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Textbook publisher Cengage Learning Inc. made its debut appearance in bankruptcy court on Wednesday, facing down a group of junior lenders who have indicated that they may challenge the restructuring deal the company reached with its top-ranking lenders, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Although the company managed to resolve an objection from the second-lien lenders to win access to the liquidity it needs to run its business in chapter 11, the junior lenders hinted at a possible challenge to Cengage's 2007 leveraged buyout by private equity firms Apax Partners LP and Omers Capital Partners that saddled the company with more than $5 billion in debt.

Wireless broadband communications company LightSquared Inc. is splitting its proposed $3 billion senior secured exit term loan into a $2 billion first-lien loan and $1 billion second-lien tranche, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The loan originally consisted of a single tranche. The now $2 billion first-lien portion will offer coupons payable in cash and in kind. Proceeds are to fund the company's emergence from bankruptcy. Lender commitments are due on July 9.

Total bankruptcy filings totaled 544,390 nationwide during the first six months of 2013 (Jan. 1-June 30), a 14 percent decrease from the 632,541 total filings during the same period a year ago, according to data provided by Epiq Systems, Inc. The 520,919 total noncommercial filings for the first half of 2013 represented a 13 percent drop from the noncommercial filing total of 601,453 for the first half of 2012. Total commercial filings during the first six months of the year were 23,471, representing a 25 percent decrease from the 31,088 filings during the same period in 2012. Commercial chapter 11 filings also fell during the first half of 2013 as the 3,445 filings represented a 16 percent decrease from the 4,120 commercial chapter 11 filings during the first six months of 2012. To read the full statistical release, please click here: http://news.abi.org/press-releases/bankruptcy-filings-fall-14-percent-f…

LightSquared said that satellite mogul Charlie Ergen has been "gaming" his recent purchases of hundreds of millions of dollars of the company's debt in an effort to seize control of the wireless company's bankruptcy case, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In a partially redacted court filing on Monday, lawyers for LightSquared, which is controlled by Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, asked a bankruptcy judge to release it from the terms of a settlement it struck with its lenders.

Cengage Learning Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection more than five years after a buyout led by Apax Partners LLP left the textbook publisher with about $5.8 billion in debt, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Under a deal with some of its senior lenders, the company will try to use the bankruptcy case to eliminate $4 billion in debt, Cengage said yesterday. The company, which bills itself as the second-biggest publisher of college-course material in the U.S., listed more than $1 billion in assets in a court filing. In 2007, private-equity group Apax led a $7.75 billion acquisition of Cengage from Thomson Reuters Corp. Apax is an investment adviser for funds worth more than $40 billion, the company said.

Belle Foods, the operator of former Bruno’s and Food World stores, filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday citing difficulties paying creditors with the revenues from its 57 stores in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi, the Birmingham (Ala.) News reported today. In June 2012, Birmingham-based Belle Foods purchased the stores from Southern Family Markets, a company that took control of a number of Bruno’s and Food World stores after the bankruptcy of what had been a Birmingham grocery titan for much of the last century. According to court documents, Belle Foods owes Southern Family Markets $28 million—$4 million for a loan and $24 million in a revolving line of credit. Belle Foods also owes C&S Wholesale Grocers $6 million—$5.1 in accounts payable and $900,000 on a pension withdrawal liability note. Belle Foods also has around $8 million in other accounts payable due.

While Patriot Coal Corp. has cut wages and benefits for thousands of active coal miners little more than a month after receiving court approval, the company said that the terms implemented for United Mine Workers of America members, which went into effect on Monday, are "significantly improved" from what the court authorized as a result of continuing talks with the union, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported today. The coal producer also said that "substantial progress" has been made in negotiations with the union concerning retiree health care benefits, and that current health coverage is being extended for an additional two months for those retirees while talks continue. It's been almost a year since Creve Coeur, Mo.-based Patriot filed for chapter 11 protection, citing a deep downturn in coal markets and legacy retiree health care liabilities among the key reasons for its struggles.

A group of 19 attorneys general, led by Texas, has joined a U.S. Justice Department probe of a planned merger of American Airlines Inc. and US Airways Group Inc., Reuters reported yesterday. Some of the states involved worry that they will lose a hub because of the planned transaction, which would create the world's largest airline, while others are concerned about service cutbacks to smaller cities. US Airways announced on February 14 that it planned to merge with American, which is emerging from bankruptcy, in an $11 billion stock deal. The companies hope to wrap up the merger by the end of September. The state attorneys general are working with the Justice and Transportation Departments, both of which must approve the deal. Texas is leading the state effort, with Arkansas, Arizona, California, Washington, D.C., Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia also being involved in the investigation.

Excel Maritime Carriers Ltd., the Athens-based operator of 38 dry-bulk vessels, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. after extending a voting deadline on a reorganization plan with senior lenders, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Excel listed assets of $2.7 billion and debt of $1 billion in a chapter 11 petition filed yesterday. A group of senior lenders owed $771 million—backed by almost all the shipping company’s assets—signed off on a restructuring plan that calls for $50 million in new cash and the release of $30 million more that was restricted, the company said in a statement on June 11.

An investment group led by actor Patrick Dempsey has completed its $9.2 million acquisition of Tully's Coffee chain, which filed for chapter 11 protection last fall, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Dempsey's group, Global Baristas, won an auction of Tully's assets in federal bankruptcy court in January, beating out a combined rival bid of about $10.6 million from AgriNurture Inc. and Starbucks Corp. Starbucks had wanted to buy about half of Tully's 47 shops in Washington and California and turn them into Starbucks stores, while the rest of the company would keep the Tully's name under the ownership of AgriNurture, which is based in the Philippines. Global Baristas has said that it intends to continue operating Tully's and retain its more than 500 employees.