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Oil-field-services company CARBO Ceramics Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection after reaching a deal with its senior lenders on a debt-for-equity swap, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Houston-based company, which provides ceramic technology used by shale drillers that rely on hydraulic fracturing, filed for chapter 11 protection with a deal that hands control of the company to senior lenders owed $65 million, Wilks Brothers LLC and Equify Financial LLC. CARBO is the latest victim of the continuing drama unfolding in the oil patch where benchmark U.S. crude, which briefly dipped below $20 a barrel on Monday, has fallen to its lowest level in years. From 2014 to 2019, the company’s total revenue for base ceramic media — its main product — fell from about $530 million to about $34 million, the company’s chief financial officer said in a filing on Sunday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston.

USA Rugby will file for chapter 11 bankruptcy due to “insurmountable financial constraints” that were accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, the governing body said yesterday, Reuters reported. The board of directors voted overwhelmingly in favor of the plan over the weekend and said that with a financial support package from World Rugby, it hopes to “deliver a foundation for future stability.” Under the reorganization plan there will be no impact on the men’s and women’s senior national teams, which had previously qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which have been pushed back a year due to the global health crisis. USA Rugby suspended play indefinitely on March 20 to do its part to slow the spread of the virus, which resulted in significant loss of revenue from spring and summer membership dues, sponsorship drawbacks and other revenue sources, it said.

A First Reserve Corp. portfolio company that provides production and processing equipment for oil-and-gas drillers has filed for bankruptcy and intends to liquidate after a potential rescue offer fell through amid plunging U.S. oil prices, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Tri-Point Oil & Gas Production Systems LLC said that it was in talks before filing for bankruptcy and exchanged draft term sheets on a deal to sell the business as a going concern in chapter 11. But the potential buyer told the company that, as of last week, it was no longer interested in purchasing the business in light of turbulent market conditions roiling oil-field service providers and the global economy, Tri-Point Chief Executive Jeffrey Martini said in a declaration filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Now without a commitment to sell the business, Martini said that Tri-Point was unable to secure chapter 11 financing that would have been used to fund operations while the company continued to market the business in bankruptcy. Instead, existing lender Wells Fargo Bank N.A. agreed to provide Tri-Point with liquidity under its existing loan to wind up the business in bankruptcy, Martini said.

Internap Corp. has filed for bankruptcy with a prepackaged restructuring proposal that would hand over the data storage provider to lenders owed $466 million, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Publicly traded Internap filed for chapter 11 protection on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., saying that it faced increased competition, decreased profitability and a liquidity crisis. The prepackaged bankruptcy of the U.S. business is designed to cut debt, extend debt maturities and provide liquidity while lifting Internap out of chapter 11 as a private company. Reston, Va.-based Internap’s non-U.S. subsidiaries aren’t part of the bankruptcy. Internap entered into the restructuring-support agreement with a group of lenders holding about 77 percent of its term loans. The lenders within the past week committed to providing the company with bankruptcy financing of $75 million to continue operating as usual.

Brooklyn-based ice-cream maker Ample Hills Creamery filed for chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Eastern District of New York, The Real Deal reported. Chapter 11 would give the company a chance to pare down its debt and reorganize its operations. The popular ice cream parlor has 14 locations in the New York City area: six in Brooklyn, four in Manhattan, three in Queens and one in Jersey City. Its two locations in Florida are in Miami and Orlando. The company had a branch in Los Angeles but announced in late January that it would close its Los Feliz location. Ample Hills filed for bankruptcy under two entities. Ample Hills Holding has between $1 million and $10 million in assets and between $10 and $50 million in liabilities, while Ample Hills Creamery has between $0 and $50,000 in assets and between $100,001 and $500,000 in liabilities, according to the filings. An affidavit filed with the bankruptcy says the company owes about $1.5 million to creditors and landlords.

Modell’s Sporting Goods Inc. filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday and said it plans to shutter all its stores, a stark outcome even considering the challenges facing today’s bricks-and-mortar retailers, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The chapter 11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newark, N.J., comes despite an unusually public campaign by Mitchell Modell, the company’s chief executive and the fourth-generation scion of its founding family, to enlist the support of vendors and landlords in a turnaround. In television interviews, he talked openly about discussions with landlords and possible buyers that are typically kept secret. Modell said yesterday he believed that a liquidation “provides the greatest recovery for our creditors.” “This is certainly not the outcome I wanted,” he said. Modell’s said it would continue discussions with financial creditors about a potential recapitalization of the business through asset sales or an equity investment. The company has 153 stores located mainly in the Northeast.

Foresight Energy LP filed for bankruptcy protection after it was unable to turn a profit on coal mining anymore as power generators switched to cleaner and cheaper fuels, Bloomberg News reported. The company, founded by the late billionaire Christopher Cline, is among a wave of U.S. miners to file for chapter 11 in recent years, including Murray Energy Corp., which owns a controlling stake and whose owner Robert Murray is an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump. The company listed between $1 billion to $10 billion in assets and liabilities in the same range in chapter 11 documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Foresight signaled it was in trouble when it suspended its quarterly dividend in May, and again on Oct. 1 when it missed a $24.4 million interest payment. It hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2014, and matters were made worse by 2019’s unusually heavy rains, which made rivers so high and swift that coal vessels had trouble delivering to power stations.

The operator of Art Van Furniture, PureSleep and a few other furniture and mattress store brands has filed for bankruptcy to close most of its locations, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Michigan-based company said yesterday that it planned to complete going-out-of-business sales at most of its 169 retail stores within the next six to eight weeks after filing for chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Retail stores operating under Art Van’s Levin Furniture, Levin Mattress and Wolf Furniture brands will be spared under the company’s plans, however. Robert Levin, the former owner of Levin Furniture, has agreed to purchase out of bankruptcy 44 retail stores operating under the banners and two related distribution centers, according to court papers. The proposed sale of the Levin Furniture and Wolf Furniture stores must be approved by a bankruptcy judge. The transaction would save about 1,000 jobs, Art Van Chief Finance Officer David Ladd said in a declaration filed in bankruptcy court. Art Van said it has worked out a budget with its senior lenders to fund its operations while completing the proposed sale and closure of the remaining business. The wind down Art Van has proposed will maximize value and recoveries for creditors, Ladd said.

Bluestem Brands Inc., which for decades has been selling everything from apparel to appliances through its Fingerhut catalogs, filed for bankruptcy yesterday with a deal to sell its business to Cerberus Capital Management’s lending arm, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Eden Prairie, Minn.-based retailer said that it filed with a proposed deal to sell its various businesses and brands to an investment vehicle backed by lenders led by Cerberus Business Finance, which is also providing a $125 million bankruptcy loan. The transaction is subject to higher and better offers, and the company has hired investment bank Raymond James Financial Inc. to conduct a sale process. Bluestem in its court filing blamed its financial problems on many of the challenges brought on by increased competition from retailers like Walmart Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. The company has also had to deal with some $460 million in debt, a burden that proved to be an unsustainable drain on liquidity, according to Thomas L. Fairfield, a Bluestem director.