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A lack of profits didn’t drive the Miami Jai-Alai Casino into bankruptcy, but the trigger for this week’s chapter 11 filing came after the company’s owners found out that the business could be worth tens of millions of dollars more than what they had agreed to sell it for, The Miami Herald reported yesterday. “We’re definitely not a distressed company,” Miami Jai-Alai lawyer Luis Salazar told Hon. Robert A. Mark. “We’re kind of holding our own for a change.” Judge Mark agreed to let the facility continue spending its cash on operations while its owners, bankers and a potential buyer fight it out in bankruptcy court. Miami Jai-Alai’s lender, ABC Funding, accused the company of trying to use the chapter 11 filing as a way to undo a deal to sell the business to another casino investor for $130 million, about $50 million less than what an investment bank later said it was worth. Jai-Alai is a fast-paced game of Basque origin and was at one point a popular spot for nightlife and entertainment. But as tourists and locals turned away from Jai-Alai, operators throughout South Florida lobbied for the casino loophole as the only way to keep the tradition alive.

Rural/Metro Corp., an Arizona-based ambulance service provider in four Southeast Tennessee counties, has filed for chapter 11 protection, leaving some county officials concerned about future services, The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported today. Of the four, Franklin County has been the most affected. County Mayor Richard Stewart said that the move triggered an exodus of eight local ambulance service workers. The other counties are Loudon, McMinn and Polk. When Rural/Metro announced its bankruptcy, eight ambulance squad members resigned and were not allowed to work out notices. Officials with Rural/Metro earlier this month announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware granted interim approval of motions seeking to use $40 million of the company's $75 million in debtor-in-possession financing to help support operations throughout the restructuring process. The company's bondholders have also committed to investing an additional $135 million in the company, which officials say will position Rural/Metro for new growth.

Bankrupt National Envelope agreed yesterday to sell its operating assets, including a plant in Fayette County, Pa., to competitor Cenveo Inc., the world's largest envelope manufacturer, for $25 million, The Tribune Review reported yesterday. Both companies have been affected by the rise of email and online bill paying, reducing the demand for paper envelopes. National Envelope, based in Frisco, Texas, said that it reached a definitive agreement with Stamford, Conn.-based Cenveo to sell most of its assets for $20 million in cash and $5 million in stock, which is expected to occur by the end of September, subject to bankruptcy court approval. The company's parent, NE Opco Inc., sought chapter 11 protection on June 10 for the second time in three years. Cenveo said that it expects that the acquisition of National Envelope will increase sales by about $300 million and operating profits by about $30 million once the two companies have been combined.

Creditors of St. Louis-based K-V Pharmaceutical Co. have a pivotal hearing on Thursday over whether senior noteholders are entitled to recover $32.8 million in post-bankruptcy interest before holders of convertible notes begin recovering on their subordinated claims, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported yesterday. A bankruptcy judge in New York is expected to decide the issue. The decision precedes a confirmation hearing, set for Aug. 28, on K-V’s reorganization plan, which is based on a compromise in which holders of $200 million in convertible notes can buy the lion’s share of the reorganized business. If they win the interest rate dispute on Thursday, the company they own will be more valuable. In exchange for the $200 million in convertible debt, holders will receive 7 percent of the reorganized company’s stock for a predicted recovery of 10.9 percent, according to the revised disclosure statement.

Eastman Kodak Co. won court approval yesterday of its plan to exit bankruptcy as a commercial printing company that sells nothing to consumers, Bloomberg reported today. The plan, which cuts about $4.1 billion of debt, was approved by Hon. Allan Gropper and affirms Kodak’s move away from cameras, film sales and consumer photo developing, which had made the company a household name, to focus instead on printing technology for corporate customers. Kodak “is in many ways a new operation” after shedding its best-known businesses, Judge Gropper said. “This is on a day when many are losing retirement benefits, when many are finding that their recovery as a creditor is just a minute fraction” of what they expected. Secured claims will be paid in full under the plan, while shareholders will receive nothing. Unsecured creditors with estimated claims of as much as $2.2 billion will be paid 4 to 5 cents on the dollar. In court papers, Kodak called the plan a “comprehensive compromise” between the company and its creditors. The bankruptcy case is In re Eastman Kodak Co., 12-bk-10202, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Orchard Supply Hardware Stores yesterday won bankruptcy court approval to sell its West Coast chain of hardware and garden stores to Lowe's Cos. for $205 million, Dow Jones Business News reported yesterday. Hon. Christopher Sontchi signed off on the Lowe's offer, which Orchard had in hand when it sought chapter 11 protection in June. Lowe's plans to operate the 72 Orchard stores it acquires as a standalone business, and the stores — located in California and Oregon — will keep the Orchard name. Orchard was to hold an auction earlier this month, but it didn't receive any rival bids.

Patriot Coal Corp. got a bankruptcy judge’s go-ahead yesterday to enter into a new labor agreement with the nation’s biggest miners’ union, ending a long, acrimonious dispute that the company had worried would push it into liquidation, The Washington Post reported yesterday. Hon. Kathy Surratt-States granted St. Louis-based Patriot’s request to put in place a collective bargaining deal ratified by some 85 percent of United Mine Workers of America members who cast ballots on the proposal last Friday. Some 1,800 current or laid-off Patriot workers in West Virginia and Kentucky were eligible to vote. The settlement restores most wage cuts that Patriot had sought as part of its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy protection. Pension benefits for thousands of retirees also will be maintained, and active employees will continue earning pension credit as part of the deal, which Patriot said will save the company $130 million a year over the next several years.

Less than two years after opening a casino, the Miami Jai-Alai facility filed for bankruptcy protection as its parent company is fending off a foreclosure from the holder of an $87 million loan, The Miami Herald reported yesterday. In a stock filing Monday night, Florida Gaming Corp. disclosed the chapter 11 filing, saying that the terms of a pending sale would essentially wipe out the company. Last year, Florida Gaming agreed to sell itself to a New York-based casino company, Silver Entertainment, for $115 million, including its debt. But Florida Gaming’s agreement with lenders requires it to pay out $114 million at the time of the sale, plus a penalty based on how many slot machines its rival at the Hialeah Park racetrack managed to get approved and operational.

Saying that it has fundamentally turned a corner, Eastman Kodak Co. will be before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper today to seek his approval on the company’s plan for wrapping up its bankruptcy and essentially starting over as a new company, the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle reported yesterday. During its bankruptcy, Kodak cut its corporate spending by 26 percent, eliminated more than 600 manufacturing, supply chain and product engineering positions, and reduced its global real estate footprint by 30 percent. At the same time, the company said that it continued to streamline its business to focus strictly on the most profitable opportunities, getting rid of its Kodak Gallery business and its desktop inkjet printer line. If the court approves Kodak’s reorganization plan, “I don’t know how many people are going to see a difference when they drive by the company, or what customers will see differently,” said University of Michigan Law School Prof. John A.E. Pottow.

Furniture Brands International Inc., one of the nation's largest home furniture manufacturers, has tapped restructuring lawyers and advisers to deal with its debt load, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The advisers are examining several alternatives, one of which could be a chapter 11 restructuring, although the situation is still fluid. St. Louis-based Furniture Brands, which sells under the Broyhill, Lane, Drexel Heritage and Thomasville names, had sales of about $1 billion in 2012, roughly half of what the company brought in a decade ago. At the end of 2012, Furniture Brands employed 5,600 people in the U.S. and another 3,500 overseas. The company cumulatively lost more than $91 million in its last two fiscal years, and analysts are forecasting another loss in 2013. The company is working with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker LLP, investment bank Miller Buckfire & Co. and turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal to address its debts and low cash flow.