Less than six months after the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minn., filed its chapter 11 bankruptcy petition, a bankruptcy court has approved a plan for reorganization jointly submitted by the diocese and the creditors’ committee of clergy abuse survivors, Catholic News Service reported. This reorganization plan, approved on Dec. 3, “represents the culmination of several years of respectful negotiations among all the parties involved,” St. Cloud Bishop Donald J. Kettler said in a statement. The plan provides for a $22.5 million trust to compensate survivors of clergy sexual abuse. The funds will be made up of insurance coverage settlements, $14 million; property sales, including the St. Cloud Children’s Home, $5.25 million; and contributions from parishes and a line of credit, $3.25 million. The plan also includes non-monetary protocols for the protection of children. The Diocese of St. Cloud filed a voluntary petition June 15 for relief under chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code after the diocese and abuse survivors reached agreement in May on a framework for a resolution of all clergy sexual abuse claims against the diocese and area parishes.
The bankrupt operator of the Crescent Dunes solar project in Nevada has won court approval of a restructuring that will cut debt and reshuffle ownership of the government-backed power plant, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Karen Owens said on Thursday that she would confirm a chapter 11 exit plan covering project operator Solar Energy LLC following a trial last month that considered the objections of a dissident stakeholder. Crescent Dunes has been shut down because of technical problems. But the company in line to take over the 110-megawatt site, an affiliate of Spain’s ACS Servicios Comunicaciones y Energía S.L., has been working to repair the power plant so it can resume operations. Crescent Dunes, located in Nye County desert about halfway between Las Vegas and Reno, was supposed to be the first plant of its kind used at commercial scale in the U.S. An array of mirrors was designed to focus the sun’s rays on a stream of superheated liquid that could be kept hot in insulated tanks for weeks, heating steam generators even after the sun sets. Competing technologies had become cheaper by the time the plant became operational in 2015, while Crescent Dunes faced technical setbacks of its own. The company filed for chapter 11 protection in July. The restructuring will repay less than half of a $425 million loan issued in 2011 to build the project and guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Energy while handing 100 percent ownership of Tonopah to the ACS affiliate, Cobra Thermosolar Plants Inc. It is also funding the restructuring.
J.C. Penney is almost at the end of its bankruptcy after getting a verbal confirmation Tuesday of its plan from Bankruptcy Judge David Jones, the Dallas Morning News reported. That plan of reorganization includes the sale of the retail company to landlords Simon and Brookfield and a big chunk of its real estate to lenders to pay down debt. The pending transaction includes a complex document for the transfer of 160 stores and six distribution centers to Penney’s lenders. Penney’s shareholders continued to object to the plan’s treatment of their rights to future claims, their lawyer Mathew Okin said at the hearing. In response, Judge Jones granted shareholders pre-petition claim status, giving them future rights if they pursue a legal case. The judge deemed himself the gatekeeper of that status but noted that any shareholder claims would be dwarfed by creditors who have agreed to the plan of reorganization. Penney’s shareholders are holding stock with no value but haven’t accepted that the bankruptcy plan has canceled their equity. Judge Jones had allowed them to form an ad hoc equity committee and approved funds to pay fees for financial and legal assistance.
California Pizza Kitchen says that it has emerged from chapter 11 protection with $220 million less in debt and no lending obligations coming due in the near term, Restaurant Business reported. Earlier disclosures by the casual-dining chain indicate that the court-approved plan of reorganization leaves the brand with $177 million in borrowed capital for expansion and sharpening the chain’s focus on what it calls a “Cali health” menu. The new bill of fare includes such items as a BBQ Don’t Call Me Chicken Pizza, a meatless riff on its signature barbecue-chicken pie. The new version features a plant-based protein analog in place of chicken. The company retired its debt by swapping equity for what it owed lenders. Those former creditors now own substantially all of the operation, California Pizza Kitchen said. The operation had tried to sell itself via an auction last month, but no bidders came forward. The company filed for bankruptcy protection at the end of July, citing the impact of the pandemic. Sales had been sliding for at least two years beforehand, according to the researcher Technomic. CPK currently operates or holds the franchise rights to 240 restaurants in 10 countries.
After years of upheaval, criminal charges and bankruptcy, California utility giant PG&E Corp. has placed its fate in the hands of a new chief executive with a record of reducing accidents, cutting costs and building bridges, Bloomberg News reported. Patricia K. Poppe, a General Motors Co. veteran who now runs the Michigan utility CMS Energy Corp., will be PG&E’s fourth leader in the past two years, taking over on Jan. 4., the company said yesterday. Not only must she reform a sprawling enterprise that’s been found responsible for sparking numerous deadly wildfires, she has to regain the trust of the public and government officials including Governor Gavin Newsom, who had threatened to take over the company if it didn’t correct its “culture of ineptitude.” And she has to do it while cutting $1 billion in costs. PG&E, which serves about 16 million people in Northern and Central California, emerged from chapter 11 in July after settling wildfire claims from individual victims, insurers and public agencies for $25.5 billion. The company’s last permanent CEO, Bill Johnson, retired at the end of June after steering the company through chapter 11.
Toledo, Ohio-based glass tableware maker Libbey Inc. emerged from chapter 11 protection yesterday as a newly restructured and leaner privately-owned company named Libbey Glass LLC that will have access to $250 million to get it started, the Toledo Blade reported. Last Friday the company, which will remain headquartered in Toledo, received a final order from Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein of U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, approving its amended reorganization plan and ending its stint in bankruptcy — the first in its 202-year history. The new company will be owned and controlled by Libbey Inc.’s former lenders. Documents filed with the bankruptcy court and with the Securities and Exchange Commission prior to Libbey’s bankruptcy filing in June indicate that during its last amended credit agreement in 2017, a total of four lenders — Citibank, J.P. Morgan, Barclays, and Fifth Third Bank — provided the company with a total of $110 million in loans. In its second bankruptcy plan, filed Aug. 20, Libbey stated that a group of prepetition lenders known as “Class 5” secured creditors were to 100 percent of the new equity interests in Libbey Glass LLC in lieu of a cash settlement. Their total equity in the new company was expected to be $162.9 million. As it emerges from bankruptcy, Libbey said it has entered into a new exit financing arrangement with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Union Bank, N.A. It also is receiving financing from a syndicate composed of a number of Libbey Inc.’s pre-petition lenders, believed to be the “Class 5” group. Under the plan, which includes concessions from Libbey’s unionized workforce, the company was able to reduce its net debt to less than $150 million.
