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Anesthesia Healthcare Partners Files for Bankruptcy

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Anesthesia Healthcare Partners Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection while in a court battle with one of the country's biggest medical-insurance companies, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Officials put Anesthesia Healthcare into chapter 11 protection on Thursday in Atlanta, stating that the company faces more than $10 million in debt. Earlier this year, Anesthesia Healthcare sued Cigna Corp. to recover about $17 million it says it is owed for services it provided to thousands of Cigna-covered patients, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.

Evergreen Aviation Bankruptcy Reveals Schism Among Lenders Creditors

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A flurry of filings this week in the Evergreen International Aviation bankruptcy case in Delaware has revealed a sharp division among stakeholders, the Oregonian reported today. On one side is an Arizona company that leased 1.5 million square feet to Evergreen to park aircraft. On the other side is a coalition of lenders led by Goldman Sachs. The parties are tussling over who should be first in line when and if the trustee in the case proceeds with a proposed sale of "substantially all" of Evergreen's aircraft assets to Jet Midwest, a Kansas City company.

Apollo Taking Hostess Dividend After Bankruptcy Exit

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Apollo Global Management LLC, the buyout fund led by billionaire Leon Black, is planning to take a dividend from Hostess Brands Inc. after buying the maker of Coffee Cakes and Twinkies out of bankruptcy 14 months ago, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Apollo and co-owner C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. are seeking $175 million from Hostess, according to a statement from Standard & Poor’s. The payout won’t affect the company’s rating of B- and will leave it with $40 million in cash and $60 million in available credit.

Coldwater Creek Creditors Oppose Bankruptcy-Exit Plan

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Coldwater Creek Inc.’s unsecured creditors are opposing the liquidating retailer’s proposed plan to exit bankruptcy, arguing that serious revisions need to be made to ensure that creditors recover as much money as possible in the case, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In a court filing on Wednesday, a committee of unsecured creditors asked a judge to slow down the rushed timeline of the five-week-old case “before significant estate resources are needlessly wasted.” If given more time, the committee says that it will work with Coldwater on a new creditor-repayment plan, one that allows creditors to pursue litigation against the company’s former officers and lenders and that gives the committee more control over the liquidation process.

Energy Future Top-Ranking Lenders Take Issue with Financing Plan

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Investors owning $1.7 billion or more in top-ranking debt say a $7.3 billion piece of Energy Future Holdings Corp.'s financing plan is a flawed and "incoherent" attempt to evade bankruptcy rules, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Through their bond trustee, holders of a majority of some first-lien notes attached to the company's Energy Future Intermediate arm took aim at a planned series of transactions designed to rework the balance sheet of the business, one of two major divisions that filed for chapter 11 protection along with parent Energy Future in April. Investors say that the complex deals are an "unprecedented" effort by the Texas power seller and its affiliate "to reset their entire multibillion-dollar capital structure and lock in creditors" without offering creditors the protections of the Bankruptcy Code. Instead of a chapter 11 plan process with court-approved disclosures, Energy Future is using bankruptcy financing as a vehicle for revamping the balance sheet of the Energy Future Intermediate division, court papers say. The investors' big problem with the proposed financing is the treatment of a $1.4 billion early-payment premium on the Energy Future Intermediate debt. Energy Future says that it doesn't owe any early-payment premium, but it is willing to offer extra value in the financing for investors who agree to settle.

ResCap Sues to Recover Money Paid Before Bankruptcy

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Residential Capital LLC is trying to claw back more than $20 million from companies it did business with before its 2012 bankruptcy filing, including Xerox Corp. and First American Financial Corp., the Wall Street Journal reported today. In 36 separate lawsuits filed on Monday in bankruptcy court, the former mortgage services arm of Ally Financial Inc. is seeking money from parties that provided services to it in the three months before its May 14, 2012, chapter 11 filing. Neither Xerox, which through itself and two subsidiaries provided various business services for ResCap for more than $2 million, nor First American, which offered more than $6 million worth of property inspections and other services for the company, didn't immediately comment on the law suits. The rest of the suits are against risk-management firms, mortgage information providers and other vendors, mostly for amounts between $50,000 and $1 million. Such suits often end up in settlements.

Genco Equity Holders Seek to Slow Down Restructuring

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Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd.'s equity committee is asking a judge to put the brakes on the shipper's prepackaged bankruptcy, saying that there could be "a substantial recovery" for shareholders in this case, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The company’s equity-security holders’ committee, which was appointed Friday, requested yesterday that Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane put off considering confirmation of Genco's bankruptcy plan for at least 45 more days. If granted, the request would double the amount of time Genco had hoped to stay in chapter 11.

Quiznos Wins Bankruptcy Court Approval of Its Recovery Plan

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Quiznos Corp., the Denver-based toasted-sandwich chain that entered bankruptcy in March, received court approval of a recovery plan that cuts debt by more than $400 million, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. First-lien lenders owed $445 million, including Oaktree Capital Management LP, MSD Capital LP and Caspian Capital LP, will get 70 percent of the new stock plus new debt, according to court papers. Remaining stock will go to second-lien lenders owed $174 million. Quiznos, founded in 1981, negotiated the plan with most of its senior lenders before seeking court protection on March 14, citing a weak job market and greater competition among fast-food restaurants. Quiznos franchisees operate about 2,100 restaurants in all 50 U.S. states and 34 countries, according to its website.

Creditors in Energy Futures Bankruptcy Form Official Committee

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Unsecured creditors of bankrupt Energy Future Holdings, as well as one group of secured bondholders considered far out of the money, formed a committee yesterday that will play a major role in the restructuring of Texas' biggest power company, Reuters reported yesterday. The seven-member committee, appointed by the Office of the U.S. Trustee, included the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. as well as representatives of bondholders and suppliers to the company, which filed for chapter 11 protection on April 29 with $9.6 billion owed to unsecured creditors. The company owes another $32 billion to higher-priority creditors, making it one of the biggest non-financial companies ever to file for bankruptcy. In a rare move, the committee will include a representative of secured noteholders that the company says are so unlikely to get paid that they are essentially involuntarily unsecured.

U.S. Canadian Courts Begin Trial over Nortel Billions

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Judges in Wilmington, Delaware, and Toronto jointly kicked off a novel cross-border trial yesterday to divvy up the $7.3 billion that was raised in the liquidation of once-mighty telecoms equipment maker Nortel Networks, which went bust in 2009, Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross and Ontario Superior Court Justice Frank Newbould heard opening arguments yesterday from four attorneys: two in Wilmington and broadcast in Toronto, and two in Toronto and broadcast in Wilmington. The judges must decide how to allocate the money among former Nortel businesses in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Administrators overseeing those former Nortel business units cannot repay creditors, make up pension shortfalls or pay off Nortel bonds until they know how much money they will receive.

To hear more about the Nortel case and other top cross-border cases and issues, be sure to join ABI in New York on June 20 for the Cross-Border Insolvency Program. For more information or to register, please click here: http://www.abiworld.org/CB14/