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Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. said on Tuesday it has reached a new agreement with investors that will allow the distressed retailer to get another $100 million in funding, even though its share price has sunk, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The agreement with hedge fund Hudson Bay Capital Management LP reduces the share-price threshold the retailer needs to maintain as part of an equity offering deal to $1 from $1.25 until April 3, the company said. The lower threshold will allow the company to collect an additional $100 million by selling equity warrants to Hudson Bay and other investors, bringing the total amount Bed Bath & Beyond has raised since last month to $460 million. At the time, the company had been on the verge of bankruptcy after having missed interest payments before it inked the equity offering. Hudson Bay, along with some other investors, provided $225 million to Bed Bath & Beyond last month as the first installment of the complex equity deal, involving a mix of warrants for preferred convertible and common shares.

Revlon Inc. is grappling with a growing number of allegations that some of its hair products cause cancer as the cosmetics company looks to exit chapter 11 protection, Bloomberg News reported. Thousands of consumers are alleging Revlon owes them money because they used the company’s hair relaxer products and later developed cancer. But a deadline to formally lodge such claims against the bankrupt company elapsed in October — just after the National Institutes of Health published a study showing a correlation between some chemical hair relaxers and uterine cancer. On Tuesday, Revlon’s bankruptcy judge extended the deadline by which customers with certain types of cancer can file claims against the company. They now have until April 11, which will also allow them to vote on the bankrupt company’s restructuring plan later this month. “What we’ve got here in my view is a mass tort in the making,” said Sander Esserman, an attorney who spoke on behalf of various cancer claimant groups during the Tuesday bankruptcy hearing. “It’s a dynamic situation, and there will no doubt be many cases in the future as they continue to market and the women develop various forms of cancers that are contestable.” Robert Britton, an attorney representing Revlon, said the company disputes any link between cancer and its hair relaxer products. He added that the exponential growth of claims in a matter of weeks suggests that more vetting of the claimants might be needed.

A New Jersey town sued the American Dream mall and entertainment complex over its refusal to make about $7.5 million in property tax-like payments and $400,000 for sewer service, Bloomberg News reported. American Dream’s owner Triple Five Group agreed to make the payments in lieu of real estate taxes to the borough of East Rutherford on land surrounding the mall in exchange for rights to build a hotel, minor league baseball stadium and offices. The payments to East Rutherford, home to the $5 billion project, were supposed to commence once the mall opened to the public, according to a March 3 complaint filed by the town in Superior Court of New Jersey. The borough said in the lawsuit that American Dream has “dubiously asserted” that the complex — which has hosted millions of guests and touted visits by reality television stars like Kim Kardashian — isn’t open for business to the general public. “The truth is simple: Defendants would prefer not to pay the borough because American Dream opened shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, closed for a matter of months, and — according to widely circulated reports in the press — has struggled financially,” the town said in the complaint. American Dream intends to vigorously defend its position, said Jessica Griffin, a spokeswoman. American Dream, located across the Hudson River from New York City, opened the doors of its entertainment complex in October 2019, almost two decades after a mall on the site was first proposed. Five months later, the pandemic spurred lock-downs to contain the public-health emergency and postponed the opening of the mall’s retail stores until October 2020.

Meridian Restaurants Unlimited, a roughly 120-unit Burger King franchisee, declared bankruptcy earlier in March, QSR Magazine reported. The restaurants are across Utah, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Arizona. Meridian also franchises with Black Bear Diner, but that part of the business is not under bankruptcy proceedings. Meridian attributed its cash flow issues to increased wages (33 percent in the past few years), cost of labor, shipping, and food inflation (22 percent in the past two years), and decreased availability of staffing. For several years — mostly because of COVID — the company has "suffered significantly" from declining foot traffic. This has resulted in lower revenues, without proportionate decreases in rent, debt service, and other liabilities, according to court documents. Meridian has lower revenues than the system average because the original founder acquired underperforming restaurants. "These lower volumes result in smaller profit margins, and thus greater sensitivity to the recent dramatic rise in labor, commodity, and maintenance costs," court documents state. "As a result, although certain of the restaurants are profitable, others operate at a loss, and have for many years, resulting in the Debtors' inability to meet financial obligations timely."

The owner of Pier 1 Imports and RadioShack is sounding out investors to finance itself through a possible bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Retail Ecommerce Ventures LLC is considering pledging the intellectual property of some of the brands it owns to raise money. When the pandemic sparked a wave of retail bankruptcies, Retail Ecommerce Ventures picked up a slew of iconic brands on the cheap, with the aim to revive them as online-first businesses. Its portfolio also includes Modell’s Sporting Goods and Stein Mart. Now it’s looking to line up a potential buyer for its portfolio companies, the people said. Investment bank Piper Sandler Cos has been providing advice to Retail Ecommerce Ventures. Founders Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez have been active in promoting their venture to retail investors on social media and TV, telling them they can profit from a strategy that buys distressed brands for pennies on the dollar and then turns them around. The duo sought to rebrand century-old RadioShack by launching a cryptocurrency exchange platform last year as the brand garnered social-media attention from tweets filled with expletives and profanity. More recently, Retail Ecommerce Ventures led a $35 million financing deal for Tuesday Morning Corp. The discount retailer filed for bankruptcy for the second time last month after battling supply chain bottleneck and inflationary pressures.

Authentic Brands Group Inc. is nearing a deal to pay about $1.3 billion for the parent of Quiksilver and Billabong surfwear brands, Bloomberg News reported. A deal for Boardriders Inc. could be announced as soon as this week. No final decision has been made and discussions could fall through. Boardriders, which also owns the Roxy brand, is controlled by Oaktree Capital Management. Oaktree, which specializes in distressed or troubled companies, acquired Boardriders — then known as Quiksilver — when it emerged from bankruptcy in 2016. Two years later it bought competitor Billabong. Authentic Brands, led by Chief Executive Officer Jamie Salter, is one of the most acquisitive companies in the consumer and retail sector. The deal would add to the company’s stable of dozens of well-known brands, including Reebok, Brooks Brothers and Eddie Bauer.

A retail venture that built a business giving second life to famous brands like RadioShack and Pier 1 Imports after they closed their stores in bankruptcy now faces its own financial struggles and has hired restructuring lawyers, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Retail Ecommerce Ventures LLC, known for reviving distressed retail brands as online-only businesses, has been working with lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis LLP to explore options including a financial restructuring, people familiar with the matter said. The firm, founded by entrepreneurs Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez, recently told its investors it would pause payments on its debt, according to a lawsuit filed against it earlier this week. Retail Ecommerce Ventures also is working with investment bank Piper Sandler Cos. and financial adviser Riveron Consulting LLC. The bankruptcies of a handful of retailers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic provided the firm with the opportunity to snap up a number of national and regional brands in 2020, including Pier 1, Modell’s Sporting Goods and Stein Mart. The firm’s founding entrepreneurs cast Retail Ecommerce as a way to leverage the brands into new, online-only businesses that would live on after they closed down their bricks-and-mortar stores. The firm allegedly reneged on a $5.3 million deal to buy GetSwift Inc., a workforce management and logistics software company, out of chapter 11 in October, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday by GetSwift’s bankruptcy lawyers. Retail Ecommerce pulled out of the agreement after informing investors that it would suspend payments on its notes and preferred shares, the lawsuit said.

Consumers pulled back on purchases of apparel and electronics in recent months while continuing to spend on groceries and other necessities, according to some of the largest U.S. retailers, the Wall Street Journal reported. Department-store chain Macy’s Inc. yesterday said sales were down 4.6% in the fourth quarter, as people spent less online and in stores. The company doesn’t expect sales to start growing again until 2024, as consumers remain under pressure this year and shift spending away from discretionary items and also away from buying goods to services. Chief Executive Jeff Gennette said he is seeing weakness across all income levels. He said Macy’s is focused on finding ways to grow by adding new categories. It now sells electronics, videogames, food and wine on its online marketplace of third-party sellers and plans to add 2,000 more brands on the marketplace this year. Macy’s profit in the quarter fell 32% from a year earlier to $508 million, but came in better than analysts had expected, largely because the company has been able to reduce excess inventory without having to “chase unprofitable sales,” Mr. Gennette said. He said that the company has benefited from being able to offer more targeted promotions to shoppers.

The Corner Bakery restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy this week, after the COVID-19 pandemic emptied out offices, bringing sharp declines in earnings and revenue, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Chief Executive Jignesh Pandya said a lender recently threatened a foreclosure sale, pushing the company into bankruptcy. The shift to working from home proved problematic for the chain as it generates a large part of its revenue from office catering and serving breakfast and lunch to commuters, according to court papers filed by Mr. Pandya on Wednesday. The Dallas-based chain has locations in about 20 states including California, Texas and Illinois. It was founded in 1991 and was acquired in 2020 by Pandya Restaurant Growth Brands LLC, which is operated by Mr. Pandya. Corner Bakery was negotiating with lenders who alleged it had defaulted on its loans. The company was in talks with its lenders to pay off more than $20 million, when they sold the loan to SSCP Restaurant Investors LLC, which then moved to begin a foreclosure sale of its assets, according to Mr. Pandya’s court filing. SSCP didn’t address Corner Bakery’s offer to make loan payments, according to Mr. Pandya.