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Trump Entertainment Plan Pegs Survival on Icahn Cuts

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Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.’s restructuring plan hinges on billionaire Carl Icahn’s lender affiliates investing as much as $100 million and taking control of the company — if the Atlantic City, N.J., casino operator can get union concessions and tax breaks, Bloomberg News reported today. The company, which is trying to avoid closing its Taj Mahal casino next month, filed a restructuring plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, yesterday. Secured lenders controlled by Icahn would get 55 percent of the new equity and new debt for $292.2 million in claims under the plan. Approval of the plan is the “best opportunity” to emerge from bankruptcy and save thousands of jobs, Trump Entertainment lawyers said in the disclosure statement describing the plan. Lenders would make a $100 million equity investment if the company can reach a new labor agreement cutting costs and persuade local and state governments to reduce property taxes, according to court documents.

MF Global Payout Approved for Unsecured Creditors

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A judge yesterday approved a payout to MF Global's unsecured creditors, who have waited nearly three years as customers of the collapsed brokerage already had their money returned, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn said James W. Giddens, the trustee in charge of winding down the brokerage, could pay the unsecured creditors about $295 million. A lawyer for Giddens said that distributions to the unsecured creditors could begin as soon as the order is final, which typically takes two weeks. He also said settlements of unresolved claims could soon result in "very substantial" creditor distributions beyond the one approved yesterday.

Brookfield Wins Auction for Bankrupt Revel Casino

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Brookfield Asset Management has won the auction for Atlantic City's bankrupt Revel Casino Hotel, Reuters reported today. The company bid $110 million for the casino complex, topping a $90-million bid by Florida real estate developer Glenn Straub, who did not submit a superior bid by 5:00 a.m. ET. Revel Casino, which cost $2.4 billion to build, opened in 2012 and closed on Sept. 2. Revel Casino had agreed to use Straub's initial bid to set the benchmark for other potential buyers. Straub had said that he wanted to create a university at the site to attract the world's brightest minds to tackle social problems such as hunger. The case is In re: Revel AC Inc., U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey, No. 14-22654.

Trump Entertainment Seeks Union Concessions

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Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., the Atlantic City, N.J., casino operator, said that it will soon file a reorganization plan for secured lenders to convert some of their $286 million in old debt into equity and new debt not requiring cash interest payments, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. If approved, the lenders will provide $100 million in new capital, the casino operator said. First-lien lenders, including Icahn Partners LP and affiliated funds, were owed approximately $285.6 million plus $6.6 million in interest when the chapter 11 reorganization began this month. The proposal depends on concessions from the union, New Jersey and Atlantic City. The company filed papers on Sept 26 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware seeking permission to modify the existing union contract. Meanwhile, Donald Trump last week asked the judge to take his name off the company’s properties: the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort. The 906-room Trump Plaza closed this month. The Taj Mahal, with more than 2,000 rooms, previously told workers it will close around Nov. 13 absent labor concessions.

Reichhold Inc. Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

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Chemical company Reichhold Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday after securing a pledge from its bondholders to fund its operations and purchase its business, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The maker of resins used in a variety of industries said bondholders have pledged $130 million in financing, of which $100 million will be a debtor-in-possession loan, to fund the company's continuing operations during the chapter 11 case. Bondholders have also agreed to serve as stalking-horse bidder in a court-overseen auction of Reichhold's U.S. business.

Ericsson to Buy Ambient Corp. Out of Bankruptcy

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Sweden's Ericsson is preparing to take over Massachusetts-based Ambient Corp., which struggled to sell its "smart grid" technology to power companies, after a bankruptcy judge approved Ericsson's $7.5 million purchase offer last week, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross approved the offer, which came from an Ericsson affiliate, after looking it over at a court hearing on Friday. Ambient filed for bankruptcy on July 28, saying that the company has had a hard time finding buyers for its devices that plug into a utility's power grid to help the utility communicate with electricity users. The largest customer for its data-collection devices has been Duke Energy Corp.

GNP Creditors Petition to Move Bankruptcy Case to Maine But Trustee Objects

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A group of Maine-based creditors has asked a Delaware court to move the bankruptcy case of Great Northern Paper Co. to Maine, where an attorney said 56 percent of the 1,159 creditors are located, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News reported yesterday. But Charles Stanziale, the trustee appointed in the bankruptcy case for GNP, plans to oppose that measure, arguing that he has administered bankruptcies from all over the country. That sets up a dispute with Portland-based attorney Jeremy Fischer, who represents three creditors and has been gathering support to bring the case to Maine from others with an interest in the the East Millinocket paper mill operator’s bankruptcy. Fischer filed a motion late Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, stating that Maine’s attorney general, the towns of East Millinocket and Millinocket and the employees’ unions have indicated support for the change of venue before a scheduled meeting of creditors happens Oct. 15.

Bidder for Atlantic Citys Revel to Contest Auction If He Loses

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The Florida developer who entered the first bid in an auction for Atlantic City, New Jersey's Revel Casino Hotel, which closed its doors this month, said yesterday that he plans to challenge the results if he loses, because the process lacked transparency, Reuters reported yesterday. The comments, by Glenn Straub, come as the auction for Revel, Atlantic City's newest casino complex, is scheduled to resume today. The auction started last week with a $90 million cash bid by Straub but adjourned for the Jewish Rosh Hashanah holiday. Straub complained the bidding lacked transparency and he did not even know how many qualified at last week's bid deadline, or how their proposals were being valued. Revel's attorney, John Cunningham with White & Case, called the allegations "entirely false."

Trustee Investigates Companies Tied to Train Derailment

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A bankruptcy trustee looking to recover money for those affected by a deadly 2013 train derailment has turned his attention to more than a dozen companies that may have played a role in the accident, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In court filings on Thursday, Robert Keach, the trustee for train operator Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd., said that he is seeking information from energy companies Shell Oil Co., ConocoPhillips, InCorr Energy Group and Enserco Energy Inc. to help him determine whether he can pursue legal action against the companies. Keach said that the four filings are "the tip of the iceberg" and that he is speaking with close to 20 companies that either leased tank cars to MM&A or produced the oil being transported.

Trump Eyes Possible Return to Atlantic City

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Even as Donald Trump considers buying back two Atlantic City, N.J., casinos that bear his name, the billionaire wants his name removed from the languishing properties as soon as possible, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Trump, who hasn't been involved in management of the Trump Taj Mahal or Trump Plaza for seven years, said that he disagrees with the way the casinos have been run. "We have a very high standard" in the licensing contract, he said, "and they don't operate it to our standards." Trump said yesterday that he is considering making an offer to buy back the two Trump casinos, but meanwhile, he still wants want his name off the buildings. In recent bankruptcy court filings, Trump's lawyers argued a state-court lawsuit filed in August to terminate the naming rights at the Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Majal should be allowed to continue even though the chapter 11 filing of the two casinos technically halted the litigation.