%1

Retailer American Apparel Inc. received a bankruptcy court’s final approval to tap its $90 million bankruptcy financing package provided by Standard General and other investors after the company was able to resolve a number of objections from unsecured creditors, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon approved the financing during a hearing yesterday “given the substantial negotiations” that resulted in a number of modifications to the terms of the financing. The financing provides $30 million in fresh capital for American Apparel while refinancing $60 million in debt owed to Standard General and other investors before the bankruptcy filing.

American Apparel is hoping to give its employees a boost, proposing bonuses to stem a staff exodus as well as funding for the defense of its top executives against lawsuits brought by shareholders and its former chief executive, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The beleaguered seller of made-in-the-U.S. clothing said in court papers filed on Friday that the bankruptcy has hit its workforce hard; it has lost 30 corporate employees and 6 percent of its retail staff since it filed for chapter 11 protection less than a month ago. American Apparel says it is sticking to its plan to keep open a large number of its stores during its bankruptcy restructuring. It operates more than 200 around the world.

Fresh & Easy LLC filed for bankruptcy Friday, the second grocery chain backed by supermarket mogul Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. buyout firm to seek chapter 11 protection in recent months, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Friday. Fresh & Easy tumbled into bankruptcy in Wilmington, Del., the company's second chapter 11 filing in two years. Last week, the company shut down its 97 stores and said that it was hopeful that it could find a purchaser that would restart the business. Fresh & Easy's bankruptcy filing comes as the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., owned by Yucaipa and Mount Kellett Capital Management, navigates its second chapter 11 filing, selling and shutting down stores. Since filing for bankruptcy in July, A&P has sold 159 of 296 stores.

A Delaware bankruptcy court on Monday approved supermarket Haggen’s plan to auction off the bulk of its stores in early November, in a process underpinned by tentative deals with two California grocery chains, the Seattle Times reported today. Haggen agreed to sell 36 stores to Gelson’s Market and to Smart & Final in two stalking-horse deals, designed to set a baseline price for the auction. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) objected to the plan last week, in part because Smart & Final, which operates no-frills warehouses in southern California, does not have a collective bargaining agreement with the union’s local affiliates. UFCW, which does not object to the deal struck with union-friendly Gelson’s, wanted more time to find other buyers for the 28 stores Smart & Final agreed to purchase. Others, including potential landlords, also filed objections with the court.

Quiksilver Inc. received bankruptcy-court approval Thursday to continue on its preferred path with private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management sponsoring the surf-retailer's restructuring, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The ruling from Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon comes at the end of a two-day hearing on the matter, during which the committee representing unsecured creditors opposed the surfwear retailer's proposed restructuring path and brought to the table fresh bankruptcy financing from Brigade Capital Management. However, Judge Shannon's approval of the Oaktree bankruptcy financing and plan support agreement executed with Oaktree came with some significant changes, made in an effort to create a better opportunity to find another, better deal.

If American Apparel gets the bankruptcy turnaround it envisions, the fashion chain will soon have its most profitable years ever, according to court documents filed on Thursday, Reuters reported. The company projected in a court filing that it would return to profit in 2018, its first money-making year since 2009. By 2020, the company projected a net profit of $23.7 million, well above its previous peak in 2007. The company warned in the court filing that ongoing legal battles with Dov Charney, the founder who was fired as chief executive last year, remained one of the risks to its future. The company accused Charney of orchestrating protests at its headquarters and said that he could undermine the company’s ability to hire staff and executives. Separately on Thursday, American Apparel sought to reassure suppliers and other creditors that they were key to its future, even though they were going to get next to nothing on what the company owes them.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Inc., the former Tesco Plc-owned grocery chain that billionaire Ron Burkle bought in 2013, is preparing its second bankruptcy filing in two years, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The supermarket company could still find a buyer for all or part of the chain, a move that may forestall a filing. An affiliate of Burkle’s investment firm, Yucaipa Cos., bought most of Fresh & Easy’s assets after it sought protection from creditors in 2013. The chain filed for bankruptcy after suffering from poorly located stores and intense competition in its Southern California home market. The company also cited the effects of the U.S. recession.

Oaktree Capital Management LP may consider combining bankrupt surfwear retailer Quiksilver Inc. with Billabong International Ltd., a brand the investment firm already owns a stake in, a judge in Delaware was told, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Durc Savini, an investment banker at Peter J. Solomon Co. who is working with Quiksilver, testified that “at some point” Oaktree may put the clothing companies together if it’s able to bring Huntington Beach, Calif.-based Quiksilver out of bankruptcy under its control. Savini added that he never directly approached Oaktree about a transaction with Billabong and that he doesn’t believe Billabong “has the balance sheet to support” such a deal. Oaktree owns about 20 percent of Australia-based Billabong. Quiksilver is in court defending its proposal to borrow as much as $175 million from Oaktree and Bank of America Corp., part of a broader plan to have Oaktree convert its debt into equity and assume control of the company.