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Carnival Corp, the world’s largest cruise operator, is currently not taking a position on mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for passengers before traveling, a company spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday. The company’s statement comes just a day after rival Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd said it would mandate travelers be vaccinated under a proposed plan to restart U.S. cruises in July. The U.S. cruise industry is currently under a “no-sail order” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Last week, the agency updated its guidance for the resumption of passenger voyages, which included the need for COVID-19 vaccinations and more frequent reporting of coronavirus infections from cruise operators.

Cruise operator Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd said on Monday it would require mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all guests and crew when it restarts trips from U.S. ports in July, Reuters reported. The company’s announcement follows the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest guidance last week to the cruise ship industry, including the need for COVID-19 vaccinations. The cruise operator has taken a hit for over a year due to the pandemic, resulting in heavy annual losses and plunging revenue, forcing it to take new steps to ensure customers can set sail again. 

Hertz Global Holdings Inc.​​ said it chose an “enhanced” offer from Centerbridge Partners, Warburg Pincus and Dundon Capital Partners to provide equity capital for the rental-car company’s exit from chapter 11, Bloomberg News reported. The deal, which is subject to bankruptcy court approval, has the support of holders of more than 85% of the company’s unsecured notes, Hertz said, a level of backing that gave it a “clear advantage” over a competing offer. The company earlier received a rival proposal from Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management. “We look forward to emerging from chapter 11 in the second quarter financially and operationally stronger, and well-positioned to achieve the opportunities in the rebounding travel market,” Paul Stone, Hertz’s chief executive officer, said in the statement Saturday. The company remains on track to exit from its bankruptcy in June. The announcement comes a day after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said vaccinated individuals don’t need a COVID test and don’t need to quarantine when traveling domestically. Hertz filed for bankruptcy in May when the near-total shutdown of the global travel industry sent its rental revenues plunging. It became a popular stock among day traders, who sent shares of the bankrupt company soaring against conventions. Hertz made a short-lived effort to raise funds after its bankruptcy filing by selling stock, but abandoned it after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission questioned the plan. The supporting noteholders have agreed to support the exchange of the unsecured funded debt claims against Hertz for about 48.2% of the equity in the reorganized company and the right to purchase an additional $1.6 billion of equity. They have also committed to purchase, or otherwise backstop, the full $1.6 billion of equity being offered to the holders of Hertz’s unsecured funded debt.

One of Nebraska's well-known golf clubs has filed for bankruptcy, but its owner says things are business as usual and the club is in no danger of closing, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. Dismal River Holdings LLC, which owns the Dismal River Golf Club near Mullen, filed chapter 11 bankruptcy in January. The filing came shortly after notices of a foreclosure sale were posted in the Hooker County Tribune. The club has two 18-hole courses, the White Course designed by Jack Nicklaus and Red Course by Tom Doak. Joel Jacobs, who bought the Dismal River club in 2017, also filed chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions for affiliated companies J. Jacobs Co., HC Land Co. and DRC III. J. Jacobs Co., DRC III and Dismal River Holdings all listed both assets and liabilities between $10 million and $50 million. HC Land Co. listed assets and liabilities between $1 million and $10 million.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. is exploring using a possible equity issuance to pare debt obligations or overdue rent, the theater chain’s chief executive said, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. If shareholders authorize the issuance of up to 500 million additional shares, as AMC has proposed, the company would consider using proceeds from stock sales to buy back debt at a discount or issuing shares to landlords as compensation for deferred rent, CEO Adam Aron said in an interview. The company also could keep the proceeds as a cash buffer against a longer-than-expected recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. When AMC has recovered from the industrywide downturn, the company also would consider using shares or proceeds from stock sales to acquire other movie theater chains or related businesses, Mr. Aron said. Leawood, Kan.-based AMC, the world’s largest movie theater chain with close to 1,000 locations, came close to running out of cash during the pandemic, and even created a contingency plan in case it had to file for bankruptcy.

Rival groups of investors are vying for the right to back the expected recovery of Hertz Global Holdings Inc.’s car-rental business and ease a path out of bankruptcy, <em>WSJ Pro Bankruptcy</em> reported. One offer was already on the table when a group led by Centerbridge Partners LP, Warburg Pincus LLC and Dundon Capital Partners stepped up with a competing funding package meant to lift the rental car provider out of bankruptcy. In court papers filed Monday, Hertz said the new offer is competitive with a proposal the company had previously floated to emerge from bankruptcy under the control of Knighthead Capital Management LLC, Certares Management LLC and other co-investors. “This competitive process remains ongoing,” Hertz said, noting that neither group has fully committed to a final deal. An early casualty of the travel-deadening effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Hertz filed for chapter 11 protection in May 2020, its fleets idled and its future prospects uncertain. The competing offers to shepherd the company out of chapter 11 cap months of financing and deal maneuvers that kept Hertz going. Both offers would pay off in full and in cash all senior claims, including bankruptcy financing and first- and second-lien debts, court papers said.

President Biden will unveil an infrastructure plan today whose $2 trillion price tag would translate into 20,000 miles of rebuilt roads, repairs to the 10 most economically important bridges in the country, the elimination of lead pipes and service lines from the nation’s water supplies and a long list of other projects intended to create millions of jobs in the short run and strengthen American competitiveness in the long run, the New York Times reported. Biden administration officials said the proposal, which they detailed in a 25-page briefing paper and which Biden will discuss in an afternoon speech in Pittsburgh, would also accelerate the fight against climate change by hastening the shift to new, cleaner energy sources, and would help promote racial equity in the economy. The spending in the plan would take place over eight years, officials said. Unlike the economic stimulus passed under President Barack Obama in 2009, when Biden was vice president, officials will not in every case prioritize so-called shovel ready projects that could quickly bolster growth. But even spread over years, the scale of the proposal underscores how fully Biden has embraced the opportunity to use federal spending to address longstanding social and economic challenges in a way not seen in half a century. While spending on roads, bridges and other physical improvements to the nation’s economic foundations has always had bipartisan appeal, Biden’s plan is sure to draw intense Republican opposition, both for its sheer size and for its reliance on corporate tax increases to pay for it. Administration officials said that the tax increases in the plan — including an increase in the corporate tax rate and a variety of measures to tax multinationals on money they earn and book overseas — would take 15 years to fully offset the cost of the spending programs.

Monarch Alternative Capital LP is betting roughly $600 million in three bankruptcy cases that the travel industry will bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The distressed-debt investor, which has about $9 billion in assets under management, is working on deals to acquire 15 hotels, including operating rights to the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif., for $470 million as well as the Crowne Plaza Orlando Universal Boulevard in Orlando, Fla., for $35.7 million. Monarch is also positioned to take over retail space in the renovated George Washington Bridge Bus Station in northern Manhattan, according to court papers filed Thursday. The deals come amid indications that tourism and travel are picking up as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues across the U.S. Passenger volumes at U.S. airports hit a fresh pandemic high this week, with more than 1.5 million people passing security on Sunday, according to the Transportation Security Administration, although volumes remain down about 40% from 2019 levels. While Monarch has traditionally invested in the debt of distressed and bankrupt companies, it has grown increasingly interested in real estate. The firm said on Friday in announcing the Crowne Plaza Orlando deal that it sees significant opportunities in the hospitality sector despite its setbacks.

Companies harmed by the coronavirus pandemic can soon borrow up to $500,000 through the Small Business Administration’s emergency lending program, raising a cap that has frustrated many applicants, the New York Times reported. “The pandemic has lasted longer than expected,” Isabella Casillas Guzman, the agency’s administrator, said on Wednesday. “We are here to help our small businesses, and that is why I’m proud to more than triple the amount of funding they can access.” The change to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program — known as EIDL and pronounced as idle — will take effect the week of April 6. Those who have already received loans but might now qualify for more money will be contacted and offered the opportunity to apply for an increase, the agency said. The Small Business Administration has approved $200 billion in disaster loans to 3.8 million borrowers since the program began last year. Unlike the forgivable loans made through the larger and more prominent Paycheck Protection Program, the disaster loans must be paid back. But they carry a low interest rate and a long repayment term. Normally, the decades-old disaster program makes loans of up to $2 million, and in the early days of the pandemic, the agency gave some applicants as much as $900,000. But it soon capped loans at $150,000 because it feared exhausting the available funding. That limit — which the agency did not tell borrowers about for months — angered applicants who needed more capital to keep their struggling ventures alive. The agency has $270 billion left to lend through the pandemic relief program, James Rivera, the head of the agency’s Office of Disaster Assistance, told senators at a hearing yesterday.