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U.S. Mattress Maker Serta Simmons Receives Chapter 11 Plan Approval

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Mattress maker Serta Simmons Bedding yesterday said that its chapter 11 reorganization plan has been confirmed by a U.S. bankruptcy court, bringing the bedding company one step closer to emerging from bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The Doraville, Ga.-based company, whose roots date to 1870, filed for chapter 11 protection from creditors in January with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas, in a bid to eliminate most of its debt. The mattress manufacturer, which accounts for nearly one-fifth of U.S. bedding sales and whose brands include Serta, Simmons, Beautyrest, and Tuft & Needle, said it is operating normally as usual. Serta Simmons, backed by Apollo Global Management and Gamut Capital Management through its restructuring plan, aims to reduce its debt to $315 million from $1.9 billion, in addition to which it projects that the company's annual cash interest expense will fall by more than $100 million. The company during the COVID-19 pandemic had added $200 million of new capital to weather higher raw material costs and supply chain disruptions. However, significant amounts of debt maturing in 2023 have made the company's capital structure unsustainable, necessitating a comprehensive restructuring that is now supported by more than three-quarters of its key lenders.

Credit Repair Business Progrexion Files for Bankruptcy Over $2.7 Billion CFPB Claim

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Credit repair services provider Progrexion filed for bankruptcy after losing a court decision to dodge $2.7 billion in payments requested by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Utah-based owner of Credit.com, Creditrepair.com and the Lexington Law brand on Sunday sought protection from its more than 100,000 creditors in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Progrexion, backed by investment firm Prospect Capital, has been fighting a lawsuit brought by the CFPB since 2019 when the consumer protection bureau accused the company of violating telemarketing sales rules by requesting and receiving payments of prohibited upfront fees for services. Progrexion has denied the allegations. The CFPB said that companies may charge fees for telemarketed credit repair services only after providing consumers with proof that the promised results have been achieved.

Bed Bath & Beyond in Talks to Sell Buybuy Baby to Owner of Janie and Jack

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Bed Bath & Beyond is in talks to keep its Buybuy Baby chain open through a possible sale to the private-equity owner of children’s apparel retailer Janie and Jack, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Go Global Retail, the owner of Janie and Jack, is bidding to acquire Buybuy Baby from its bankrupt parent company and planning to keep the baby-focused chain of stores operating. While Bed Bath & Beyond and Buybuy Baby have both been shrinking, the baby business has held up better than the larger home-goods chain, which filed for bankruptcy in April to close stores and look for last-ditch buyers. The company has been conducting going-out of-business sales at hundreds of Bed Bath & Beyond and Buybuy Baby locations in recent weeks. Bed Bath & Beyond is also shopping its assets in bankruptcy and last week pushed back the deadline for final bids to Thursday, court filings show. The company also is fielding interest from Overstock.com, the online discount retailer, for the intellectual property behind the main Bed Bath & Beyond banner.

Genesis Judge Rejects FTX Demand to Join Crypto Bankruptcy Talks

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FTX Trading Ltd. cannot join confidential mediation sessions between bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Holdco and its parent company Digital Currency Group, a judge ruled yesterday, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane declined to open the settlement talks to FTX, which is also in bankruptcy and claims that Genesis owes it $3.9 billion. Instead, Lane gave Genesis, a group of its biggest creditors and DCG more time to come up with a revised payout proposal. Any agreement would form the basis of a chapter 11 bankruptcy plan to pay hundreds of thousands of Genesis creditors. In doing so, Lane has overruled the objections of FTX and several Genesis customers. About two dozen individuals had emailed the judge, urging him to immediately end the settlement talks and order payouts to creditors. Some creditors complained that they hadn’t been given any information about what’s happening with their claims. “There will be a certain amount of radio silence because mediation needs that to work,” Judge Lane said. “Shortening the mediation does not shorten the case.” Meanwhile, Genesis has said that it’s planning to update its current reorganization plan. Once that plan is filed, creditors will be asked to vote on it. Lane will then take those votes into consideration when he decides whether to approve the proposal.

Mallinckrodt Stock Sinks as It Considers Another Bankruptcy

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Mallinckrodt’s stock fell by 40% Monday after the drugmaker said it is in talks with creditors about options including a second bankruptcy filing to fix its balance sheet and address a $200 million payment due this month under a previous chapter 11 restructuring, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Mallinckrodt has engaged with at least one creditor group to discuss restructuring options that could include another chapter 11 filing to deal with the coming settlement payment related to past sales of opioids. The Dublin-based company confirmed in a securities filing Monday that it has received offers from various creditor groups for restructuring proposals to be implemented both out-of-court and through chapter 11. The company said that its board is “actively evaluating this situation and considering options, including transactions that have been proposed by the holders and other company stakeholders.” Mallinckrodt’s stock was trading at $1.47 midday Monday, down 40% from Friday’s close.

Rockley Photonics as It Emerges from Chapter 11 with $35 Million Fresh Funding

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Photonics-based solutions company Rockley Photonics filed for chapter 11 protection in Q1 giving it protection do a comprehensive financial restructuring of the firm. Yesterday it announced that period is over and it has and emerged from the tremulous time with a solid footing of approximately $35 million of additional funding from its stakeholders, Tech.eu reported. “Rockley’s ability to emerge from chapter 11 in just 46 days was a significant achievement and marks the beginning of a new era for the company. Our stakeholder's ongoing belief in Rockley has provided us with a greatly strengthened balance sheet and the funds to continue to develop disruptive technology for the med tech market," says Dr. Andrew Rickman, CEO of Rockley Photonics. Rockley maintains its material customer as the company stays on schedule with all programs including its development of remote patient monitoring technology — it continues to see promising results relating to a number of biomarkers, including glucose and anticipates releasing those results in the second half of this year.

Bankruptcy Judge Revives Some Sex Abuse Lawsuits Tied to Long Island Diocese

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A bankruptcy judge allowed sexual-abuse survivors to resume lawsuits against parishes and other affiliates of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in suburban Long Island, N.Y., that have been paused since its chapter 11 filing in 2020, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Martin Glenn, who is presiding over the bankruptcy case of the Catholic Church’s seat in Long Island, denied the Diocese’s request to extend a stay on litigation to freeze state-court lawsuits targeting its parishes and other related entities. Negotiations between abuse survivors and the Diocese broke down months ago after it filed a settlement plan that the victims committee said it considers inadequate. The judge’s decision, which takes effect after June 15, would affect 228 out of 490 abuse lawsuits pending against the Diocese, its parishes and other related entities. “As it has throughout the Chapter 11 process, the Diocese will continue to seek and work toward a global settlement of all claims that fairly compensate survivors and allows the Diocese and parishes to continue their missions,” a Diocese spokesman said on Friday. Lawyers representing the victims committee said the court acknowledged the harm to survivors caused by delaying their rights to pursue their claims against the parishes, which are separate corporations that haven’t filed for bankruptcy. Rockville Centre is among a handful of dioceses in New York that filed for chapter 11 protection in 2020 after state lawmakers opened a temporary window to allow victims the opportunity to file time-barred civil cases over childhood sexual abuse. Several bankruptcy cases filed by Catholic dioceses, including Rockville Centre, in recent years have dragged on mired in litigation often with insurers with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line.

Buy Buy Baby Draws Sale Interest in Bed Bath & Beyond Bankruptcy, One Bidder Looks to Save Stores

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Bed Bath & Beyond is expected to be dissolved after the failed retailer declared bankruptcy, but the company’s crown jewel — Buy Buy Baby — may live to see another day, CNBC.com reported. The baby gear retailer is drawing interest from at least two bidders as its parent company, Bed Bath & Beyond, works to auction off its assets and keep some form of its business alive, CNBC has learned. The interested parties include an unknown bidder, who would purchase the banner as a going concern and keep about 75% of stores open, according to correspondence obtained by CNBC. The other interested bidder is Babylist, a direct-to-consumer baby registry website that wants to buy its trademark and domain, that company’s CEO, Natalie Gordon, confirmed to CNBC. So far, it doesn’t appear as if there’s any interest in buying the Bed Bath banner and keeping its stores open, but some bidders are interested in buying its digital assets, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.

FTX Objects to Extension of Mediation Talks for Bankrupt Crypto Lender Genesis

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FTX Trading Ltd. and its affiliates joined a smattering of other creditors of bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Holdco in objecting to extending court-mediated settlement talks, according to a court filing, Bloomberg News reported. Claiming to be a major Genesis creditor, FTX said it hadn’t been invited to court-appointed mediation that went on in May and included Genesis, its parent company Digital Currency Group and creditors such as crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co. FTX also said it was caught off guard when Genesis filed on Thursday to have FTX’s unliquidated claims estimated at zero. FTX says it is owed $3.9 billion. Genesis said that throwing out the FTX claims “is critical to avoid undue delay in the timing and amount of creditor distributions, and to expeditiously pursue confirmation of a chapter 11 plan.” The objection adds yet another complication to the attempts for a settlement between DCG, Genesis and its creditors. FTX is joining more than a dozen other individual Genesis creditors who have filed their objections to extending the mediation. Genesis is seeking to continue the talks through June 16, and claims to have the support of DCG and Gemini. A hearing on the extension is scheduled for Monday. Because FTX hasn’t been included, “the mediation is a waste of estate resources without the inclusion of the FTX Debtors and should not continue without the FTX Debtors’ involvement,” FTX said in its filing.

Data-Center Operator Cyxtera Files for Bankruptcy

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Data-center operator Cyxtera Technologies Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection in New Jersey on Sunday, two years after the company went public, as it struggles to pay down debt and faces a severe funding crunch, the Economic Times reported. Miami, Florida-based Cyxtera is a provider of co-location services, which allows companies to keep their privately-owned servers and networking equipment in a third-party data center, such as ones owned by Cyxtera. In March, the company entered into an agreement with its lenders to extend its $120.1 million revolving credit facility and extended its maturity to 2024. Cyxtera shares have dropped more than 90% since it listed on the Nasdaq in 2021, trading at $0.16 as of last close. It had agreed to go public through a merger with a blank-check firm backed by shareholder activist Starboard Value LP, in a deal valuing the combined entity at $3.4 billion. The company, which currently runs more than 60 data centers, listed both assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion. It has more than 5,000 creditors and entered into a process of restructuring its business earlier in May. It received $50 million last month and said in a statement on Sunday it got an additional commitment of $200 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its lenders to keep itself afloat during the chapter 11 process.