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The $20 million sale of women’s clothier Nasty Gal Inc. to British e-tailer Boohoo.com was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported yesterday. The court’s approval was necessary before the deal could be closed. The transaction is expected to be finalized at the end of the month. Nasty Gal filed for bankruptcy in November after it failed to find a buyer for its struggling business. Boohoo, which wanted to buy Nasty Gal’s intellectual property and customer database to strengthen its U.S. business, filed a stalking horse bid in December. A bankruptcy auction was supposed to be held this week, but no other qualified bidders made an offer.

The Sears bought some breathing room through moves to raise more than $1.5 billion in recent weeks, but investors are growing increasingly doubtful that the struggling retailer will ever get back on track, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The cost of insuring the retailer’s bonds hit new highs and its stock price continues to tumble falling 5 percent on Monday to close at $6.52, an all-time low, signaling fresh concerns about the retailer’s future. Sparking the latest bout of investor anxiety were downgrades of Sears’s debt last month by Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service that were prompted by the retailer’s dismal holiday sales and continued losses. Sears has been selling assets to fund losses in its retail business and investors worry that this strategy isn’t limitless. Between 2012 and 2016 the company raised $12 billion from divestitures, according to Fitch, largely through the sale of real estate but also by spinning off businesses such as Lands’ End, Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc. and Sears Canada Inc.

Eastern Outfitters LLC, the parent of discount chain Bob's Stores and outdoor retailer Eastern Mountain Sports, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday, the latest U.S. retailer to do so amid increased competitive pressure facing the sector, Reuters reported today. British sportswear retailer Sports Direct International Plc. has engaged in extensive talks with Eastern Outfitters to become a stalking-horse bidder in a bankruptcy auction, the chapter 11 filing showed. Eastern Outfitters listed assets and liabilities in the range of $100 million to $500 million, according to court documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Eastern Outfitters is owned by private equity firm Versa Capital Management LLC, which acquired Bob's and Eastern Mountain Sports through the bankruptcy last year of Vestis Retail Group LLC, the previous owner of the store chains. Versa said at the time that Eastern Outfitters had more than $400 million in annual revenue.

Wet Seal LLC filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday following reports last week that the struggling teen apparel retailer had closed all its stores after it was unable to find a buyer, Reuters reported. The Irving, Calif.-based company listed assets of $10 million-$50 million and liabilities of $50 million-$100 million in a filing with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware. Thursday's bankruptcy filing is Wet Seal's second, following a Chapter 11 filing in 2015. The difficult market for teen apparel has triggered bankruptcy filings by high-profile retailers such as American Apparel LLC and Aeropostale Inc. in recent years as they struggle to cope with competition, declining mall traffic as well as changing spending habits of young people.

Although energy companies grabbed the biggest bankruptcy headlines in 2016, the number of bankruptcy filings by U.S. retailers nearly doubled, and 2017 looks bleak for the industry, according to The Deal yesterday. The number of bankruptcy filings by U.S. retailers with at least $250 million in liabilities nearly doubled in 2016 (7 from 4). Of the seven big retail filings in 2016, three chains suffered through large-scale closures (golf retailer Golfsmith International Holdings Inc., mall-based clothing retailer Aeropostale Inc. and casual dining chain Roadhouse Holdings Inc.). A fourth, clothing retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., closed hundreds of stores in the months before its bankruptcy, but only shuttered 10 while in chapter 11. A fifth, Sports Authority Holdings Inc., liquidated everything and a sixth, American Apparel LLC, will likely suffer the same fate after it failed to find a buyer for its retail business at auction.

British sporting goods company Sports Direct International Plc is in talks to bid for Eastern Outfitters LLC, the parent of U.S. discount chain Bob's Stores and outdoor retailer Eastern Mountain Sports, Reuters reported. Sports Direct, Britain's largest sporting goods retailer with about 700 stores in that country and continental Europe, has been looking for ways to expand in the United States. Last year, it bid for the intellectual property of bankrupt retailer Sports Authority, but lost to Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. Sports Direct is in talks with Eastern Outfitters about it becoming a stalking-horse bidder in a bankruptcy auction for the company.

Eidolon Brands and the Ben Hogan Golf Equipment Co. voluntarily filed for chapter 11 protection in the Northern District of Texas, Golf.com reported yesterday. Technically, Ben Hogan Golf is still in business, and is trying to develop a sustainable business plan while raising new capital. Its clubs continue to be sold throughout the country. The company’s top creditors are Perry Ellis International (owed $267,000) and Conti Edgecliff-Sias LLC, the company’s landlord in Forth Worth (owed $77,256.74), according to a report in the Dallas Morning News. Perry Ellis International is the company that licensed the Ben Hogan name to the equipment company.

Washington, D.C.’s Hawk ‘n’ Dove bar filed for bankruptcy to catch up on taxes, a move that comes less than three years after an ownership dispute prompted an earlier chapter 11 filing, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Capitol Hill watering hole filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, along with barbecue-themed sports bar Willie’s Brew and ‘Que located near the Nationals’ Stadium. Together, the restaurants have fallen $525,000 behind in taxes, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Washington. The restaurants will remain open during the case, said lawyer James M. Loots, who called the restaurants “profitable” but declined to say what led them to miss tax payments.

A last-minute bankruptcy filing has halted the sale of an Elkview (W. Va.) shopping center that has been marooned and shuttered since a crucial access bridge was washed away by flooding last summer, the Associated Press reported yesterday. News outlets report a group was forming on the steps of the Kanawha County Courthouse on Tuesday to participate in an auction for the Crossings Mall property, but the scheduled sale was called off after the mall owners filed for chapter 11 protection. The move will likely further delay construction of a new bridge to access the property. About 500 employees who worked at the mall have been unable to return since June floods washed out the bridge.