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Viking Cruises Ltd. sold $720 million of junk bonds on Monday to refinance costly debt from the early days of the pandemic as cruise companies are broadly seeing their fortunes bounce back after the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The notes, maturing in 2031, were sold at a yield of 9.125%, lower than earlier discussions of around 9.25%, according to a person familiar with the matter. Viking is redeeming notes that had 13% coupons and were originally sold in May 2020 when Covid-19 had all but shut down the industry. Three years ago, many travel companies were looking for financing to help stay in business. Now, their fortunes have improved: cruise line operators are still seeing jumps in demand after pandemic fears have largely abated. Carnival Corp. said on Monday that its quarterly revenue more than doubled, although the company’s shares fell after results failed to keep pace with investors’ high expectations.

River Island Country Club’s (Calif.) chance at a comeback is sinking after this year’s storm damage put one third of their links under water, the Sun Gazette reported. The River Island Country Club informed its members last week that June 24 will be the last day of play on the greens of what many refer to as a Kings Canyon gem. After flooding earlier this year caused major damage, the country club is currently unable to make the necessary repairs to restore the course to its full 18 holes. Six holes were completely destroyed after the flooding in March alongside severe damage to bridges and the club’s irrigation system. River Island applied for funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) but was denied. The club also began a GoFundMe page to collect donations but posted a brief message on its Facebook page in May that it was forced to shut down the fund due to fraud. In its message to members, River Island said there was hope that investors would buy the property and repair the damage, but that plan never came to fruition. The club has estimated total repair costs to be in the millions.

Slot machine operator Lucky Bucks is facing an early challenge to its chapter 11 case from junior bondholders after the closely held business proposed a restructuring that recoups a small fraction of more than $440 million in debt-funded dividends paid to shareholders in recent years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Unsecured bondholders including Marathon Asset Management, Monarch Alternative Capital and BC Partners objected on Monday to the company’s chapter 11 strategy that would mostly wipe out $300 million in debt they bought in 2021 and 2022. Lucky Bucks, among the largest operators of coin-operated amusement machines in Georgia, filed for chapter 11 on Friday blaming slowing consumer spending and greater enforcement of Georgia gaming regulations that took some of its machines at gas stations and convenience stores in the state offline. In bankruptcy, the business has proposed handing 100% ownership to senior lenders, while driving down its roughly $900 million debt load closer to $100 million. Lucky Bucks’ decline came after it loaded up on debt in 2021 and 2022 to fund shareholder distributions, including its majority owner, Dallas private-equity firm Trive Capital.

San Francisco’s once thriving hotel market is suffering its worst stretch in at least 15 years, pummeled by the same forces that have emptied out the city’s office towers and closed many retail stores, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hotel owners in New York and Los Angeles are filling nearly as many rooms this year as they did in 2019, according to hotel-data firm STR. Their revenue per available room exceeds what it was before the pandemic. But in San Francisco, hotels are still struggling badly in both occupancy and room rates compared with before the pandemic. Revenue per available room was nearly 23% lower in April compared with the same month in 2019. The city’s lodging business has been squeezed by crime and other quality-of-life issues that have kept many convention bookers away. Tech companies’ embrace of remote work also undercuts business travel to the city and hotel activity. Now, a growing number of San Francisco hoteliers are signaling they may be ready to give up. In recent months, the owner of the city’s Huntington Hotel sold the property after facing foreclosure and the Yotel San Francisco hotel sold in a foreclosure auction. Club Quarters San Francisco, which has been in default on its loan since 2020, may also be headed to foreclosure, according to data company Trepp. Other lodging properties in the city are also vulnerable. More than 20 additional San Francisco hotels are facing loans due in the next two years, according to data company CoStar.

A federal bankruptcy judge has ordered Diamond Sports to pay the full value of its media contracts to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers, the Associated Press reported. Judge Christopher Lopez made the ruling yesterday in Houston. Diamond Sports, which owns 19 networks under the Bally Sports banner, has been in chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed in March. Diamond said in a financial filing last fall it had debt of $8.67 billion. In April, the judge ruled Diamond to pay half of what the teams were owed in rights fees. “I think the contract rate is the right answer here,” said Judge Lopez in issuing his decision after two marathon days of testimony. The decision is another chapter in what has been a contentious week in the strained relationship between MLB and Diamond Sports. On Tuesday, the last San Diego Padres game was aired on Bally Sports San Diego after Diamond Sports missed a rights payment fee and let the grace period expire. MLB took over production of Padres' telecasts, beginning with Wednesday's game at the Miami Marlins. Whether MLB takes over other teams and Diamond Sports lets other payments lapse after the grace period will have to be answered over the next four months. If Diamond rejects the terms of the agreement, the rights would revert back to MLB and the teams.

More than three years after the pandemic slammed movie theaters, reducing the flow of new films and keeping patrons away, operators hope a slew of wide releases this summer will finally get those who have grown accustomed to streaming movies at home back into theaters, the New York Times reported. If they do return — for “The Little Mermaid,” “Barbie” or the latest from the Spider-Man and Indiana Jones franchises — moviegoers may find that the spaces look and feel different. Cinemas were already upgrading before the pandemic — bringing in cushier seating, bigger screens, better sound equipment, and tastier food and beverage options. But many theaters also went into 2020 with thin margins and may have survived only because of federal pandemic relief programs. Now cinemas are spending millions of dollars to beef up their offerings and surpass moviegoing of old.

The chief executive of AMC Entertainment slammed Robinhood Markets after the online brokerage posted a message in error on Monday saying that the movie-theater chain had filed for bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Screenshots circulating on social media showed Robinhood briefly issued a bankruptcy alert for AMC along with a message: “This typically happens when companies are close to running out of money or have trouble repaying their outstanding debts.” AMC in recent years has faced financial problems, though it has not filed for bankruptcy. Its stock became popular with individual investors during the meme-stock frenzy of 2021 and has remained a favorite among the cohort, with some believing the price has further to run. AMC’s chief executive, Adam Aron, called Robinhood’s alert “so ludicrous, so wrong, so irresponsible” in a series of tweets. He later posted a poll asking his followers about whether “we should sue.” (Subscription required.)