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Singapore's real estate investment arm is offering to buy four U.S. luxury resorts from hedge fund Paulson & Co. for $1.5 billion, subject to higher bids at a bankruptcy auction, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported yesterday. Paulson, as the leader of the resorts' ownership group, is proposing an Oct. 25 auction for such properties as the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa in Maui, Hawaii, according to bankruptcy court papers filed on Friday. GIC RE, the real estate-focused unit of Singapore's sovereign-wealth fund, is offering to serve as stalking horse at the auction and lead off the bidding. Its $1.5 billion offer includes $360 million in debt forgiveness and $1.1 billion in cash.

Seagate Technology Plc, maker of hard drives and storage devices, has reached an agreement to buy the former manufacturing plant and headquarters building of bankrupt Solyndra LLC, Reuters reported yesterday. The price for the building in Fremont, Calif., could not be determined. A bankruptcy court in February approved the appointment of Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle to market the building, which cost more than $300 million and was completed in 2010, according to court documents. At that time, the property was expected to fetch around $150 million. A final sale is subject to due diligence and the approval of the bankruptcy court.

The U.S. Trustee overseeing Eastman Kodak Co.'s bankruptcy was asked to probe the photography pioneer's patent auction by a New York hedge fund, which said that the "unusually secretive" bidding process was not likely to benefit creditors, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Esopus Creek Value Series Fund LP, which holds Kodak's 9.75 percent Senior Secured Notes, said press reports about two lead bidders joining forces, Apple Inc. and Google Inc., led the fund "to be concerned as to the integrity of the bidding process," according to a letter from the fund to U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis. Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak said on Aug. 16 it was continuing an extended auction of its digital-imaging patents and may not sell them if it concludes that creditors will benefit more if it holds them.

LSP Energy is seeking to sell its operations to South Mississippi Electric Power Association for $285.9 million, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. In court papers filed on Friday, LSP said that South Mississippi won an Aug. 13 auction for its assets with a $285.9 million bid.

Hawker Beechcraft has asked for more time to file a plan to emerge from bankruptcy, the Associated Press reported on Friday. The Wichita, Kansas-based plane maker asked a bankruptcy court on Thursday to extend until at least Dec 29 the exclusivity period to file a chapter 11 plan. It also wants to extend until Feb. 27 the time to solicit acceptance of the plan from each debtor. Hawker Beechcraft says it needs more time to evaluate and pursue both emerging from bankruptcy as a stand-alone company and emerging through a third-party sale.

Restructuring professionals say that companies in bankruptcy court are increasingly facing off with Justice Department watchdogs over important matters such as court venue and executive bonuses, the Wall Street Journal reported today. U.S. Trustee recently objected to the venue choice made by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., the educational publisher that in May filed for chapter 11 in Manhattan. The company sought to cut more than $3 billion in debt off its balance sheet through a plan supported by more than 90 percent of its creditors. The trustee thought that Boston-based Houghton Mifflin made the wrong venue choice and urged the judge to move the case. Yet Philip Dublin of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, who represented a group of the publisher's creditors, said a change of venue would jeopardize a crucial $500 million financing deal, leaving the company "with potentially no way out of bankruptcy." Restructuring professionals say the trustees' increasingly fastidious approach comes from the director of the U.S. Trustee Program, Clifford J. White III, who is vehement that trustees uphold the letter of the law and the integrity of the bankruptcy system. "The U.S. trustees' objectives are to preserve the integrity of the bankruptcy system," said Kenneth Klee of boutique bankruptcy law firm Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP. "Sometimes in doing so it will not be in the best interest of a particular company."

Syms Corp., the bankrupt discount clothing chain, and its Filene's Basement LLC unit won court approval to sell a Miami property for $4.35 million, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey yesterday gave the company permission to sell the assets to Florida-based Independent Living Systems LLC, the initial bidder for the property. No other offers surfaced to compete with Independent Living.

Oil and natural gas company Tri-Valley Corp. is asking a bankruptcy court to approve rules for an auction of its assets, which it would like to hold in the next 75 days, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. The company has not yet named a lead bidder, according to court documents filed on Monday, but said that it is nevertheless confident that it will secure the interest of several bidders before going to auction. The sale must be completed by Nov. 7 in order to stay in compliance with its bankruptcy financing agreement, Tri-Valley said.

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Eastman Kodak extended its patent auction yesterday saying that it would not announce a winner as planned because it was still in discussions with bidders, Reuters reported yesterday. Kodak, which has lost more than $600 million so far this year, began an auction of 1,100 digital patents last Wednesday. It had been scheduled to designate a winner on Monday ahead of a Manhattan Federal Bankruptcy court hearing on Aug. 20. The company would use the money from the sale to pay back investors as it has borrowed nearly $700 million in bankruptcy financing.

Electronic bingo company GameTech International Inc. is asking a bankruptcy court to approve bid rules that name its secured lender as the lead bidder at an auction next month, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. Yuri Itkis Gaming Trust's bid for GameTech is a credit bid, which exchanges the $16 million GameTech owes the trust for all of GameTech's assets and provides an additional $2.5 million in bankruptcy financing to keep the company running during its chapter 11 case.