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A fight for the power transmission company Oncor is threatening to derail Energy Future Holdings’ plans for a quick trip through bankruptcy court, the Dallas Morning News reported today. More than two months after the Dallas power company filed for chapter 11 protection from its $40 billion in debts, it is trying to get through court a proposal that would effectively hand its subsidiary Oncor to a group that includes Dallas energy magnate Ray L. Hunt and the state teacher’s pension fund. But EFH is facing substantial opposition from creditors who say the plan is allowing excessive returns to favored creditors. One group of opposing creditors has partnered with Florida-based NextEra Energy to produce a counter offer that would give NextEra control over Oncor. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi is expected to rule on the EFH proposal later this week.

The trustee in charge of Jeffrey Soffer's failed Fontainebleau Las Vegas casino project has struck a settlement that would put more than $83 million of directors and officers insurance money into creditors' pockets, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In a filing with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Miami, lawyers for chapter 7 trustee Soneet R. Kapila said that the settlement also removes $675 million in claims against the Fontainebleau estate.

A federal judge on Tuesday approved nearly $400 million in fees and expenses owed to the professionals responsible for guiding American Airlines through its chapter 11 restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. During a hearing at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Judge Sean Lane signed off on a recommendation from a fee examiner that proposed paying $16.3 million in expenses and $371.7 million in fees to 47 professional firms, including lawyers, accountants, consultants and other advisers. The examiner, attorney Robert Keach, had been tasked with keeping costs down and worked with the professionals to trim several million dollars from the total bill, according to court filings. Judge Lane praised Keach's work, noting that the case had presented many complicated and challenging legal issues and that the fees and expenses also covered professional work related to the airline's ordinary course of business.

The New York City Opera, which closed its doors last fall after years of financial woes, could be revived in some fashion, according to two lawyers working on the opera’s chapter 11 bankruptcy case, the Wall Street Journal reported today. “There is a possibility that the opera could come back in some incarnation,” said Klestadt & Winters partner Sean Southard, an attorney for the opera’s unsecured creditors. Nicole Stefanelli, an attorney at Lowenstein Sandler who represents the opera, added: “At this point, it’s not really clear what will end up happening, but there was at least one proposal to revive New York City Opera.” While the opera has no physical assets after auctioning off its sets, props and costumes, Stefanelli says “interested parties want the name and goodwill” associated with New York City Opera.

Total bankruptcy filings totaled 479,362 nationwide during the first six months of 2014 (Jan. 1-June 30), a 12 percent decrease from the 544,561 total filings during the same period a year ago, according to data provided by Epiq Systems, Inc. The 460,870 total noncommercial filings for the first half of 2014 represented a 12 percent drop from the noncommercial filing total of 520,992 for the first half of 2013. Total commercial filings during the first six months of the year were 18,492, representing a 22 percent decrease from the 23,569 filings during the same period in 2013. Commercial chapter 11 filings also fell during the first half of 2014 as the 3,009 filings represented a 13 percent decrease from the 3,454 commercial chapter 11 filings during the first six months of 2013.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Inc., the former U.S. grocery chain, won court approval of its plan to exit bankruptcy by paying creditors in full, except for owner Tesco Plc., Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company, now known as Old FENM Inc. after selling most of its assets to an affiliate of billionaire Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos., obtained approval from Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey after resolving objections before yesterday’s bankruptcy court hearing. Tesco “voluntarily agreed to subordinate its claims to all other creditors” in exchange for releases from lawsuits and any value left over after all other claims are fully paid, Timothy W. Hoffmann, a lawyer for Fresh & Easy, said at the hearing.

Bankrupt wireless venture LightSquared on Tuesday revealed a new restructuring proposal that would cede 74 percent of its equity to a new investor group that includes JPMorgan Chase & Co., Cerberus Capital Management and Fortress Investment Group, Reuters reported yesterday. Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, which now controls LightSquared, would retain about 12.5 percent of the new equity, according to Joshua Sussberg, a lawyer for a committee overseeing LightSquared's restructuring efforts. JPMorgan, Cerberus and Fortress would supply $1.45 billion in new liquidity, with other investors in the group chipping in another $300 million. Existing lenders with around $1 billion in debt would be repaid in cash.

Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane said yesterday that he will confirm Genco Shipping & Trading’s plan to exit bankruptcy under the control of its senior creditors, rejecting arguments by shareholders that the proposal undervalues the dry bulk shipper’s assets, Reuters reported yesterday. Judge Lane said that he agreed with the company's estimate that its going concern value was less than $1.5 billion. A committee of shareholders had argued the value could be as high as $1.91 billion, calling Genco’s restructuring a ploy to hand over control to creditors and management. Under the plan, existing shareholders would receive just $30 million in warrants.

Creditors to Puerto Rico's electricity provider were given a slight respite yesterday when the bonds' trustee made a scheduled payment, but the U.S. municipal bond market remained worried the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority will soon use a new bankruptcy-like process to restructure its debts, Reuters reported yesterday. The law establishing the process has rattled the $3.7 trillion municipal market since it was passed last week and yesterday it prompted Moody's Investors Service to push ratings on Puerto Rico debt deeper into junk territory. Puerto Rico bonds are widely held due to their tax exemption in every state and their high yields, making them a tempting asset despite the U.S. commonwealth's struggles to cope with a shrinking economy, chronic budget deficits and a $73 billion debt load. PREPA could be the first corporation to test the law, as it faces increasing demands for its limited funds, including payments on expiring lines of credit and fuel purchases. Prices of its junk-rated bonds plummeted to the record low of 36.815 cents on the dollar.

LightSquared Inc., Philip Falcone’s wireless broadband company, agreed on tentative terms of a reorganization plan that would give majority ownership to JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Fortress Investment Group LLC and Cerberus Capital Management LP, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners LLC would retain a small stake under the plan, which will work only if LightSquared exits bankruptcy by Sept. 30, Joshua Sussberg, a lawyer for a special LightSquared committee, told Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman yesterday. The agreement was reached in mediation following a dispute with creditor Charles Ergen over how his $1 billion in debt would be treated. The plan would be financed with a $1.3 billion first-lien credit facility and the investment of $1.75 billion in new money, Sussberg told Chapman. Cerberus, Fortress and JPMorgan would end up with 74 percent of LightSquared’s new common equity and Harbinger would have 12.5 percent, Sussberg said.