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Bankrupt aircraft maker Hawker Beechcraft Inc said that a bankruptcy court approved its plans to enter into exclusive talks with China's Superior Aviation Beijing Co. over a sale of the company for $1.79 billion, Reuters reported yesterday. Hawker Beechcraft, owned by Goldman Sachs and Onex Corp., said that the approval gives the company up to 45 days to negotiate the deal with Superior Aviation. Last week, Hawker Beechcraft said Superior Aviation would provide financial support to the company's jet operations over the next six weeks. Superior will pay $25 million before the end of the week, apart from paying a similar amount within the next 30 days, Hawker Beechcraft said. Superior Aviation said that it would work to keep jobs in the United States by expanding production in locations across America, including Kansas, Arkansas and Texas.

The machinists' union said yesterday that it filed court papers challenging efforts by bankrupt jet maker Hawker Beechcraft to sell itself to a Chinese company, alleging that the move could cost jobs and threaten U.S. national security, Reuters reported yesterday. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said that the sale deserved scrutiny from federal regulators, state officials and the community of Wichita, Kansas, where Hawker Beechcraft is based. Hawker Beechcraft, owned by Goldman Sachs and Onex Corp, disclosed last week it was in talks regarding a $1.8 billion sale of the company with Superior Aviation Beijing Co., a 60-40 joint venture between privately owned Beijing Superior Aviation Technology Co and government-backed Beijing E-Tong International Investment & Development Co.

Bankrupt aircraft maker Hawker Beechcraft Inc. said that it was in exclusive talks with China's Superior Aviation Beijing Co over a sale of the company for $1.79 billion, Reuters reported yesterday. Superior, a maker of plane engines and parts, will also make payments to Hawker Beechcraft over the next six weeks to support its jet operations, under the terms of the exclusivity agreement. The sale does not include Hawker's defense business, which would remain a separate entity. A company controlled by the Beijing municipal government owns 40 percent of Superior.

Ritz Camera & Image LLC is asking the court's permission to hold a September auction for the 137 camera stores that will be left in the chain after it holds store-closing sales at 82 locations, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. While the company did not name a lead bidder for its auction in court documents, it said that it will name one by Aug. 16. Read more.

Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper granted bankrupt Eastman Kodak Co. approval to auction its digital imaging patents as part of its restructuring, Reuters reported yesterday. Apple Inc. and privately held FlashPoint Technology Inc. had objected to the sale, both claiming that they had ownership in some of the more than 1,100 patents. Kodak is seeking to sell the patents and focus its business on printing. The patents are part of Kodak's digital-capture portfolio for devices such as digital cameras, smartphones, and tablets. The portfolio has generated more than $3 billion in revenues since 2001. In June, Kodak sued Apple in the bankruptcy court, alleging that Apple wrongly claimed to own 10 patents arising from work the companies did together in the early 1990s. Kodak said that it expected to auction the patents in early August.

RoomStore Inc. won court permission to launch going-out-of-business sales at its remaining stores, marking the official end of the 20-year-old furniture chain, Dow Jones reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Douglas O. Tice Jr. on Thursday signed off on deals RoomStore struck with two winners of its Tuesday auction.
A group that includes Hilco Merchant Resources LLC, SB Capital Group LLC , Planned Furniture Promotions Inc. and Tiger Capital Group LLC is set to conduct going-out-of-business sales at 20 RoomStore locations in Virginia and Maryland.

A bankruptcy court on Wednesday approved the sale of two large, unbuilt California solar-power plants from Solar Trust of America to NextEra Energy Inc. and BrightSource Energy, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. NextEra Energy, which owns Florida Power & Light and a fleet of power plants and wind and solar farms, bid $50 million for a 1,000-megawatt solar power project called Blythe, according to court records and California documents. Solar Trust filed for chapter 11 protection in April, several months after its majority owner, Solar Millennium AG, filed for insolvency in Germany.

Entertainment and merchandising-licensing company 4Kids Entertainment Inc. won approval to sell its Yu-Gi-Oh! business and CW television-network assets in a $15 million joint deal with two companies that were originally dueling at auction, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. Bankrutpcy Judge Shelley Chapman yesterday approved the transaction with affiliates of Saban Capital Group Inc. and Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. The deal will also bring in enough money to repay creditors in full and allow equity holders to see some recovery, according to company attorneys.

RG Steel LLC, the fourth-biggest U.S. maker of flat-rolled steel, won court approval to hold an auction to sell virtually all its assets, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey approved guidelines that will govern the asset sale and gave RG Steel permission to borrow $50 million to help fund operations while it pursues a sale. RG Steel resolved objections from the official unsecured creditors’ committee, which claimed in court papers that the financing and sale procedures would lead to a “fire sale.” The company and committee negotiated extensions to deadlines required by the bankruptcy loan, allowing more time for RG Steel to seek buyers for the assets and for creditors to investigate lenders’ claims. The financing, which was to have terminated on July 27, will end on Aug. 10. The lead case is In re WP Steel Venture LLC, 12-11661, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

Unsecured creditors of bankrupt RG Steel are seeking to slow the company's rushed sale process, which they said will lead to a paltry price and a higher likelihood that the company's mills will close, Reuters reported yesterday. The unsecured creditors' committee, which includes the United Steelworkers, suppliers and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., said that the July 27 sale deadline was likely to result in the company's assets being surrendered to the existing owner. That could happen because the current owner, Renco Group, has said it is also a secured lender, which the unsecured creditors dispute. RG Steel has said the sale schedule was mandated by its lenders.