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The private-equity backed operator of the Houlihan’s Restaurant + Bar chain has filed for bankruptcy protection with a deal in-hand to sell the casual dining chain to fellow restaurant operator Landry’s Inc. for $40 million and assumption of some liabilities, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Houlihan’s Restaurant Inc. and its affiliates blamed yesterday’s chapter 11 filing on a confluence of factors that have stressed the casual dining sector in recent years including expensive leases, a tight labor market and “the rapid growth in costly third-party delivery.” The bankruptcy comes little more than a year after the business acquired more than a dozen Houlihan’s locations from its largest franchisee. Private-equity firm York Capital Management and Mike Archer, a former president of Applebees and TGI Friday’s, acquired Houlihan’s in 2015. Houlihan’s has almost $80 million in assets and $76.9 million of liabilities, consisting mostly of debt, according to court papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Landry’s owns Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Morton’s The Steakhouse, Joe’s Crab Shack and numerous other casual dining chain. In August, Landry’s made an offer in bankruptcy to acquire the assets of Restaurants Unlimited Inc. Landry’s is owned by billionaire Tilman Fertitta, who also owns the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets. The bankruptcy and the sale process aren’t expected to interrupt business at Houlihan’s or its other branded restaurants.

Murray Energy Corp., the coal producer led by outspoken Trump administration ally Robert Murray, has filed for chapter 11 protection, a stark example of coal’s diminished role in the U.S. energy sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. The eighth coal company to collapse into bankruptcy over the past year, Murray Energy marks the latest casualty stemming from a decline in demand for coal and competition from cheaper fuels. As the company neared bankruptcy, the price for some of its bonds tumbled to the point of being nearly worthless, reflecting the coal industry’s dimming prospects as the U.S. turns to abundant natural gas and renewable sources such as solar and wind. Some junior bonds were trading at less than a penny on the dollar last week, according to MarketAxess. Robert Murray founded the St. Clairsville, Ohio-based company in 1988 with the purchase of a single mine in Ohio and grew Murray Energy into the largest privately owned U.S. coal miner. It operates 13 active mines in the states of Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Utah as well as in Colombia. Despite his close ties to President Trump and his relentless efforts to lobby for a federal bailout of the U.S. coal industry, Murray is expected to lose control of his namesake company.

Williamson Memorial Hospital in West Virginia filed for chapter 11 protection on Monday, the Associated Press reported. Williamson, W.Va.-based Mingo Health Partners LLC bought the 76-bed hospital from Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Healthcare Systems in 2018. The filing lists at least 50 creditors, including $651,000 owed to CHS and $486,000 to Ohio Valley Physicians, an emergency department staffing company based in Huntington, W.Va. The filing lists the hospital's assets and liabilities both at between $1 million and $10 million.

Highland Capital Management LP, once a giant in high-yield debt markets, filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday as investors and former employees seek more than $200 million from the firm for alleged improprieties, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Dallas-based firm, founded by Jim Dondero, helped pioneer trading of corporate loans rated below investment-grade and managed about $39 billion in 2007, but it took heavy losses during the financial crisis and has been embroiled in lawsuits ever since. The company had been trying in recent weeks to settle some of the litigation it faces, warning its adversaries that it would seek bankruptcy protection if they didn’t compromise, people familiar with the matter said. Highland entered chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., listing as its largest debt a disputed $189 million claim from investors in Highland Crusader Fund, a hedge fund that has been in liquidation since the financial crisis. The second-largest creditor is Patrick Daugherty, a former Highland portfolio manager who has been in personal and legal conflict with Dondero since 2012 and has an $11.7 million claim against Highland, according to its bankruptcy filing. A group of investors in Crusader sued Highland in 2016 in Delaware Chancery Court, demanding that Highland be fired as manager for delaying the fund’s liquidation and claiming that Highland wrongfully paid itself $30 million. The group subsequently won an arbitration award that Highland has yet to pay, court documents show.

Tiger Oak Media, publisher of Minnesota Bride and more than 20 other specialty magazines, has filed for chapter 11 protection, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. The company, based in downtown Minneapolis, indicated in its bankruptcy filing on Monday that it has assets of up to $50,000 and owes at least 200 creditors between $1 million and $10 million. Its full financial schedules have yet to be filed, although specific claims add up to more than $2 million. Tiger Oak, which also has an office in Seattle, publishes magazines geared to the bridal, business and meetings and events markets, according to its website. Tiger Oak shut down its Minnesota Business magazine late last year. The company employs 86 people, said a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota.

Eleven years after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey unveiled an ambitious plan to rebuild New York City’s uptown bus terminal, the outfit tasked with completing the project has filed for bankruptcy, Politico reported. The developer, George Washington Bridge Bus Station Development Venture LLC, filed court papers yesterday, saying that it has between $50 million and $100 million in assets, but liabilities of up to $500 million. The project, announced in 2008 at an original cost of $180 million, called for the developer to build a modern bus terminal, with updated gates, a better waiting area, better connections to the subway and the creation of 119,000 square feet of “first-class retail space.” Since then, the project has been mired in delays and contract disputes. In 2017, then-Port Authority Chairman John Degnan called the public-private partnership, which opened years late, "an embarrassment to the Port Authority and should be an embarrassment to the developer and to the contractor.” Among the folks to whom the developer says it owes money is contractor, Tutor Perini Building Corporation, which has separately sued the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey over delays and cost overruns.

Houston's EP Energy filed for bankruptcy protection Friday morning, the latest of a recent string of energy companies to pull the trigger on chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Houston Chronicle reported. EP Energy is a Texas oil and gas producer that has struggled for years, finally reaching the tipping point amid continued depressed crude oil pricing and looming debt payments. EP Chief Executive Russell Parker said that the company has debt restructuring deals with several creditors and will work with the remaining ones to develop a complete reorganization so the company can cut down on its debt load. EP Energy, which focuses on South Texas' Eagle Ford shale and West Texas' Permian Basin, was warned near the beginning of the year that it had six months to develop a plan and regain compliance while continuing to trade on the world's largest stock exchange. Instead, EP's stock plunged further from just below $1 per share in January down to just pennies for most of this year. EP Energy still employed about 370 people in March, but that's less than half of the nearly 800 employees back in 2014. The Houston firm went public more than five years ago amid $100 a barrel oil prices. Crude is currently trading just below $60.

Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, the Hollywood production services provider that had been backed by billionaire Ron Perelman, filed for a prepackaged chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The company’s lenders will assume control of the firm, which also owns post-production companies EFILM, Company 3 and Encore, as well as VFX house Method. Last month, the company and a majority of its lenders had agreed to a debt for stock swap that would see the company hand control over to its lenders. When the financial restructuring is complete, it will reduce the company's long-term debt by well more than half and raise $115 million of new financing, the company said. Deluxe was founded in 1915 by William Fox, and was acquired by Perelman’s MacAndrews & Forbes holding company in 2006. As the company’s financial needs hit a tipping point, however, MacAndrews & Forbes opted to discontinue its support, releasing a statement in August stating that it “decided not to participate in the refinancing,” leading to the restructuring.

Somerville Brewing Co., which is behind the suite of Slumbrew beers, has filed for chapter 11 protection and is asking for an emergency hearing tomorrow, according to recent court filings, the Boston Globe reported. In the emergency motion for a hearing filed Sept. 27, the brewery said the recent buildout of a taproom at Assembly Row has resulted in “cash flow shortages,” and that the company has fallen behind in rent at that location. Overall, Somerville Brewing Co. owes more than $1.2 million to creditors with liens on its properties, according to the filing. The company is requesting a judge’s approval to use its cash and equipment so it can continue to operate while conducting a reorganization of its business affairs, according to the filing. If the company doesn’t receive a favorable ruling tomorrow, the result would be “immediate and irreparable harm to the estate,” the filing says.