Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares slid 55 percent in premarket trading yesterday after the company filed for chapter 11 protection, allowing Bausch Health Cos. Inc. to serve as stalking-horse bidder for the company in a court-approved auction and sale processes, MarketWatch.com reported. Bausch, the former Valeant, will acquire Synergy's assets in a deal valued at about $200 million that is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019. Synergy specializes in gastrointestinal therapies, including its flagship Trulance product, a once-a-day table approved for adults with chronic constapion and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation.
Fairway Energy LP, a Harvard University-backed crude oil storage company, filed for bankruptcy Monday, citing cost overruns at a project near Houston’s Astrodome stadium among the reasons for its filing, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Houston-based company, which is entering chapter 11 with about $100 million in liabilities, said it plans to put itself up for sale as part of its reorganization. In the months leading up its bankruptcy filing, the company said that it contacted about 150 potential buyers but received no offers, according to a filing Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Fairway Energy’s biggest shareholder, with a 28 percent stake, is Harvard Corp., formally known as the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Other major equity holders include investment firm Haddington Energy Partners IV LP, which owns 18 percent, a filing shows.
LBI Media Inc., the nation’s largest private minority-owned Spanish language TV and radio broadcaster filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, blaming its woes on competition from digital media platforms and a heavy debt load, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Burbank, Calif.-based company has also faced legal challenges from a group of the company’s second lien bondholders, led by Caspian Capital LP, who sued to stop the broadcaster’s move to restructure its debt via an out-of-court deal with senior lender HPS Investment Partners, according to a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. LBI Media was founded in 1987 by Lenard Liberman, chief executive officer of the company, and his father Jose Liberman, both immigrants from Mexico. Like other radio and TV broadcasters, LBI’s advertising revenues took a big hit during the 2008 financial crisis and never recovered. LBI’s earnings reached a peak of $48 million in 2006 but fell to $19 million by 2012. Last year the company brought in $31 million — well short of the company’s $47 million annual interest burden, according to court filings.
For cryptocurrency pioneer GigaWatt, the hits just keep coming. On Tuesday, as the bitcoin market continued its weeks-long swoon, employees of the East Wenatchee, Washington, company, which hosts thousands of computer servers for cryptocurrency mining, learned that the company’s owners had put it in chapter 11, the Seattle Times reported. Monday’s bankruptcy move follows the August departure of GigaWatt co-founder David Carlson. This month the company’s landlord began eviction proceedings. Carlson, a former Microsoft engineer who began mining bitcoin as a hobby in 2012, was among the first miners to tap the cheap hydropower of Central Washington. In 2013, Carlson built what was then the world’s largest bitcoin mine, in an old furniture store in downtown Wenatchee, and later expanded into hosting services for other miners. In 2017, as prices for bitcoin soared toward $20,000 and would-be miners from the around the world poured into Central Washington, Giga-Watt launched an ambitious expansion: a multimillion-dollar campus of 24 prefabricated “pods” where would-be crypto miners could set up their own cryptocurrency servers. But GigaWatt has struggled to deliver on those ambitions. The crash in cryptocurrency prices since December of 2017 (bitcoin is now trading for around $4,400) has made it difficult to attract investors or hosting clients, Turner said. Read more.
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The company behind Visto, a digital advertising platform, has filed for bankruptcy, with plans to send its business to the auction block, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Collective Inc. on Monday sought chapter 11 protection at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. Before filing for bankruptcy, Collective says that it struck a deal with its primary lender stipulating a court-supervised sale that must be finalized by mid-January. In court papers, Collective, which helps its customers manage digital advertising campaigns, listed total assets of about $40 million and total liabilities of about $23 million. Lawyers for the company have asked Judge Sean Lane to approve a $15 million lead bid from Zeta Global Holdings Corp., a marketing platform co-founded by former Apple Inc. Chief Executive John Sculley.
Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. — one of the world’s biggest independent suppliers of physical marine fuel — filed yesterday for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York after auditors found a $300 million hole in its books, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company last week accused more than a dozen employees, including members of senior management, of orchestrating a fraud with a former affiliate. Aegean Marine said an internal investigation determined that nearly $300 million in funds was filtered to a company called OilTank Engineering & Consulting linked to a 2010 deal to build a ship bunkering terminal in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. About $200 million was listed on Aegean’s books in transactions with shell companies designed to obscure misappropriations to OilTank, which was controlled by the unnamed affiliate, the company said. The audit comes amid controversy over Aegean’s relationship with founder Dimitris Melissanidis, who was bought out in 2016. Melissanidis remained with the business as a consultant until earlier this year, when a $360 million agreement for Aegean to buy the Melissanidis-owned H.E.C. Europe Ltd. collapsed in March. A criminal probe into financial wrongdoing was launched in June by the Justice Department.
Taco Bueno filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday after reaching a deal that will ultimately cede ownership of the chain to a big, Dallas-based multiconcept franchisee, Sun Holdings, Restaurant Business reported. Sun Holdings, which operates more than 800 locations for a number of brands such as Burger King, Arby’s and Popeyes, will become the owner of the chain in a debt-for-equity swap. Sun, which recently acquired Taco Bueno’s bank debt, has agreed to invest in remodeling Taco Bueno locations, “increasing brand initiatives and enhancing the customer experience.” Sun Holdings will provide up to $10 million in financing for Taco Bueno to get through bankruptcy. It will then swap the debt it holds on the chain for equity in the company and will become its owner. Taco Bueno filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Texas, claiming between $10 million and $50 million in assets and between $100 million and $500 million in liabilities.
Expanse Energy Solutions sought bankruptcy protection Friday with a debt maturity looming and the oil-and-gas services provider dealing with unprofitable contracts and a tight labor market pushing up costs, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Expanse Energy parent Dixie Electric LLC and about a dozen related businesses filed for chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., after having reached a restructuring agreement last month with senior creditors. Jerrit Coward, brought in to serve as chief executive officer of privately held Expanse in January, said in a court filing that the restructuring proposal has been approved by creditors holding more than 67 percent of the principal amount of the Houston-based company’s secured loans as well as its unsecured lender. The plan proposes wiping out almost $300 million in debt by converting all secured and unsecured loan claims into equity in the reorganized business, he said.
