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The Fairmont San Jose hotel bankruptcy case has arrived at some crucial stages while uncertainties swirl around a precise date to reopen the iconic downtown lodging and the viability of a plan to revamp its finances, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported. On March 5, the Fairmont San Jose closed its doors and filed for bankruptcy to reorganize its finances, with the hotel’s owner saying at the time that the hotel would reopen in two to three months. The original time frame of 60 to 90 days pointed to a reopening by as soon as early May or as late as early to mid-June, based on the assertions of the hotel’s owners at the time of the chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Now, however, court papers have emerged that hint at a later time to reopen the doors of the double-tower hotel in downtown San Jose. The indication of a later time frame — which now points to mid-to-late summer — arose with the filing by the Fairmont’s owners of an amended disclosure statement regarding its business operations, assets, and liabilities. The new disclosures were filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on May 11. The approval of the reorganization plan is seen as a necessary prerequisite to the hotel resuming operations. That’s because the plan must be in effect so it can provide the foundation needed to put the hotel back on a stable financial footing.

In a deal that hands a huge victory to shareholders of bankrupt Hertz Global Holdings Inc., the car rental company picked Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management to buy the company out of chapter 11, capping a dramatic tussle for control of the company, Bloomberg News reported. The deal, which gives a reorganized Hertz an enterprise value of $7.43 billion, was picked over an offer from a competing group led by Centerbridge Partners, Warburg Pincus and Dundon Capital Partners. The Knighthead-Certares plan would give equity holders a recovery of about $8 a share -- a package that’s made up of about $240 million in cash and warrants for nearly 20% of the reorganized company. Hertz shares -- which up until two months ago were faced with the prospect of being completely wiped out under an earlier plan -- soared as much as 41% Wednesday to as high as $5.19. That approached a high of $6.25 last June, when traders snapping up penny stocks on the popular Robinhood app sought to defy decades of convention and make money on a bankrupt company.

Many concert venue owners have been waiting on relief from the government, which in December passed a bill that set aside $16 billion in grants for venues that host live events. Eligible applicants include concert halls and theaters. But more than five months have lapsed since the bill created the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program (SVOG) and venue owners still haven't received any money, Bloomberg News reported. The Small Business Administration took four months to open the portal that allowed eligible businesses to apply. The portal then shut down just four hours after it opened. When the portal reopened in late April, venue owners thought they’d finally reached the promised land. Only now they are being told they have to wait until late May, at the earliest, to get their money. Time is of the essence for many of these clubs. After a year in hibernation, the live music business is expected to come roaring back. Outdoor venues are planning to open back up again in the summer, while indoor arenas aim to open in the fall. Promoters, venue owners and agents all believe the concert business will come back stronger than ever. Most people who bought tickets to shows postponed by the pandemic have held onto those tickets. “There’s a tremendous amount of pent-up demand with fans,” Dan Beckerman, the chief executive officer of the second-largest promoter in the U.S., Anschutz Entertainment Group Inc., told me. “There’s a lot of pent-up supply as well from artists who want and need to get back on the road. It’s going to be an incredible return in the next 18 months.”

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said it’s seeing a boost in travel demand despite reporting a 33% drop in revenue in the three months through March 31, Bloomberg News reported. The company reiterated that it’s on track to emerge from bankruptcy in June. It’s weighing plans from two sets of suiters to take the company out of chapter 11. As the nation emerges from COVID-19 restrictions, travel demand has come back and more consumers are seeking car rentals. Hertz is in talks with potential bankruptcy plan sponsors and said in a regulatory filing Friday that a group including Centerbridge Partners, Warburg Pincus and Dundon Capital Partners intends to counter a proposal from Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management that the car renter had deemed superior. An auction to determine the highest bidder between the dueling groups is scheduled for May 10, with a hearing to approve the final result set for May 14.

A group of investment firms including Centerbridge Partners is preparing a new offer to buy Hertz Global Holdings Inc. out of bankruptcy, setting up a final showdown over the company in an auction next week, Bloomberg News reported. The group, led by Centerbridge, Warburg Pincus and Dundon Capital Partners, plans to sweeten a previous offer that was surpassed by a plan from Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management. Terms of the new bid couldn’t immediately be learned, but any exit plan would be subject to bankruptcy court and board approval. The Knighthead and Certares plan assigned Hertz an enterprise value of around $6.2 billion and offered shareholders a mix of cash and warrants worth around $2.25 a share, Bloomberg previously reported. Hertz will review final proposals from both groups to determine if they meet its qualifications, and pick a winner in an auction currently scheduled for Monday. The Centerbridge group has until the end of Friday to submit a formal counteroffer, which kicks off the court-supervised auction process.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. determined a proposal from Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management to buy the car renter was superior to an existing offer from a rival investor group, Bloomberg News reported. The decision further escalates the brawl to own the car renter out of bankruptcy as travel rebounds and means Hertz’s current reorganization sponsor, a group led by Centerbridge Partners, would need to counter with an updated plan of its own to stay in the running. If the company receives further proposals from either group that meet its qualifications, Hertz would hold an auction on May 10. The Knighthead bid assigned Hertz an enterprise value of $6.2 billion, paid debt holders in full and offered shareholders cash and a chance to purchase warrants that valued their holdings at around $2.25 a share, Bloomberg previously reported.

The semiconductor shortage has slashed vehicle production so much that rental-car companies can’t get the new cars they need, so they have resorted to buying used vehicles at auction, Bloomberg News reported. This is uncharted territory for the likes of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. and Enterprise Holdings Inc., which have made their profits by purchasing new vehicles cheaply in bulk, renting them out for as much as a year and selling them at auction. In the past, they have bought some used cars to shore up an occasional unforeseen burst in demand, but rarely for the mainstays of their fleets. “You would never go into auction to buy routine sedans and SUVs,” said Maryann Keller, an independent consultant who used to be on the board of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, which is now part of Hertz. “These are special circumstances. There is a shortage of cars.” The demand is sending used-car costs soaring. The Manheim Index, which measures prices at wholesale auctions, shows they’re 52% higher than they were a year ago. “We expect to see records in the Manheim Index through June before demand softens enough to align with supply trends,” said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist of Cox Automotive, which owns Manheim, the nation’s largest used-car auction. “We expect retail prices to continue to rise into the summer, as retail trends tend to follow wholesale trends with a six-week lag.”

Following minor league baseball’s constriction last year and a 2020 without revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal is proposing roughly $500 million in federal assistance for the sport, the Hartford Courant reported. “Minor league baseball is in peril,” Blumenthal said yesterday at Dunkin’ Donuts Park, home of the Hartford Yard Goats, the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. “These teams have not played since September, 2019…. The teams have struggled. Many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy. We need to come to their aide. That’s why I am leading a congressional effort. We did it for restaurants, theater, live music. Baseball deserves it as much.” Blumenthal said the fund “ought to be flexible,” and compared it to the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Program, created to provide restaurants and bars with compensation for their reduced revenues of the past year. He cited the importance of minor league baseball to the communities, restaurants and local economies of the cities which they reside in.

On March 14, 2020, entertainment behemoth Cirque du Soleil shuttered its seven Vegas production shows due to COVID-19. More than 15 months later, the company will finally turn the lights back on, Nevada Public Radio reported. With state plans allowing entertainment venues to operate at 100 percent capacity starting June 1, Cirque will revive its pioneering shows "Mystere" and "O," along with its affiliate show "Blue Man Group." All three will be open by the big July 4 holiday weekend. Many have said the return of Cirque on the Strip would signal the return of the Strip entertainment. But it’s also a huge comeback for Cirque itself, the company having come out of last year’s bankruptcy. The company went from putting on 44 shows across the globe to zero revenue almost overnight and was pushed into bankruptcy. “The company was very, very healthy, but you cannot sustain close to 5,000 employees without any revenue. That is why we had to protect ourselves from our creditors,” said Daniel Lamarre, CEO and president of Cirque du Soleil. But from that came new investors who helped the company survive. “That shows a lot about the strength of the brand of Cirque du Soleil because, despite zero revenue for more than a year, people were willing to spend money to keep us alive,” he said.