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Bankrupt Contractor Truland Group Auctions Off Furniture Equipment

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Rasmus Auctions has begun selling off desks, chairs, coffeemakers, televisions, bookcases, conference tables and other items from Truland Group’s corporate headquarters and warehouses, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The online auction for the office furniture, part of the liquidation of Truland’s assets as the company winds through bankruptcy, began this week and will close tomorrow. Rasmus was hired by Ray Yancey, the receiver managing the liquidation of Truland’s assets for BMO Harris Bank, Truland’s largest secured creditor. Yancey’s role is to recover Truland assets for both secured and unsecured creditors. Proceeds from the auction will go toward BMO Harris, which is owed about $27 million, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Phoenix Payment Systems Set to Seek Approval for 50 Million Sale

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Payment processor Phoenix Payment Systems Inc. canceled its auction and declared an affiliate of North American Bancard LLC as the winner of its assets, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In a Wednesday court filing, Phoenix Payment Systems said that it didn't receive any qualified competing offers to the $50 million stalking horse, or lead, bid by the North American Bancard affiliate. The entity making the bid is EPX Acquisition Co., named that way because Phoenix Payment Systems does business as EPX. EPX said that it will ask Judge Mary F. Walrath to approve the sale at a hearing tomorrow.

Energy Future Opens the Bidding On Rights to Oncor Stake

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The bidding is now open on Energy Future Holdings Corp.'s rights to Oncor, a Texas transmission business that's going up for grabs in bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. While Oncor itself isn't caught up in the chapter 11 proceeding, the financial woes that sent Energy Future to bankruptcy opened the way for a competition over the 80 percent stake in Oncor that is indirectly owned by the Dallas power company. NextEra Energy Inc., Hunt Consolidated Inc. and others are in the running, in a competition that launched Friday evening when Energy Future filed proposed bidding rules with the court overseeing its chapter 11 case.

U.S. Trustee Urges Judge to Deny Education Training Corp. Sale

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U.S. Trustee Roberta DeAngelis said that a bankruptcy judge should reject a proposed sale of Education Training Corp.'s schools because the sale occurred prior to the company's chapter 11 filing and was designed to skirt federal regulations, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Education Training — a for-profit school that operated post-secondary schools under the Anthem and Florida Career College brands — filed for chapter 11 protection in August, immediately following a quick sale of 14 of its campuses in an effort to keep them operational. Had Education Training still been the owner of the schools when it filed for bankruptcy, the U.S. Department of Education would have revoked those schools' ability to accept federal student loan dollars. Those dollars made up 90 percent of Education Training's revenue, meaning that action by the Education Department would have rendered the schools basically worthless.

Energy Future Eyes Early 2015 for Oncor Auction

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An auction for Oncor, the regulated distribution unit of bankrupt Texas power company Energy Future Holdings, could come in the first quarter of next year, as interest in the prized asset mounts, Reuters reported yesterday. Energy Future, which filed one of the 10 largest chapter 11 bankruptcies in April, is targeting an auction in the first quarter of 2015, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch retained to seek buyers, the people said in recent days. NextEra Energy Inc., which last month dropped a bid for Oncor, and Hunt Consolidated, which recently hired a former Energy Future executive to lead its investment arm, are expected to continue to be in the fray. Hunt is considering structuring Oncor as a real estate investment trust (REIT) to go along with its Sharyland Utilities unit, which is among the only REIT-structured entities in the energy sector. Houston-based Centerpoint Energy and Spanish Iberdola SA have also shown interest.

Atlantic Citys Revel Casino Goes to Auction After Heated Hearing

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The bankrupt Revel casino hotel in Atlantic City will go to auction on Sept. 24, a judge ruled yesterday, after the only bidder clashed with creditors who wanted to slow the rushed sale, Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns also set Sept. 23 as the deadline for competing bids to top the $90 million offered by Florida developer Glenn Straub and his Polo North Country Club Inc. Revel cost $2.4 billion to construct. Revel also got approval to pay Straub a $3 million break-up fee if his is not the winning bid at the auction. The auction was set for two weeks after Straub's proposal was made public, and creditors complained that potential buyers needed more time to put together competing bids. The hearing was marked by threats of litigation if the auction was postponed, complaints that Straub was being secretive about his plans for the massive complex and the appearance of a potential competing bidder.

Revel Gets 90 Million Offer to Buy Closed Casino

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Revel AC Inc., the bankrupt New Jersey casino operator, reached a deal to sell its shuttered Atlantic City property to Glenn Straub’s Polo North Country Club Inc. for $90 million, absent a better offer, Bloomberg News reported today. Revel, which opened in April 2012 at a cost of $2.4 billion, has filed for bankruptcy twice. After the second filing, in June, it sought a buyer willing to keep the resort open. When no acceptable offers surfaced, it closed this month, becoming the third Atlantic City casino to do so this year. The city’s gambling business has been hurt by competing casinos in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York. Polo North is the stalking-horse bidder, whose offer for the property is subject to higher bids at a Sept. 24 auction, according to filings yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, New Jersey. Other potential buyers have until Sept. 23 to make competing offers. The case is In re Revel AC Inc., 14-bk-22654, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey (Camden).

Associated Wholesalers Seeks Bankruptcy Plans Asset Sale

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Associated Wholesalers Inc., a food distributor, filed for bankruptcy with a plan to sell its assets, citing “fierce competition” in the grocery supply business, Bloomberg News reported today. The company in chapter 11 papers filed in court yesterday listed as much as $100 million in debt and said that it planned to hold an auction with C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. as the lead bidder. AWI listed some of the biggest U.S. brands as creditors, including Tyson, Kellogg, General Mills and ConAgra, each owed more than $2 million; and Smucker, Nestle, Kraft and Dannon, each owed more than $1 million. The company, whose White Rose unit also filed for bankruptcy, has been failing in part due to “compressed margins and fierce competition,” Chief Restructuring Officer Douglas Booth said in a court filing. In the planned sale, C&S will be the “stalking horse” or initial bidder in a court-supervised auction, subject to higher or better offers, AWI said. Booth said that AWI serves 800 supermarkets and other stores in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region, with about 1,400 employees.

U.S. Trustee Questions American Resource Staffings Sale

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A U.S. Trustee’s office warned a judge that the proposed sale of New England's American Resource Staffing Network Inc. to the company president's daughter would pay "only a fraction" of the firm's multimillion-dollar tax bill, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Lawyers for U.S. Trustee William Harrington asked a judge to put an outside professional in charge of the American Resource Staffing's bankruptcy case, arguing that president and owner Richard Purtell would be "unable to conduct unbiased investigations" into the proposed sale. Under the proposal, a company run by Purtell's daughter, Vicki Giuffre, would pay $2.4 million over a five-year period using profits from American Resource Staffing, which places temporary workers into jobs within the food, hospitality and light manufacturing industries.

Creative Recycling Systems Seeks Sale in Chapter 11

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CRS Holding of America LLC, whose subsidiaries recycle electronics such as televisions and computers, filed for chapter 11 protection at the direction of its court-appointed receiver, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In papers filed on Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tampa, Fla., CRS, short for Creative Recycling Systems, said that it plans to use chapter 11 to stabilize its operations and then sell its business, using the proceeds to repay creditors.