appeal will expedite anything here,” Goldgar said. Yesterday’s decision makes it more difficult for the company to halt the bondholder litigation before a Manhattan federal judge can consider imposing billions of dollars in liability on the parent. The next option for Caesars may be to ask the district court in Chicago to expedite a ruling on Goldgar’s decision before Aug. 7, the final day for briefing in the Manhattan case.

Treetops Resort in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula says that it has emerged from chapter 11 protection following a voluntary reorganization, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The golf and ski resort announced on Monday that the process gave its owners time to shed legacy debt and position itself financially for future improvements. The resort sought reorganization under bankruptcy law in November and remained open during the reorganization.

Manhattan’s WASA Studio, one of the country’s oldest architecture and engineering firms, whose predecessor designed Grand Central Terminal train station, filed for bankruptcy on Monday while fighting several legal battles with ex-clients, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Officials who put the firm into chapter 11 protection blocked its landlord from evicting the company’s operations from their Broadway office space. The company plans to relocate to another floor and look for buyers who could stabilize its operations, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The firm, known for decades as Wank Adams Slavin Associates, is fighting several lawsuits against ex-clients who are pushing for damages of more than $11 million, said Senior Managing Partner Harry Spring in court papers.

Bankruptcy court documents said that the sale of Standard Register Co.’s assets to Taylor Corp. is expected to close on or before Friday, the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News reported today. Standard Register, a Dayton-based printing and marketing company, yesterday filed a motion in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to change its corporate and business names, as required under the asset purchase agreement between Standard Register and Taylor Corp. Standard Register would become SRC Liquidation Co., court documents said. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Aug. 18. The court yesterday also approved Standard Register’s request to extend the period to file its chapter 11 bankruptcy plan by an additional 90 days. Standard Register’s 120-day period to propose and file a plan was set to expire July 10. The company’s period to solicit acceptance of that plan would expire Sept. 8.