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Hertz Global Holdings Inc. is at loggerheads with a key group of creditors just hours before a Friday deadline to cut a deal to address missed debt payments, Bloomberg News reported. The deadlock between the car-rental company and creditors, including holders of asset-backed securities tied to fleets of vehicles, comes as some investors have grown more confident they’ll be made whole if Hertz files for bankruptcy and is forced to sell the cars backing their bonds, the people said. Hertz is running out of time to either extend a forbearance agreement or make around $400 million of lease payments. If no deal can be reached, Hertz may need to seek court protection in the coming days. Top shareholder Carl Icahn could still swoop in with a last-minute rescue to protect a $1.6 billion investment, now worth about $170 million as of yesterday’s close, according to sources. An uptick in used vehicle prices from the dismal levels seen in March and April have given ABS holders less incentive to extend the forbearance period for Hertz a second time. Back in April, lenders were more willing to be lenient to avoid selling the vehicles backing the ABS into a deeply-depressed market.

Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment is trying to hammer out an agreement to borrow another $100 million to keep its shuttered casinos afloat after missing a self-imposed deadline last week to get a loan, Bloomberg News reported. Some investors pushed back on the company’s efforts to borrow earlier this month, citing concerns including the casino operator’s ability to raise all the money it needs to repay maturing debt next year and to fund ambitious planned expansion. A group of Mohegan lenders tapped investment bankers at Rothschild & Co. as financial advisers while negotiations continue, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Representatives for Credit Suisse Group AG, which is leading the loan offering, and for Rothschild declined to comment, while Mohegan didn’t respond to a request for comment. The company had offered to pay a yield of over 14 percent for a new loan maturing in October 2021. It also sought to change lending agreements known as covenants on its existing loans to give it more flexibility to navigate a period with lower revenue. It is an extension of the Mohegan tribe in Connecticut and operates the Mohegan Sun in that state as well as other casinos in North America.

Model and social-media influencer Kendall Jenner has agreed to pay $90,000 to settle a lawsuit over an Instagram post promoting Fyre Festival, the 2017 music event whose collapse went viral online, spawned two documentaries and resulted in prison for the organizer, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The since-deleted Instagram post was the subject of a 2019 lawsuit brought by a bankruptcy trustee who is recovering money for Fyre Festival creditors who lost money in the event. Artists including Migos, Pusha T, Blink-182 and Lil Yachty who were booked but never performed at the event were also sued to recover money paid by festival organizer William “Billy” McFarland. Terms of the settlement were described in papers filed Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Jenner, who has 129 million Instagram followers, was allegedly paid $250,000 for the Instagram post promoting the event and was paid an additional $25,000 days later by McFarland’s Fyre Media Inc., according to the lawsuit brought by bankruptcy trustee Gregory Messer. The settlement was reached after Jenner and the trustee agreed to mediation late last year.

Apex Parks Group LLC, a bankrupt amusement-park company whose operations have been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, is being taken over by a lender group led by Cerberus Capital Management LP for $45 million, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Cerberus, which has more than $42 billion in credit, private-equity and real-estate assets, is making the purchase in the form of a credit bid. A credit bid is an offer to buy a company by canceling some of the debt owed to the buyer. Apex, based in Irvine, Calif., entered bankruptcy last month with 10 entertainment centers and two water parks operating under such names as Big Kahuna’s, Sahara Sam’s, Boomers and SpeedZone in California, Florida and New Jersey. The company has struggled financially for years, partly due to increased competition. The Cerberus deal is the culmination of a sales process that failed to generate another serious bid, according to a filing on Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.

One month after filing for bankruptcy, the XFL is reportedly seeking new ownership in an attempt to save the league, according to Axios. Documents show that an investment bank, Houlihan Lokey, intends to manage the process, with letter of intent due by June 12 and formal bids due on July 6. The XFL claims to have been on pace to generate $46 million in revenue during its inaugural season. The league also had an average game attendance of 20,000 and 1.9 million average broadcast viewers for the nationally distributed games. But the pandemic forced the league to cancel the rest of the season, suspend operations and lay off employees.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. inked an agreement with lenders to provide a 2½ week extension for debt restructuring negotiations after the car rental company missed a recent lease payment, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Estero, Fla.-based car-rental company got lenders to waive the potential debt default until May 22 to provide additional time for discussions “with the goal to develop a financing strategy and structure that better reflects the economic impact of the Covid-19 global pandemic and Hertz’ ongoing operating and financing requirements,” according to a securities filing yesterday. The extension buys the company time to negotiate with lenders and bondholders regarding a planned chapter 11 filing. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the company has hired FTI Consulting Inc. as a restructuring adviser for the planned bankruptcy, in addition to other legal and financial help. Hertz’s financial restructuring is expected to be unusually complex, given the company’s immense balance sheet with more than $17 billion in debt, as well as a complicated capital structure. Hertz, as well as rival Avis Budget Group Inc., have come under intensifying financial pressure as ridership has plunged with travel curtailed.

Casinos with fewer than 500 employees are eligible to receive loans from a new pot of $310 billion in small-business funding that was released on Monday, a rule change that could help casinos hire back workers but was opposed by anti-gambling advocates, the <em>Washington Post</em> reported. For nearly 25 years, companies that made more than one-third of their revenue from gambling were barred from receiving Small Business Administration loans. That remained true when the government doled out a $349 billion fund for small businesses, called the Paycheck Protection Program, as part of the $2 trillion economic stimulus package. But following lobbying from the casino industry, rules issued by President Trump’s administration on Friday state that no business is disqualified from receiving PPP loans because of gambling revenue. That follows a softening of the government’s stance two weeks ago, when the Treasury Department raised the cap on gambling earnings from one-third of a company’s revenue to one-half. The new rule removes the cap altogether.

CMX Cinemas filed for chapter 11 protection on Saturday, citing the ongoing coronavirus as the catalyst for its filing, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The announcement comes after the company announced early in March that it would acquire Houston-based Star Cinema Grill as part of its ongoing expansion plans. All CMX locations were forced to close to movie goers due to social distancing restrictions, and the chain has been unable to renegotiate contracts with its creditors, including landlords, and movie studios, according to a statement issued by the company. The company said that 30 percent of its monthly revenues go to lease-related expenses, while 60 percent of ticket sale revenue goes to movie studios. The statement said CMX will attempt to strike new agreements to pay no more than 40 percent of ticket sales revenue to studios. It is also seeking deals with mall landlords that would make its rent structure similar to that of department stores that serve as anchors, the statement said. CMX is unsure when it may be able to reopen to movie goers, and whether its sales will return to normal once stay-at-home orders are lifted, the statement said.