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U.S. luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus Group said on Friday that it received court approval to access $675 million of its debtor-in-possession financing, which will allow continuity of the company’s business during chapter 11 proceedings and enable it to pay employees and vendors, Reuters reported. Neiman Marcus filed for bankruptcy in a federal court in Houston, and said on Thursday it had reached agreement with creditors for $675 million of debtor-in-possession financing to aid operations while it attempts to reorganize. The Dallas-based retailer plans to cede control to creditors in exchange for eliminating $4 billion of debt. Its debt currently totals about $5 billion. The company has said that it expects to emerge from chapter 11 proceedings in early fall with a $750 million package from creditors that provided its initial bankruptcy loan.

A Texas oil boom turned a single Neiman Marcus department store in downtown Dallas into one of America’s biggest luxury retailers. A century later, the new coronavirus tipped the heavily indebted company into a bankruptcy court, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Neiman Marcus Group Inc. yesterday filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas, becoming the latest large retailer to seek a court restructuring during the pandemic that has closed much of the U.S. economy. “We had a business that was on track prior to Covid-19,” Neiman Marcus Chief Executive Geoffroy van Raemdonck said in an interview. “Everything was going well in our transformation, but we had massive interest payments. Covid threw everything off track. This is an opportunity to reset our financial structure.” Other retailers that were struggling before state and local government mandates on social distancing forced businesses to close their doors are teetering, too. Neiman’s bankruptcy filing, in the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, seeks to eliminate $4 billion of roughly $5.1 billion in debt. The creditors will become majority owners of the retailer, which has been controlled by private-equity firms. Neiman isn’t planning mass store closings or asset sales as part of the restructuring. Neiman has secured $675 million debtor-in-possession financing from creditors holding over two-thirds of the company’s debt. The creditors have also committed to $750 million in exit financing that would refinance the DIP and provide additional funding for the business.

Auto-parts maker Techniplas LLC filed for bankruptcy with plans to hand ownership to bondholders that include HIG Capital LLC, saying Covid-19 has further hurt its struggling business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Techniplas, which has roots in U.S. plastics manufacturing dating back to 1941, filed for chapter 11 on Wednesday, the same day that a forbearance agreement with one of its lenders expired, according to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The bankruptcy was prompted by several factors that have contributed to a drop in the company’s earnings and liquidity, the latest of which is a pandemic that has punished the global economy, Peter Smidt, co-chief restructuring officer, said in a court filing. Techniplas has 445 active employees and 271 furloughed employees. Before filing for bankruptcy, the Nashotah, Wis.-based company cut 190 jobs at facilities in Iowa and Alabama. The company’s automotive products include fluid and air-control parts. It also makes such nonautomotive items as power utility and electrical components and water filtration goods. Last year, it recorded sales of $475 million and a net loss of $21 million. Nearly all of the private company’s equity is owned by founder George Votis.

John Varvatos Enterprises Inc., a men’s fashion brand favored by rock stars and celebrities such as Dave Matthews and Ben Affleck, sought bankruptcy protection from creditors as the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic derailed a corporate comeback effort, Bloomberg News reported. The New York-based company filed for chapter 11 as part of a plan to sell itself for an undisclosed amount to an affiliate of Lion Capital LLC, one of its creditors. Varvatos yesterday listed more than $140 million of debt in court filings in Delaware. In 2017, Varvatos sought to sell the chain to Authentic Brands Group — which owns Frederick’s of Hollywood — but Lion Capital, the company’s controlling investor, nixed the deal, according to the New York Post. Things got worse three years later when Nordstrom Inc. yanked some of Varvatos’s brands from its stores, resulting in a $2.6 million gross profit decline from 2018 to 2019. The company launched an internal reorganization, bringing in new management and pushing landlords to cut lease payments.

Citing ongoing industry shifts and COVID-19's impact on the lending market, Rubie's Costume Co. Inc. has sought chapter 11 protection, Newsday reported. Rubie's and five affiliated companies on April 30 requested that the court consider their bankruptcy requests as one and allow the group time to pursue a replacement package for about $49 million in outstanding credit, according to court filings. The business, with corporate headquarters in Westbury, N.J., and sales headquarters in Melville, N.J., estimated it could secure a new credit arrangement within 90 to 120 days, but said it may pursue a sale if proposals did not emerge. Rubie's requested immediate access to $7.7 million in investment accounts, arguing the liquidity is needed to facilitate the restructuring and to function as it gears up for the lucrative Halloween season.

Ultra Petroleum Corp. is preparing to file for chapter 11 protection for the second time since 2016, a sign of how some oil-and-gas companies that cleaned up their balance sheets in recent years are buckling once again, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Englewood, Colo-based company is in talks with creditors around a planned bankruptcy filing that could come within weeks. A bankruptcy would pave the way for restructuring Ultra’s roughly $2 billion of debt, while reducing or eliminating the interests of investors who took control of the company when it restructured under chapter 11 in 2017. The company’s decline reflects the broader struggles of the U.S. energy sector as the coronavirus pandemic has wiped out fuel demand and created a historic supply glut. U.S. oil futures for June delivery rose 5 percent on Friday to close at $19.78 a barrel — up significantly from last week, when oil futures fell below $0 for the first time ever, but well below what energy companies need to break even and down 68 percent since the start of the year.

The Small Business Administration on Wednesday said it would temporarily restrict applications for emergency small business loans to only those submitted by the country's tiniest lenders, an unprecedented move by the agency as it tries to field hundreds of thousands of incoming requests for aid, Politico reported. The SBA told banks that for the rest of the day, starting at 4 p.m. and ending at 11:59 p.m., its systems would only accept Paycheck Protection Program loan applications from lenders with less than $1 billion in assets, representing the smallest in the industry. "SBA and Treasury will evaluate whether to create a similar reserved time again in the future," the agency said. The announcement was the Trump administration's latest sudden shift in the program, which Congress created to help fight layoffs during the pandemic but which has been dogged by problems since it was launched on April 3. Lenders have seen huge demand for the small business loans, which can be forgiven if employers keep their payrolls. The new policy further inflamed tensions between the SBA and big banks, which have complained they've received little clarity on how the agency will handle their massive backlog of applications. Large lenders have said they have no idea how the agency is handling hundreds of thousands of applications that they submitted in bulk filings this week.

Superior Air Charter LLC filed for bankruptcy protection, unable to keep its private charter service aloft while the coronavirus curtails travel, Bloomberg News reported. The aviation company listed liabilities of $50 million to $100 million and assets of no more than $10 million, according to a chapter 11 petition filed with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware. Superior is affiliated with JetSuite, the private jet charter company, which had to ground its fleet of planes April 15 and furloughed most of its crewmembers, according to its website. JetSuite cited the COVID-19 outbreak, which has forced travel corporations across the globe to shut operations to stem the spread. The filing gives Superior Air’s management a break on its debts while it works out a recovery plan. Superior Air arranged a $3.6 million bankruptcy loan to help maintain operations during its restructuring process, court papers show. The loan will be made by JetSuiteX Inc., which is Superior Air’s ultimate parent, and Delux Public Charter, LLC, another JetSuiteX affiliate, according to court papers. JetSuiteX isn’t included in the bankruptcy filing. Managers will consider selling the company or individual assets as part of the bankruptcy. JetSuite is a private jet airline that charters flights on its fleet of Embraer Phenom 100s, Phenom 300s and a Legacy 650. The company offers private flights throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Alex Wilcox, chief executive officer and founder of the company, was also a co-founder of JetBlue Airways Corp.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas yesterday after the company recently skipped making an interest payment and said it had retained restructuring advisers, Reuters reported. The Houston-based contract drilling company’s filing, one of 15 of its group companies seeking protection under chapter 11, said day rates and demand for its services had “worsened precipitously” this year amid a “price war” between OPEC and Russia and the steep drop in oil demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The company has significant operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The filing comes as the five biggest U.S. and European firms have cut spending an average of 23 percent in response to the drop in oil demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The companies are Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell, BP PLC, Total and Chevron Corp. Global spending on oilfield equipment and services is forecast to fall 21 percent this year to its lowest level since 2005. Oil futures prices last week closed below $0 for the first time in history. Chevron, BP and others have been reducing deepwater drilling projects, including the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, where some of Diamond’s drilling rigs are located. Loews Corp. was Diamond Offshore’s largest shareholder, with 53 percent as of April 3, according to Refinitiv.