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Long before Triple Crown winner American Pharoah was born, he was almost repossessed, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. This year’s Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes winner came from a pair of racehorses whose unborn foals were collateral for a loan that went bad in 2010. By putting his stables into bankruptcy, owner Ahmed Zayat shielded the thoroughbreds from creditors, giving him the chance to keep the first horse since 1978 to win the premier U.S. horse racing series. Before it filed for bankruptcy in 2010, Zayat Stables LLC had run up more than $38 million in debts, mostly to Fifth Third Bank, which accused Zayat of trying to dodge a requirement that he personally repay a loan if his company couldn’t. He also owed a thoroughbred auction house, Keeneland Association Inc., almost $2.4 million for horses, according to bankruptcy court papers. In the run-up to the stables’ February 2010 bankruptcy filing, Zayat traded allegations of unfair business dealings and improper conduct with his creditors. The chapter 11 case temporarily halted Fifth Third Bank’s effort to repossess $37 million worth of horses, including American Pharoah’s parents, Pioneerof the Nile and Littleprincessemma.

Kitchenware manufacturer EveryWare Global said yesterday that it has emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership and with $250 million in debt erased from its balance sheet, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Sam Solomon, EveryWare Global's chief executive, said the company is leaving chapter 11 with a strengthened balance sheet and $110 million in exit financing. The maker of Anchor Hocking and Oneida kitchen products arrived in bankruptcy in April with a prearranged deal with senior lenders. They have agreed to swap the approximately $250 million they're owed for 96 percent of EveryWare Global's new common stock, under the chapter 11 plan.

LightSquared Inc. won a judge’s approval for $1.75 billion in exit financing as it gets set to conclude a contentious three-year trip through bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The wireless broadband venture, which has been locked in a battle with Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charles Ergen, also got permission to keep secret key data on fees to investment bankers and lenders led by Credit Suisse Group AG, Jefferies Group LLC and Morgan Stanley. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman approved the bankruptcy plan in a March 26 ruling that resolved most disputes between LightSquared and Ergen, and she approved the exit financing yesterday.

A toll road that runs across northern Indiana exited bankruptcy protection and is now be operated by Australia's IFM Investors, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. IFM Investors paid $5.725 billion to operate the 157-mile road between the Ohio Turnpike and Chicago Skyway for the next 66 years. The deal closed on Wednesday, according to a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. The 59-year-old toll road filed for bankruptcy last September after struggling for years with a heavy debt load and lower-than-expected traffic. A bankruptcy judge in October approved the chapter 11 plan ITR Concession Co., the operator of the road.

EveryWare Global, Inc. announced on Friday that a bankruptcy court confirmed the company's financial restructuring plan, according to a press release. The plan, as supplemented, provides for the cancellation of the company's existing common stock. The company's existing common stockholders and holders of in-the-money warrants (other than the company's pre-petition term loan lenders and their affiliates and certain stockholders affiliated with the company) will receive cash equal to $0.06 per existing share of common stock. The plan provides that the EveryWare's pre-petition term loan lenders will receive approximately 96.3 percent of the reorganized company's common stock in exchange for their term loans.

California medical supplier American Medical Technologies Inc. is preparing to leave bankruptcy protection after more than three years, the bulk of which were spent settling a $76 million billing dispute with federal health care regulators, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. With a two-page court order, Bankruptcy Judge Mark S. Wallace signed off on American Medical's turnaround plan on Wednesday, enabling company officials to put their debt-repayment plan into action. The plan calls for the Irvine, Calif., company to pay Medicare and Medicaid administrators a total of $35 million over the next seven years to settle accusations that the company took in money for equipment and services that weren't covered by the Medicare Act.