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Teen retailer Wet Seal Inc. said yesterday that it is shutting two-thirds of its stores as it races to shore up liquidity and keep its operations afloat, MarketWatch.com reported yesterday. But it may be too late to avoid the fate of former rivals Delia’s and Deb Shops, which filed for bankruptcy protection in December. Already, a lender on some of the company’s senior convertible notes has issued a default notice with a deadline of Jan. 12. Unless Wet Seal meets its obligations or strikes a new agreement, the company is facing bankruptcy, said former bankruptcy attorney David Tawil of hedge fund Maglan Capital.

Farmers and land owners who invested in two small wind farms in southwest Minnesota have filed for bankruptcy reorganization, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Regulatory filings say the 360 owners stand to lose their investment and the wind farms may eventually have to shut down. Minwind says the turbines have needed extensive repairs and it can no longer afford the maintenance. Minwind has also failed to file some paperwork with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission since 2006 and has a $1.9 million liability. Minwind's attorneys have told the government the owners are "unsophisticated" about regulatory matters and should be excused for the filing lapse.

William Nicklin’s troubled investment firm NSB Advisors LLC has filed for bankruptcy protection with a plan to sell its assets to Emancipation Management LLC, the Wall Street Journal reported today. NSB, whose assets under management were more than $1.2 billion in 2012, filed for chapter 11 protection on Monday after a 2012 dispute with its custodian broker led to a flight of clients. In an affidavit filed with the court, Nicklin placed much of the blame for the Fishkill, N.Y.-based brokerage’s financial woes on its former custodian, C.L. King & Associates Inc. About three years ago, Nicklin said, C.L. King told NSB that it needed to reduce its clients’ collective balances by $231 million for regulatory reasons. According to Nicklin, C.L. King also sent letters to his biggest clients urging them to move their accounts. A lawyer for C.L. King, Richard Roth of the Roth Law Firm LLC in New York, denied Nicklin’s allegations. NSB now has just a fraction of its former customers — 410 accounts and assets under management of approximately $143 million, Nicklin said.

Friendly's franchisee J&B Restaurant Partners of Long Island II LLC and certain affiliates filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday as part of a pre-negotiated restructuring plan, Reuters reported today. J&B said that the filing will allow it to close unprofitable restaurants, reduce debt and quickly emerge from bankruptcy. The owner of 37 Friendly's restaurants in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut expects to exit bankruptcy over the next six months and to remodel at least 11 restaurants over three years. The company said that GE Capital Franchise Finance will provide a debtor-in-possession financing to enable normal operation. J&B listed assets of about $500,000 to $1 million and liabilities of $10 million to $50 million.

Through a series of financial maneuvers, Apollo has positioned itself to salvage some of the $1.7 billion it invested in Caesars, which it took private seven years ago in a $28 billion leveraged buyout with fellow private-equity firm TPG, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The restructuring hinges on the bankruptcy of Caesars’s largest unit, which could come as soon as mid-January, and transfers of the unit’s best assets that have infuriated creditors. Apollo has engineered transfers of some of the casino chain’s most valuable properties — including a key piece of the Las Vegas Strip’s Caesars Palace — from the soon-to-be-bankrupt Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. to other Caesars affiliates. That left holders of $18.4 billion in debt owed by Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. with claims on far fewer assets. As a result, some creditors are being asked to take less than what they are owed in negotiations leading up to the unit’s chapter 11 filing, while Apollo would retain a significant interest in the gambling empire. Though its stake is currently worth only around 40 percent of what Apollo invested, according to regulatory filings, it positions the private-equity firm to share in the upside if Caesars thrives.

HEI Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection on Sunday after declining sales triggered a review of strategic options for its business, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. A developer and manufacturer of microelectronics, substrates, electromechanical hardware and embedded software for the medical, telecommunications, military, aerospace and industrial markets, the Minneapolis-based company estimated its debts and assets at between $10 million and $50 million. Court papers said that the company will be seeking expedited consideration of motions that will allow it to continue its business while in bankruptcy.

Revel AC Inc. won bankruptcy court approval to sell its shuttered Atlantic City, N.J., casino to the original bidder for $95.4 million, after an earlier sale at a higher price fell apart, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns said that she will enter an order authorizing the sale to Florida real estate investor Glenn Straub’s Polo North Country Club Inc. The company and Straub will have 30 days to close the deal once the order is entered. Revel was one of four casinos that closed last year after New Jersey’s gambling center saw its dominance fade amid growing competition from game rooms in neighboring states. Casino revenue in Atlantic City fell more than 40 percent to about $2.8 billion in 2013 from a peak of more than $5 billion in 2006. The company received court approval to scrap a $110 million sale to Brookfield Property Partners LP, the winner at auction. Brookfield walked away from the deal because it couldn’t arrange a cut in its electric bill. The casino owner turned to Straub, who came in second at the auction with a final offer of $95.4 million. The backup plan may not pan out either, as Straub has sought to lower the price.

LightSquared is seeking to pay a $200 million breakup fee to the backers of its restructuring, including Fortress Investment Group LLC, in case the mobile satellite company’s chapter 11 exit doesn’t pan out as planned, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. LightSquared said in a Wednesday bankruptcy court filing that Fortress would get nearly half the $200 million, payable only if LightSquared opts for an alternative restructuring proposal. Two other backers of the plan, Centerbridge Partners LP and Sig Holdings Inc., would get the rest. Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners, which currently controls LightSquared’s equity and is investing new money in the restructuring, wouldn’t get any of the breakup fee.

As restructuring professionals gear up for a potentially slow year, some bright spots — low oil prices and indications that interest rates will begin rising — have emerged, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Still, these discrete drivers of distress aren't expected to result in a broad shakeout across corporate America, as the credit markets remain friendly to many borrowers, keeping corporate defaults and chapter 11 filings low. One of the factors helping companies avoid default is a "robust" high-yield debt market, according to Dan Dooley, chief executive of turnaround consulting firm MorrisAnderson. For several years, companies without investment-grade credit ratings have been able to access the financing they need to push off debt maturities. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, for instance, expects the U.S. corporate 12-month speculative-grade default rate to rise to 2.4 percent by Sept. 30, 2015, a modest increase from the 1.6 percent rate measured in September 2014 and 2.2 percent in December 2013.

Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns said yesterday that she would approve a $26 million settlement between Atlantic City and the Revel Casino Hotel that will provide much-needed cash for New Jersey's struggling gambling hub and a tax cut for the shuttered gambling complex, Reuters reported yesterday. Judge Burns also indicated she would approve a request to increase the size of Revel's bankruptcy loan from Wells Fargo to $61 million to pay for the tax settlement. The settlement cut Revel's tax bill by $7 million, and in return the casino agreed to drop its legal fight to reduce its property taxes. The defunct casino, which closed in September, owed the city approximately $33 million in taxes, interest and penalties. Tax collectors failed to garner any bids at an auction of the casino's tax debt earlier in December, setting the stage for negotiations to reduce the casino's tax bill.