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Syms Corp. said that it struck a deal that will bring peace to its chapter 11 case and propel the defunct discount retailer toward a bankruptcy exit with a $25 million equity rights offering providing for the exit, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Under the revamped proposal, which will update the company's previous plan to reorganize around its real estate holdings, all allowed claims against Syms will be paid in full, "pursuant to certain agreed upon time frames." Allowed trade and other vendor claims against subsidiary Filene's Basement LLC--whose retail operations, like Syms's, were shuttered in the wake of the November bankruptcy filing--will also be paid in full. Holders of allowed unguaranteed lease-rejection claims against Filene's will see a 75 percent recovery.

Hawker Beechcraft has filed its preliminary reorganization plan outlining how it plans to resolve its outstanding claims against the company, the Wichita (Kansas) Eagle reported today. The plan is supported by the company’s largest creditors and by a "substantial majority" of the debtors' senior credit facility lenders and holders of the senior notes. The action will reduce the total funded debt from about $2.552 billion.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said on Friday that it has sold its Aurora Bank FSB subsidiary, a move that should help funnel some $1.5 billion into the pockets of Lehman's creditors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Home mortgage servicer Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. said on Friday that it acquired about $63.7 billion in residential mortgage servicing rights from Aurora, while New York Community Bank said that it assumed $2.3 billion of Aurora's customer deposits. Ocwen Financial Corp. said it previously purchased $1.8 billion worth of Aurora's commercial servicing-rights portfolio. Read more. (Subscription required.)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527023036495045774966142406029…

In related news, a hedge fund manager is demanding that the trustee unwinding the brokerage of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. use more than $3 billion in its reserves to quickly make payments to customer claimants, saying the trustee's "aspirational date" to pay those claims keeps slipping "further and further into the future," Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported yesterday. In a court filing on Friday, New York-based Elliott Management said that the trustee unwinding the brokerage in accordance with the Securities Investor Protection Act, James W. Giddens, should make at least an initial distribution of the money in its reserves, even as it sorts out how much it owes to the Lehman parent and U.K. affiliate Lehman Brothers International Europe. According to Elliott's filings, the trustee should be forced to distribute $3.15 billion of $13.81 billion and still have more than $10 billion left in reserve.

RoomStore Inc. won court permission to launch going-out-of-business sales at its remaining stores, marking the official end of the 20-year-old furniture chain, Dow Jones reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Douglas O. Tice Jr. on Thursday signed off on deals RoomStore struck with two winners of its Tuesday auction.
A group that includes Hilco Merchant Resources LLC, SB Capital Group LLC , Planned Furniture Promotions Inc. and Tiger Capital Group LLC is set to conduct going-out-of-business sales at 20 RoomStore locations in Virginia and Maryland.

U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis on Friday objected to the retention of law firms and public relations advisers that had filed applications to advise Dewey & LeBoeuf in its bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported on Friday. Davis objected to the applications of law firms Proskauer Rose LLP and Keightley & Ashner LLP, arguing that the case does not "warrant the need for two law firms to perform what appear to be the same services." Dewey, the trustee's filing said, sought to employ both firms to advise on claims brought by the firm's largest unsecured creditor, the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. The U.S. Trustee also questioned whether Proskauer has conflicts in representing Dewey.

What remains of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. reorganization was sent yesterday to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Boston, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The bankruptcy judge in New York, where the prepackaged Chapter 11 petition was filed on May 21, ruled on June 22, the day after he signed a confirmation order, that the case was improperly filed in New York. The judge said he would send the case away officially when the reorganization plan was implemented. There will be no further proceedings in New York. As a result, the bankruptcy judge in Boston, where the company is based, will rule on professionals' fee requests.

A bankruptcy court on Wednesday approved the sale of two large, unbuilt California solar-power plants from Solar Trust of America to NextEra Energy Inc. and BrightSource Energy, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. NextEra Energy, which owns Florida Power & Light and a fleet of power plants and wind and solar farms, bid $50 million for a 1,000-megawatt solar power project called Blythe, according to court records and California documents. Solar Trust filed for chapter 11 protection in April, several months after its majority owner, Solar Millennium AG, filed for insolvency in Germany.

A Colorado-based solar panel maker that received a $400 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration said yesterday that it will file for bankruptcy, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Abound Solar of Loveland, Colo., said it will suspend operations next week, after talks with potential buyers broke down. The company received about $70 million from the Energy Department before officials froze its credit line last year. Abound is the third clean-energy company to seek bankruptcy protection after receiving a loan from the Energy Department under the economic stimulus law. California solar panel maker Solyndra and Beacon Power, a Massachusetts energy-storage firm, declared bankruptcy last year. Solyndra received a $528 million federal loan, while Beacon Power got a $43 million loan guarantee. Abound said about 125 workers will be laid off.

Financially troubled Hawker Beechcraft said that it posted a $90 million net loss in May, including $33 million in operating losses, the Wichita (Kansas) Eagle reported yesterday. In May, the company posted $144.8 million in sales of aircraft, parts and services and $148.1 million in costs related to those sales. Hawker Beechcraft posted $43.8 million in interest expenses, $4.2 million in restructuring charges, $4.8 million in reorganization items, $5.8 million in research and development costs and $19.7 million in selling, general and administrative expenses, it said in a court filing.

The Philadelphia Orchestra Association won court permission to exit bankruptcy after cutting musicians’ salaries and benefits by about $4 million a year, according to the orchestra's attorney, Bloomberg News reported ysterday. The 112-year-old symphony has already raised the $3 million needed to pay debts tied to its bankruptcy, allowing it to leave court protection sometime next month, said orchestra lawyer Lawrence G. McMichael. Leaving bankruptcy will make it easier for the orchestra to raise the $5 million needed for normal operations this year, McMichael said. While in bankruptcy, the orchestra eliminated all its debt and reduced expenses by $6 million a year.