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Energy Future Holdings Corp. creditors on Friday signed confidentiality agreements to review nonpublic financial information from the Texas power producer, a crucial step toward what is expected to be one of the biggest bankruptcy filings ever, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The Dallas-based utility, formerly called TXU Corp., hosted two groups of creditors during a roughly two-hour morning meeting at the New York offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, the company's restructuring lawyers. Before the summit, the private-equity and hedge-fund creditors signed confidentiality agreements that bar them from trading company debt until Sept. 30, though that could be extended. The meeting represents the start of a campaign to strike a complex deal that would satisfy Energy Future's various creditor groups and pare back its unwieldy debt load. Energy Future, whose tangled web of businesses carries more than $40 billion in debt, is trying to reach a pre-packaged bankruptcy deal with creditors before the end of the year that would enable it to avoid a prolonged chapter 11 reorganization.

US Airways and American Airlines, whose proposed merger has been stalled by U.S. government opposition, urged a court on Friday to require the Justice Department to turn over documents relating to its approval of four previous airline mergers, Reuters reported on Friday. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Aug. 13 to stop the planned merger of US Airways and American's parent, AMR Corp., arguing that the deal would lead to higher air fares and other fees. A judge will hear the case without a jury in November and decide whether the deal can go forward. The airlines have said that the merger is needed to help them compete in a rapidly consolidating industry.

GateHouse Media Inc., the community newspaper publisher overseen by the co-chairman of Fortress Investment Group LLC, said that it will seek votes today on a plan to reorganize in bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse has proposed a pre-packaged plan that will allow it to enter chapter 11 bankruptcy with creditor support if more than 67 percent of debt holders accept, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday. The publisher has said that it plans to file for bankruptcy as part of a move to merge its media assets with those recently bought by Newcastle Investment Corp. The reorganization, which has support from most creditors, hinges on the combination of GateHouse with assets of Dow Jones Local Media Group, which Newcastle bought from News Corp. in this month for $87 million.

Coal-mining company Patriot Coal Corp. won bankruptcy court approval to broaden an ongoing investigation into the spinoffs that it says allowed its predecessors to dump hundreds of millions of dollars in legacy liabilities on its shoulders, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Kathy Surratt-States on Friday authorized Patriot and its unsecured creditors to add Arch Coal Inc. to a pending probe into former parent Peabody Energy Corp. On Thursday, the judge cleared Patriot and the creditors to also investigate private-equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners LLC.

US Airways Group Inc. rose to the highest close since federal antitrust regulators sued to block the planned merger with AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, a sign of investor optimism that the deal will occur, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. With yesterday’s 1.6 percent gain to $18.97, the shares rebounded past their price on the day before the U.S. Justice Department lawsuit was filed on Aug. 13. US Airways lost as much as 18 percent of its market value in the weeks after the government’s move. U.S. regulators stunned investors by opposing the merger, sending Tempe, Ariz.-based US Airways to its biggest drop in 22 months and dragging down AMR’s shares 45 percent. Since then, the judge in AMR’s bankruptcy case approved the tie-up as part of the company’s chapter 11 exit, contingent on the outcome of the Justice Department’s suit.

Devonshire PGA Holdings LLC, the owner of a Florida assisted-living facility, sought bankruptcy protection with a restructuring plan that gives lenders ownership in exchange for debt, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., listed debt of as much as $50 million and assets of less than $50,000 in its chapter 11 filing yesterday. Three affiliates also entered court protection, including Devonshire at PGA National LLC, which listed more than $100 million in both assets and debt. Devonshire intends to implement a consensual restructuring and will seek an “expeditious exit from chapter 11 protection,” according to court documents. Residents and unsecured creditors won’t be affected.

A battle between two U.S.-led consortiums for control of Billabong International Ltd. took a potentially decisive twist today when the Australian surfwear company tore up an existing refinancing deal and overhauled its top management, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Billabong said that it had accepted a sweetened funding package from distressed debt investors Centerbridge Partners LP and Oaktree Capital Management LP that offered debt more cheaply, backing away from a rival bid it had endorsed only weeks earlier from private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners and Blackstone Group's credit arm, GSO Capital Partners.

Gravity, whose computer animation and digital effects appear in Ford and Got Milk? ads, filed for Chapter 11 protection Tuesday to avoid eviction from its Madison Avenue office, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Facing demands to pay more than $465,000 in unpaid rent, which it can’t afford, Gravity Chief Executive Zviah Eldar said in court papers that the company decided to seek shelter in bankruptcy court, where it will get breathing room from the landlord and other creditors. The company provides computer-generated animation and digital visual effects for commercials, movies, television shows and other productions. Gravity is hoping to continue normal operations in chapter 11, to which end it has requested the use of the cash securing its lenders’ claims.

Exide Technologies Inc. won court approval to pay more than $16 million in bonuses to employees to help ensure the battery maker is able to carry out its restructuring plan, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey signed off on Tuesday on the three bonuses plans, under which unnamed insiders will get payouts of $16.1 million if targets are reached and 51 noninsiders will get $1.63 million. The company, which manufactures and recycles lead-acid batteries, has battled with the Environmental Protection Agency and a number of state regulators which want to make sure Exide won't skirt environmental liabilities through its bankruptcy case.

U.S. firm Chatsworth PGA Properties LLC, which provides assisted living services for the elderly, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Reuters reported today. Chatsworth, which also offers nursing and dementia care, listed estimated liabilities of between $100-$500 million and assets of up to $10 million, according to court documents. The case is In re Chatsworth PGA Properties LLC, Case No. 13-12457, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/19/pgaproperties-bankruptcy-idUS…

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