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The U.S. operator of French bakery chain Maison Kayser has filed for bankruptcy with a plan to sell its New York City locations to an affiliate of restaurant operator Aurify Brands LLC, subject to better offers at auction, the Wall Street Journal reported. The operator, Cosmoledo LLC, and its affiliates filed for chapter 11 protection on Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York shortly after notifying the Labor Department that it was laying off more than 700 employees that had been furloughed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Cosmoledo had operated 16 Maison Kayser locations in New York. Aurify’s offer could be valued at as much as $10 million. If the deal goes through, Aurify doesn’t intend to continue operating Maison Kayser but would instead take over the bakery’s former locations to expand its other chains. New York-based Aurify operates restaurant brands including the Little Beet, Melt Shop, Fields Good Chicken as well as Five Guys franchises. The company in May agreed to buy the U.S. division of Belgium-based bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien out of bankruptcy.

Century 21, where generations of New Yorkers shopped for deep discounts on everything from Prada handbags to Jerry Garcia ties, filed for bankruptcy, the latest retailer to fall victim to disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Century 21 Department Stores LLC said yesterday that it is closing all 13 of its department stores and that it plans to liquidate its assets under chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. In recent years, Century 21 expanded beyond its roots in New York City to open stores in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. Going-out-of-business sales are set to start soon. The company blamed the bankruptcy filing on its insurance providers’ decision to not pay about $175 million that the retailer says it is owned amid the coronavirus pandemic and under policies to protect against business disruptions. Insurers that have received coronavirus-related claims have argued that most policies have exceptions for viruses, and courts have generally agreed.

Private-equity-backed iQor Holdings Inc., which provides businesses with call centers and collections services, has filed for bankruptcy with a creditor-supported plan to cut about $513 million in debt and hand the business to lenders, <em>WSJ Pro Bankruptcy</em> reported. The St. Petersburg, Fla., company and its U.S. subsidiaries, hobbled by more than $865 million in long-term debt, filed for protection yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston with a pre-packaged chapter 11 plan. Its backers include HGGC LLC, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based private-equity firm co-founded by retired football quarterback Steve Young; New York-based TRG Management LP; and Starr Investment Holdings, which has offices in New York and Nashville, Tenn. The company’s international operations aren’t included in the bankruptcy. Under the plan, lenders have agreed to swap out senior and junior loans for equity in the reorganized business. The company has lined up $130 million in bankruptcy financing and said it expects to refinance with a new $80 million exit facility and new exit term loan of as much as $97.5 million. 

The owner of French bakery chain Maison Kayser’s U.S. locations filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday with a plan to sell itself in a court auction, Bloomberg News reported. Cosmoledo LLC, which operates 16 Maison Kayser locations in New York, said in its chapter 11 petition that it had agreed to a sale of assets to restaurant investor Aurify Brands. Aurify, which this year bought the U.S. assets of bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien out of bankruptcy, also owns the New York operations of burger joint Five Guys, Melt Shop and The Little Beet. Cosmoledo listed assets of as much as $50 million and liabilities of up to $100 million in its petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The New York chain’s namesake operates around 150 locations in 22 countries. The U.S. restaurants started in 2012 with a shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The Canadian owner of 322 Garage and Dynamite women’s clothing and accessories stores has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. and plans to close some of its locations after struggling with fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. Montreal-based Groupe Dynamite Inc. filed its chapter 15 petition on Tuesday in response to “the refusal of certain landlords to negotiate and agree on a Covid-19-adjusted rental model,” Andrew Lutfy, executive chairman, said in a sworn declaration filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The company, which is undertaking similar legal proceedings in Canada, said that it expects its business to continue to suffer until a vaccine is available. One of the goals of the retailer’s restructuring is to free itself from a minority of its leases that are deeply unprofitable, Lutfy said. But the business also wants to renegotiate leases of other unprofitable stores, and, if those talks fail, those locations could close as well, he said. Groupe Dynamite has been able to renegotiate 22 of its 322 leases, Lutfy said. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Occupancy issues are at the heart of many significant retail cases, as detailed in the ABI publication Retail and Office Bankruptcy: Landlord/Tenant Rights, available at the ABI Store. 

Security First Corp., a cybersecurity software company that counts major Donald Trump supporter Robert Mercer among its shareholders, filed for bankruptcy with plans to sell its business to ESW Capital LLC for roughly $6 million, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The technology company, based near Los Angeles, filed for chapter 11 protection on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. It is the latest in a string of proposed purchases of bankrupt software developers by ESW Capital, an Austin, Texas, investment firm founded by billionaire Joseph Liemandt. ESW has also stepped forward in recent years with bankruptcy buyout offers for part of video-screen-technology developer Prysm Inc., business apps provider BroadVision Inc. and TV advertising technology business Ensequence Inc. Security First, which raised at least $140 million in debt and equity financing since its 2002 founding, has just three employees and, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, no longer has an office. The company has generated total revenue of about $92,000 in the past two years, relying almost entirely on funding from secured lenders to continue operating.

Shiloh Industries Inc. filed for bankruptcy with a plan to sell its assets to private-equity firm MiddleGround Capital LLC for $218 million, subject to better offers at auction, the Wall Street Journal reported. Valley City, Ohio-based Shiloh filed for bankruptcy on Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., with a stalking-horse bid from MiddleGround. Shiloh’s lenders are providing a loan of more than $123 million to finance the stay in bankruptcy and to pay down some of its outstanding debt. The company makes components for vehicles specializing in parts and materials that reduce weight and noise. Its customers include Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. Shiloh and its customers were already facing headwinds before the coronavirus pandemic hit. In the year ended in October 2019, the company’s production in Asia, Europe and North America fell by 12.2 percent, 4.3 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, according to a declaration filed with the court by Jeffrey Ficks of Ernst & Young LLP, who is serving as the company’s financial adviser.

Oil-services provider SAExploration Holdings Inc., which received millions in coronavirus aid from the federal government, filed for bankruptcy with plans to hand ownership of most of the business to lenders and bondholders as a way to deal with challenges facing the energy industry, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The company, which provides seismic data to the oil and gas industry, filed for chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston on Thursday and said that it has reached an agreement with most of its creditors to restructure a roughly $130 million debt load, eliminating about $74 million in liabilities from its balance sheet. Seeking protection from creditors was the best way to deal with its debt and to navigate the uncertainty of the global economy due to the coronavirus pandemic, along with the lower demand for oil, Chief Executive Mike Faust said. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department are investigating SAExploration over matters related to revenue recognition, accounts receivables and tax credits. The Alaska Department of Revenue is looking into the business over matters related to Alaska tax credit certificates.

The parent of Kings Food Markets and Balducci’s has filed for bankruptcy, as a sales boost amid the Covid-19 pandemic wasn’t enough to overcome years of pressure from big national chains, online retailers and meal-kit companies, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. KB US Holdings Inc. sought chapter 11 protection on Sunday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., with a $75 million buyout offer from New York investment firm TLI Bedrock LLC. The grocer, which purchased Balducci’s in 2009, operates 35 supermarkets—25 Kings and 10 Balducci’s—in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia and Maryland, and employs more than 2,100 people. Sales at big supermarkets have surged during the coronavirus pandemic, with shoppers stocking up on everything from bread to toilet paper. But for Kings and Balducci’s, the boost was too little, too late. “While the increase in sales during the Covid-19 pandemic has provided KB with a brief respite from its liquidity challenges, the debtors recognize that the pandemic will not persist indefinitely and has created uncertain and unprecedented circumstances,” said restructuring specialist M. Benjamin Jones in a declaration filed with the court. Before the pandemic, KB experienced “historically low” earnings, which the company blamed in court papers on competitive pressures and labor costs—a portion of the chain’s workforce is unionized—and pension obligations. Those pressures have significantly pinched the chain’s liquidity and cash flow, Jones said, causing it to default on $114 million in senior debt and to put off investments in store renovations.

TNT Crane & Rigging Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection with votes of support in hand for a balance-sheet reshaping designed to preserve the business in the face of disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Houston-based company was thriving when Russia’s oil price war with Saudi Arabia and the pandemic slammed its clients in the hard-hit oil-and-gas sector, Chief Executive Michael Appling said in court papers. TNT is pivoting away from energy customers, and moving into or expanding other construction and industrial markets, with its business of providing cranes, engineering and operators. Suppliers, employees and other unsecured creditors won’t be affected by the bankruptcy. On the financial front, the crane company was facing looming maturities within months on $466 million of its $666 million in funded debt. TNT’s capital structure was created in 2013, when it was acquired by First Reserve Corp., a private-equity firm. Talks with leading creditors were successful, and TNT arrived in bankruptcy having already counted the ballots from lenders, including First Reserve, to get it swiftly through and out of chapter 11. Bankruptcy will cost First Reserve its ownership stake in the company, which is teed up for a takeover by first-lien lenders, according to court papers. Much of the debt dates back to First Reserve’s acquisition of the company.