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Wet Seal Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday, becoming the fourth apparel retailer to file for bankruptcy in two months, as the sector struggles with growing competition and a slowdown in spending among teen shoppers, Reuters reported yesterday. Wet Seal said in its bankruptcy filing that it received $20 million in debtor-in-possession financing from B. Riley Financial Inc., and intends to reorganize its business around e-commerce and its remaining 173 stores. The company, which sells apparel and accessories for teen girls and young women, laid off 3,700 employees and closed 338 stores last week. Wet Seal listed assets of $10 million-$50 million and liabilities of $100 million-$500 million, and hired FTI Consulting Inc. as a restructuring advisor, according to the filing.

RadioShack Corp. is preparing for a bankruptcy filing and is in talks with Sprint Corp. to sell leases on some of its stores to the wireless carrier, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The court restructuring would allow RadioShack to emerge with a leaner business after a migration of consumers to the Internet left it with 11 straight quarterly losses and depleted its cash. The company would file for bankruptcy protection as early as the first week of February. Under the developing plan, RadioShack would seek to complete a bankruptcy reorganization with 2,000 to 3,000 stores, compared with the more than 4,000 it has now. The company also has been reaching out to potential lenders for a loan that would finance its operations during court proceedings.

The operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp, the largest U.S. casino company, filed for chapter 11 protection in Chicago yesterday to cut $10 billion of debt, but a Delaware judge intervened to halt the case before it got started, Reuters reported yesterday. The unusual legal standoff marked the start of a more public phase of complex and contentious debt negotiations. Until now, the company's attempts to cut interest payments after years of red ink have been kept mostly private. Caesars maintains it has the support of its senior noteholders to implement the bankruptcy plan, which would reduce the operating unit's debt to $8.6 billion from $18.4 billion. The bankruptcy was filed overnight yesterday by Caesars Entertainment Operating Company Inc. and 179 affiliates in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. However, junior noteholders, led by the Appaloosa Management hedge fund, filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the operating unit on Monday in Delaware. They argued at an emergency hearing in Wilmington yesterday that their case should take precedence and the bankruptcy should proceed in Delaware. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross agreed to put the Chicago proceeding on hold, but said that he would allow routine "first-day" requests, such as those that would enable employees to be paid. Judge Gross asked what agreements he might be disrupting by issuing a stay and taking time to sort out which court would handle the case.

A Connecticut hospital put itself under chapter 11 protection on Wednesday with plans to sell itself to a nearby healthcare system, five years after an unsuccessful bankruptcy reorganization left it saddled with $40 million in debt, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Johnson Memorial Medical Center Inc. and five affiliates filed for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Hartford, Conn. with a sale agreement in hand to turn over its entire operation — including a 92-bed hospital, 180-bed skilled nursing facility, and hospice-care services arm — to Saint Francis Care Inc.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge told Texas power giant Energy Future Holdings yesterday that it can move ahead on auctioning off its transmission arm, Oncor, the Dallas Morning News reported today. Judge Christopher Sontchi set the deadline for opening bids for March 2. The process is expected to stretch through the summer and attract some of the largest players in the Texas power industry. EFH filed for bankruptcy in April, seeking protection from $40 billion in debt largely amassed during a 2007 leveraged buyout by private equity firms KKR & Co. and TPG. EFH announced it was putting Oncor up for auction in August after Hunt and NextEra offered competing bids for the company. EFH CFO Paul Keglevic put the value of NextEra’s bid at $18 billion. In November, Sontchi put a halt to the process, telling EFH it was moving too quickly and had failed to work with creditors. Tuesday the power company filed a motion arguing it had carried out the judge’s orders and requested that the auction process resume.

RadioShack Corp. is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection as early as next month following a sputtering turnaround effort that left the electronics chain short on cash, the Wall Street Journal reported today. A filing could come in the first week of February, as the Fort Worth, Texas-based company has reached out to potential lenders who could help fund its operations during the process. Meanwhile, RadioShack is in talks with a private-equity firm that could buy its assets out of bankruptcy. The retailer, which employed 24,000 people late last year, has made clear it is running dangerously low on cash after posting losses in each of the last 11 quarters. Its stock-market value has fallen to less than $50 million.

The House of Representatives yesterday easily passed legislation to ease some of the banking regulations adopted after the financial crisis, with 29 Democrats shrugging off President Obama’s veto threat to join united House Republicans, the New York Times reported today. The bill, which passed 271 to 154, follows two other measures approved in the last month that made changes to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law, but this one would be the broadest effort to shift course. It would delay by two years a Dodd-Frank mandate that financial firms sell off bundled debt, known as collateralized loan obligations; exempt some private equity firms from registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission; loosen regulations on derivatives; and allow some small, publicly traded companies to omit historical financial data from their financial filings. Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, called those changes “modest clarifications of the Dodd-Frank Act,” noting that almost all of the provisions had previously passed the House with bipartisan majorities over the last two years, if not by unanimous agreement. Democrats, led by Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, said they intended to draw the line against legislation that further erodes Dodd-Frank.

EnPro Industries and a bankrupt subsidiary, Garlock Sealing Technologies, have struck a deal with a plaintiffs' lawyer to set aside $357.5 million to cover asbestos related claims, but others are expected to oppose the deal, Reuters reported yesterday. EnPro and Garlock, a bankrupt maker of asbestos-lined gaskets, said on Tuesday that the agreement could be approved in 15 to 24 months as part of an amended reorganization plan it will submit to the North Carolina court where Garlock filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2010. If approved, the plan would allow a reorganized Garlock to shed its liability for asbestos litigation, the latest phase in a bankruptcy touted by manufacturers as fundamentally shifting the legal terrain in asbestos cases in their favor.

The operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp, the largest U.S. casino company, filed for chapter 11 protection to implement its plan to cut $10 billion of debt, Reuters reported today. The company said it has the support of its senior noteholders to implement the plan, which will reduce the operating unit's debt to $8.6 billion from $18.4 billion. The bankruptcy protection was filed by Caesars Entertainment Operating Company Inc. and several affiliates in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. They listed assets and liabilities of over $1 billion, according to the filing. Much of the debt is a legacy of the $30 billion leveraged buyout of Harrah's Entertainment that was led by Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital in 2008. Under the plan, the operating unit will be split into a casino company and a publicly traded real estate investment trust.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell another $2.5 billion in bankruptcy claims that the failed investment bank holds against its U.S. brokerage arm, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Lehman has been selling off the unsecured creditor claims in recent months as it continues to wind down its holdings, a process that is expected to continue for several more years. In September, Lehman agreed to sell $2.5 billion in claims for about 25 percent of their face value. Lehman, once the nation’s fourth-largest investment bank by assets under management, collapsed into the largest bankruptcy ever in September 2008, with $613 billion in liabilities. Most of Lehman’s brokerage business was sold to Barclays PLC, and the holding company officially exited bankruptcy in 2012. What remains of Lehman’s brokerage unit is being wound down separately from the holding company.