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In the days following Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd.’s billion-dollar chapter 11 filing, investment funds Aurelius Capital Partners and Och-Ziff Capital Management Group bought up stock in the dry bulk shipper, even though the stock is slated to be canceled in the restructuring and repaid very little, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Aurelius, a distressed debt fund known for its legal sparring with buyout shops and the government of Argentina, purchased more than 4.4 million shares, or 9.9 percent of the shares outstanding, in the days following Genco’s chapter 11 filing, spending more than $8.2 million, according to recently filed financial disclosures. Separately, investment firm Och-Ziff, which owned Genco stock before the filing, raised its own equity stake by 800,000 shares, to 9.1 percent.

Sandwich chain Quiznos will provide unsecured creditors a $2 million cash recovery, according to a newly filed chapter 11 plan, a better deal for the group that had at first been offered a choice between a small amount of equity or some potential litigation proceeds, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. This pool of money is being contributed half from Quiznos and half from Fortress Investment Group, which currently owns Quiznos, along with Avenue Capital Group. This revision to the plan comes after unsecured creditors successfully delayed a hearing on confirmation of the plan from April to today as they negotiated with Quiznos.

Energy Future Holdings Corp. said that keeping the company’s bankruptcy in Delaware would give most advisers and creditors a much shorter trip to court than holding it in the company’s home state of Texas, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. In an objection to a creditor’s bid to move the case, Dallas-based Energy Future said that it also will be more likely to meet its goal of completing reorganization in 11 months if the case stays in Wilmington, Del., where it was filed last month. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB, a trustee for Energy Future’s junior noteholders, has said that the Delaware court would favor management interests over those of some creditors. More than 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware, which gives them access to the state and federal courts there.

For further analysis and insight about navigating American’s busiest bankruptcy courts, be sure to sign up for the May 28 abiLIVE webinar looking at representing creditors in Wilmington and Manhattan. To register or find out more, please click here: http://www.abiworld.org/webinars/2014/LITI/index.html

Mt. Gox Co. creditors won a U.S. judge’s preliminary approval of a plan to settle with two of the bankrupt bitcoin exchange’s executives, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The creditors propose to partner with outside investors to revive the exchange and compensate depositors. That deal also must be approved by a Japanese bankruptcy court. The Tokyo-based exchange filed for bankruptcy in February, when it said it couldn’t account for more than 850,000 bitcoins, which were then worth about $500 million. It later said 200,000 had been located.

A federal bankruptcy judge will consider a key report to Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative’s reorganization plans during a hearing today, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The hearing by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ralph Kirscher is one of two scheduled for this month that could resolve the wholesale electricity distributor’s financial problems after 2 ½ years in bankruptcy. The 210-page disclosure statement submitted in April details the Billings-based co-op’s business operations, bankruptcy filing and its reorganization plan. If Judge Kirscher approves the statement, the plan will go to a May 20 confirmation hearing in Billings.

A Virginia investment firm is poised to purchase package-delivery company Noble Logistics Inc. out of bankruptcy after a Bankruptcy Judge Christopher S. Sontchi signed off on the $14.5 million deal on Tuesday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Judge Sontchi approved the bid from an affiliate of Gladstone Investment Corp. for Houston-based Noble Logistics, said Gladstone lawyer Barry Seidel of the Dickstein Shapiro law firm. Noble Logistics looked for new owners after filing for bankruptcy in February, blaming tough industry competition and a "significant" legal bill after defending the way it employs its network of 1,230 delivery people.

Energy Future Holdings Corp., the Texas power provider that filed for bankruptcy last month, invited holders of about $4 billion in notes to trade that debt for a share of a loan financing its restructuring, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The opt-in period ends June 6, subject to a court hearing, Energy Future said today in a filing in bankruptcy court. To get full consideration, the notes, issued by Energy Future Intermediate Holding Co. and EFIH Finance Inc., must be tendered by May 19, the company said. Energy Future filed for bankruptcy April 29, seven years after being taken private in a record $48 billion leveraged buyout. The company has said that it expects to complete its restructuring in 11 months.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Vice Chairman Thomas Hoenig said yesterday that bankruptcy is the preferred path for resolving the largest U.S. banks when they collapse and firms should make fundamental changes to make that possible, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Hoenig called on banks and regulators to finish work on Dodd-Frank Act “living wills” to lay out how companies can be shut down under court supervision. Relying on a separate rule that lets the FDIC unwind bank holding companies could lead to taxpayer-funded bailouts, he said. “Each systemically important financial firm must provide a credible plan for orderly resolution through bankruptcy,” Hoenig said. “If a credible plan is not produced, supervisors should be prepared to require an institution to sell assets and simplify operations until it shows itself to be bankruptcy compliant.” Eleven banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., submitted a second annual round of the wind-down plans in October to the FDIC and Federal Reserve. The regulators must decide whether the plans are credible, which Hoenig said is unlikely given that “there are no international bankruptcy laws sufficient to sort out cross-border creditor rights.”

Aralco SA-Acucar & Alcool, the Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer that filed for bankruptcy protection in March, will negotiate new debt terms directly with bondholders in a bid to cancel the judicial restructuring request, Bloomberg News reported today. A group representing about 80 percent of bonds will present the Aracatuba, Brazil-based company a proposal to forgo or delay some payments, or a combination of both. Bondholders are also negotiating a standstill agreement with creditor banks. To nullify the bankruptcy protection process, an accord would have to be reached before the Brazilian court accepts the filing.

Freedom Industries Inc. wants to sell its chemical-blending division as it moves to shut down following a chemical spill that contaminated the water supply of some 300,000 people in West Virginia earlier this year, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In court papers, company officials said they found a buyer willing to pay $575,000 for its Poca Blending division, which sells — from 79 tanks — products for surface water treatment and dust suppression and de-icer to the coal and rail sector. Its largest customer is Arch Coal Inc., according to court documents.