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Chassix Negotiating Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy Filing

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Chassix Inc., a supplier of steering knuckles, control arms and brake components to large automakers, is working to finalize a restructuring plan with creditors and seek bankruptcy protection as soon as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Southfield, Mich., company, owned by private-equity firm Platinum Equity LLC, is negotiating a prearranged bankruptcy plan that would hand ownership stakes to creditors in exchange for forgiving debt and rework contracts with big automakers including General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. The company aims to have the plan in place before a bankruptcy filing with a goal of streamlining its trip through court. Chassix, which employs more than 4,000 people worldwide, is in discussions with banks and bondholders for more than $200 million in financing that would help it keep operating during bankruptcy proceedings. The company hopes to finalize a restructuring deal by March 4, when a grace period on a skipped $17 million debt payment expires. Overall, Chassix is looking to restructure about $525 million in bond debt.

Bitcoin Miner Aquifer Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

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Bitcoin mining company Aquifer LLC has filed for chapter 11 protection, CoinDesk.com reported today. The company claimed between $1 and $10 million in assets, as well as between $1 and $10 million in outstanding liabilities. Aquifer said in court documents that it expects to have enough funds on hand to repay unsecured creditors. Aquifer is the second U.S.-based bitcoin mining company to file for bankruptcy in 2015. Last month, CoinTerra filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy amid a deterioration of its finances and a lawsuit filed by C7 Data Centers of Utah.

Ivanhoe Energy Seeks Bankruptcy Protection as Oil Prices Weigh

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Ivanhoe Energy Inc. said on Friday it will seek protection under Canada's Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, as the company becomes the latest small oil-sands developer to struggle with oil prices that have fallen by more than half since June, Reuters reported on Friday. The company has been unable to make a C$2.1 million ($1.7 million) payment on a debenture issue and received a default notice earlier this week for the C$73.3 million issue. Ivanhoe was founded by famed mining investor Robert Friedland, who has lent the company $2.74 million since October. Ivanhoe is the latest small oil sands developer struggling to survive low oil prices while operating in one of the world's highest-cost regions. It owns the Tamarack thermal oil sands property in northern Alberta and controls another heavy oil property in Ecuador. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/20/ivanh-engy-bankruptcy-idUSL1N…

For further analysis of issues in oil and gas bankruptcies, be sure to purchase a copy of ABI’s When Gushers Go Dry: The Essentials of Oil & Gas Bankruptcy. http://www.abi.org/books/when-gushers-go-dry-essentials-oil-gas-bankrup…

Allen Systems Files for Chapter 11

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Enterprise software provider Allen Systems Group, Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection today to implement a balance sheet restructuring agreed to by most of its top-ranking lenders, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Supporters of the company's plan to cut its debt by $420 million include Franklin Square Capital Partners , GSO Capital Partners LP , KKR Credit Advisors (US) LLC, Cetus Capital II, LLC and Ellis Lake Capital, LLC, the company said. The bankruptcy filing followed a series of missed interest payments in 2014 by the company, which owes $327 million on senior loans, and $340 million on bond debt.

Saladworks Files for Bankruptcy

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Saladworks LLC, which calls itself the largest U.S. franchised fresh salad chain, filed for bankruptcy yesterday to fend off litigation by Commerce Bancorp Inc. founder Vernon Hill II, its minority shareholder, Reuters reported yesterday. Hill's litigation has made it impossible for Saladworks to find a buyer, restructure or sell additional franchises, the Conshohocken, Pa.-based company said in a bankruptcy court filing. Saladworks said that it hired the investment bank SSG Advisors LLC to look for a buyer, and that an entity controlled by Hill is its largest unsecured creditor. Created in 1986, Saladworks said it has more than 100 locations, and that all will remain open.

Facing Suits, a Nursing Home in California Seeks Bankruptcy

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A California nursing home fined by the state for substandard care and facing multiple lawsuits by patients and their families has taken the extreme measure of filing for bankruptcy protection in the face of millions of dollars in potential payouts, the New York Times reported today. The action, taken by North American Health Care, which operates more than 30 homes in California and other Western states, is being derided by plaintiffs’ lawyers as a legal maneuver to avoid what could be catastrophic legal verdicts, while defenders of the strategy say that they are facing mounting lawsuits from overly aggressive trial lawyers. Last year, another California chain filed for bankruptcy for similar reasons and in Florida, a bankruptcy judge forced Medicaid officials to continue paying a nursing home while it was under bankruptcy protection. North American’s step comes at a time of rising bankruptcies in the health care industry. Filings were up by 38 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to indexes maintained by the law firm Frost Brown Todd, which tracks such data. Overall filings for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, by contrast, fell by about 60 percent over the same period. Bobby Guy, who oversees the bankruptcy data for Frost Brown Todd, said the increase in filings among health care providers — like hospitals, nursing homes, surgical centers and home health agencies — reflected broader turmoil in the industry, including changes in the competitive landscape and the impact of the new health care law.  The threat of major litigation is a common reason health care companies file for bankruptcy, Guy said, albeit an extreme one. 
 
For further analysis of issues surrounding health care insolvencies, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s Health Care Insolvency Manual, Third Edition, from the ABI Bookstore. Mr. Guy was a major contributor to the book and one of its four primary editors.

Family Christian Retail Chain Enters Chapter 11

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The Family Christian chain has filed for bankruptcy protection, saying that sales of its religious books, music and church supplies at its 266 retail stores have steadily fallen for years, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported yesterday. Officials who put the Michigan-based chain into chapter 11 protection on Wednesday said that they already have a buyer who promised to keep the 3,100-worker chain — which is one of the country's largest retailers of Christian products — open for business. Its stores are located in 36 states.

Firm That Vetted Snowden Files for Chapter 11

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Altegrity Inc., owner of the company that carried out background checks on former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday as it implements a restructuring deal with its lenders, Reuters reported today. Altegrity, which owns USIS Investigations Services, listed assets and liabilities of more than $1 billion, according to court documents. The company said that some of its lenders, including funds managed by Third Avenue Management, Litespeed Management LLC and Mudrick Capital Management LP, have committed to provide $90 million in debtor-in-possession financing.

RadioShack Files for Bankruptcy; Sprint to Take over Some Stores

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Electronics retailer RadioShack Corp. filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection yesterday and said that it had a deal in place to sell as many as 2,400 stores to an affiliate of hedge fund Standard General, its lender and largest shareholder, Reuters reported today. Wireless company Sprint Corp. would operate as many as 1,750 of those stores under an agreement with Standard General, Sprint said separately. RadioShack's bankruptcy, which has been expected for months, follows 11 consecutive unprofitable quarters as the company has failed to transform itself into a destination for mobile phone buyers. But its sale agreement with Standard General could spare it the fate most retailers suffer in chapter 11: liquidation. RadioShack said in a statement that the Standard General affiliate, called General Wireless, would acquire between 1,500 and 2,400 of its 4,100 stores. Sprint would occupy about one-third of each RadioShack store, selling "mobile devices across Sprint’s brand portfolio as well as RadioShack products, services and accessories," Sprint said. Other potential buyers will also have the opportunity to bid on RadioShack assets, pending court approval.

Lionel Sawyer Law Firm Files Bankruptcy Owing $3.37 Million

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The Lionel Sawyer & Collins law firm, which went out of business at the beginning of the year, filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation at the end of January, owing creditors more than $3.37 million, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported today. The law firm, once considered the Nevada’s largest legal house, said in a voluntary filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas that it had assets of $931,626 in personal property. The only secured creditor, according to the filing, was Western Alliance Bank, which is owed $2.86 million. Lionel Sawyer & Collins was founded 48 years ago by attorney Sam Lionel and former Nevada Gov. Grant Sawyer.