Randolph Health announced that it has filed for chapter 11 protection on Friday, MyFox8.com reported. Randolph Health will be continuing to operate under normal course of business during this process. Patients will still be able to access their health care providers and services with no interruption, Randolph Health says. Employees also should not miss any paychecks and will continue to receive benefits. “Over the past three years, we have undertaken significant efforts to strengthen financial operations, identify a long-term path forward and ultimately protect Randolph County’s health care future,” said Angela Orth, CEO of Randolph Health. Orth says she expects the process to be completed this year.
CraftWorks Holdings LLC, parent company to the Boulder-born Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom restaurant chain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the Loveland (Colo.) Reporter-Herald reported. In total, CraftWorks plans to close 37 of its 338 restaurants. Court documents have yet to detail which locations are included in that 37. CraftWorks lists assets between $100 million and $500 million and liabilities within that same range. The firm has between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors, according to court documents. The firm announced yesterday a credit and asset purchase agreement with investor Fortress Credit Co. that reduces CraftWorks’ debt by $140 million, or about 60 percent.
Troubled Pioneer Energy Services on Sunday filed for chapter 11, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The San Antonio oil-field services firm said that it had reached an agreement with key stakeholders for a “comprehensive financial restructuring” that will allow noteholders to swap debt for equity in Pioneer. Company officials said they had started seeking noteholders’ approval for its restructuring plan before filing for bankruptcy protection today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. The company plans to continue to operate during the court-supervised bankruptcy process. The bankruptcy filing does not affect the company’s operations in Columbia. “Over the course of the last several years, Pioneer has been challenged by the difficult economics of the oil and gas industry,” Pioneer President and CEO Stacy Locke said. “We have continued to adapt to the challenging market environment in which we operate, but our strong underlying business has continued to labor under a heavy debt burden.”
The technology company that developed Beam, a teleconference robot that broadcasts a user’s face on a fixed monitor, has filed for bankruptcy protection, saying that the product was slow to catch on and that the business incurred tens of millions of dollars in losses, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Suitable Technologies Inc. is winding down its business and has hired investment banker Stout Risius Ross Advisors LLC “to canvass the market for interested buyers” in its intellectual property, equipment and other remaining assets, the company said yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Founded in 2011 by Silicon Valley investor and software developer Scott Hassan, the startup received extensive press coverage for its Beam teleconference robots. But the market for the devices “was slow to materialize,” court papers said. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Suitable Technologies said it sold or leased about 7,000 units to customers but suffered operating losses of more than $50 million between 2013 and 2018. Hassan was an early developer of Alphabet Inc.’s Google and has been credited as a key contributor to the search engine. He has been Suitable Technologies’ “sole source of funding” and lent the business almost $92 million through an investment vehicle he controls, court papers say.
A Duluth, Minn.-based home builder has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy after falling behind on payments, CBSDuluth.com reported. According to court documents filed on February 13th, Calzion Construction LLC's total liabilities amount to $753,500. 68 entities, including dozens of local area businesses, are listed as creditors. Some are owed as much as $20,000 to $25,000, according to the court filing. Until recently, Calzion was the primary company doing work for Wasusau Homes, which provides custom built homes. Hacker Construction is now listed as the general contractor for the Duluth area.
VIP Cinema Holdings Inc., a private equity-backed maker of reclining seats for movie theaters, filed for bankruptcy with a restructuring plan backed by creditors that include Oaktree Capital Management LP, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The St. Louis-based company and four affiliates will slash more than $150 million in debt from their books through the chapter 11 proceedings, Michael Blatz, who was hired as chief executive about 18 months ago. The company expects to emerge from bankruptcy with less than $70 million in debt, he added. VIP Cinema’s biggest shareholder is H.I.G. Capital. The private-equity firm, which has more than $35 billion under management, invested in VIP Cinema in 2017, saying it saw “tremendous opportunities in the business,” particularly internationally. Demand for the company’s flagship product is reaching a saturation point, with many movie theaters already having installed at least some reclining seats. That has resulted in manufacturers like VIP Cinema seeing fewer opportunities to sell recliners, particularly because the number of movie screens in the U.S. has remained relatively flat, Blatz said. Pressure on the movie-theater industry, caused partly by the proliferation of online streaming services, also has caused some exhibitors, including AMC Theatres, to reduce capital expenditures, VIP said. The company said its profit margins also have deteriorated significantly because of an increase in raw material costs and higher tariffs.
McClatchy Co., one of the nation’s largest newspaper publishers, filed for bankruptcy protection today, the Washington Post reported. The chapter 11 filing will allow the Sacramento-based company to keep its 30 newspapers afloat while it reorganizes more than $700 million in debt, 60 percent of which would be eliminated. If the plan wins court approval, control of the 163-year-old family publisher would be turned over to hedge fund Chatham Asset Management, its largest creditor. The filing foreshadows further cost-cutting and retrenchment for one of the biggest players in local journalism, at a time when most American newsrooms already are straining to cover their communities amid declining ad revenue and dwindling resources. Twenty percent of all U.S. newspapers have closed since 2004, according to a recent report from PEN America, and the sector has shed 47 percent of its jobs. The publisher of the Miami Herald, Kansas City Star and other regional dailies has been saddled with debt since its $4.5 billion takeover of a much bigger rival, Knight Ridder, in 2006. The combination coincided with a digital boom that disrupted the prevailing business model and transformed the way news is consumed.
Wedding chain Noah’s Event Venue closed abruptly last week, leaving numerous engaged couples without a place to have their ceremonies, the Houston Chronicle reported. The Utah-based company filed for reorganization under chapter 11 protection in May 2019, according to the Better Business Bureau. A judge and a U.S. Bankruptcy trustee overseeing the case changed it to a chapter 7 liquidation last Thursday, the company's attorney Kenneth L. Cannon II, told other media outlets. he Better Business Bureau advises people with a monetary claim against Noah's, which includes couples who booked the venue, to obtain a proof of claim form from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and submit it to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
GenCanna Global USA Inc., a large Kentucky producer of cannabidiol, or CBD, oil and other hemp products, has filed for bankruptcy following cost overruns and construction delays at a new processing center and a fire last year at its existing facility, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Aside from facing operational problems, GenCanna said yesterday in papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Lexington, Ky., that it has been hurt by a “dramatic plunge” in the price of CBD products that began last summer. That drop has stressed its ability to raise new capital and pay suppliers. Yesterday’s bankruptcy filing comes weeks after three creditors sought to force GenCanna into chapter 11. GenCanna said in response the company had sought assistance “to find an out-of-court solution” and had been attempting to address the dispute with at least one of the creditors, Pinnacle Inc., in arbitration. GenCanna said that it needs a breathing spell in chapter 11 to evaluate its possible options, which include a potential restructuring or sale of the company. It also said the business needs to address a legal dispute involving its facility in western Kentucky. Its existing lender, MGG Investment Group LP, has agreed to provide $10 million in chapter 11 financing to keep funding the company’s operations.
