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The temporary staffing firm known as Select Family of Staffing Cos. won approval of a bankruptcy reorganization plan that cuts debt by about 46 percent, or $300 million, five weeks after seeking court protection, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey yesterday granted the company, formally known as Koosharem LLC, approval of the pre-packaged plan. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company filed for bankruptcy on April 1, having already worked out terms of the reorganization and obtained support from its lenders for a plan to cut debt of more than $650 million to about $350 million by raising funds in an equity rights offering and issuing new debt.

Longview Power LLC, a West Virginia power plant that cost more than $2 billion to build, is again trying to reach a deal with creditors and ultimately exit chapter 11 protection, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. An amended restructuring plan filed on Friday in bankruptcy court incorporates a major settlement reached in February and promises Longview's unsecured creditors a recovery of about 22 percent, or their share of a $1 million cash pool, if they vote to accept the plan. If unsecured creditors vote to reject the plan and the plan is confirmed by Judge Brendan Shannon, they will recover 5.5 percent, or their share of $250,000, according to court papers.

A deregulated unit of Energy Future Holdings Corp. that filed for bankruptcy protection last week is planning to issue $9 billion of new debt to pay senior creditors including Apollo Global Management LLC and Oaktree Capital Group LLC, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. First-lien lenders to the Texas Competitive Electric Holdings subsidiary will forgive about $23 billion of debt in exchange for ownership of the restructured company as well as proceeds from the $9 billion transaction, according to court documents. The other lenders include Centerbridge Capital Partners LP and Angelo Gordon & Co. Energy Future, a Dallas-based power producer taken private in a record-setting leveraged buyout, filed for bankruptcy April 29 with a proposal to restructure $40 billion of $49.7 billion in liabilities. The LBO was a bet that natural gas prices, which set the cost of electricity in Texas, would rise. Instead, prices have fallen more than 65 percent since July 2008.

GSE Environmental Inc. and its affiliates filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday as part of a restructuring support agreement with its lenders, Reuters reported today. GSE, which makes geosynthetic lining for waste management, water and mining sectors, listed assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million in a court filing. GSE said that it received up to $45 million in debtor-in-possession financing, and plans to use the funds to repay debt and for general corporate purposes. In its most recent third-quarter results in November, GSE reported a loss of $35.8 million, or $1.77 per share, compared with a profit of $5.2 million, or 26 cents per share, a year earlier.

The Arizona Contractors Association has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy, the Arizona Republic reported today. The Phoenix-based industry trade group, which changed its trade name to the Arizona Construction Association in 2012, filed on April 24 to liquidate its assets. The nonprofit lost an office property to foreclosure and couldn't work out a deal with its creditors. The association, founded in 1956, includes as members developers, architects, engineers, construction managers, general contractors, subcontractors of all trades and material suppliers.

The manufacturer of PureCell electricity-generating systems filed for bankruptcy after laying off workers at its Connecticut plant and is looking for a buyer who could restart its operations, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Company officials put ClearEdge Power Inc. into chapter 11 protection on Thursday and told a bankruptcy judge that they are looking for "some form of sale, merger, acquisition" for the fuel-cell maker. ClearEdge Power , which employed 340 workers, laid off an undisclosed number of workers at its 170,000-square-foot plant in South Windsor, Conn., on April 25 without advance warning.

Total bankruptcy filings in the United States decreased 13 percent in April 2014 from April of last year, according to data provided by Epiq Systems, Inc. Bankruptcy filings totaled 87,954 in April 2014, down from the April 2013 total of 100,770. Consumer filings declined 12 percent to 84,579 from the April 2013 consumer filing total of 96,357. Total commercial filings in April 2014 decreased to 3,375, representing a 24 percent decline from the 4,413 business filings recorded in April 2013. Total commercial chapter 11 filings dipped 4 percent to 683 filings in April 2014 from the 711 commercial chapter 11 filings registered in April 2013. Click below to read the full ABI statistical press release.
http://news.abi.org/press-releases/april-bankruptcy-filings-decrease-13…

The largest power company in Texas, Energy Future Holdings Corp, began its bankruptcy turnaround by securing approval for an interim loan after seven hours of contentious arguments in bankruptcy court, Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi approved the loan that was originally proposed at $2.7 billion, but he authorized that only $20 million could be spent. The company and its creditors will return to bankruptcy court today to continue battling over the remainder of the money. Energy Future, created in the 2007 buyout of TXU Corp, filed one of the largest non-financial chapter 11 bankruptcies in U.S. history on Tuesday after struggling more than a year to work out a deal with its creditors.

Moody’s Investors Service said that Energy Future Holdings Corp.’s bankruptcy could put tax revenue in some Texas municipalities at risk should the company’s coal-fired generating plants be closed, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The power plants account for 23 percent to 50 percent of the tax base in some Texas localities, the credit-rating company said yesterday in a report. The Dallas-based electricity provider filed for bankruptcy April 29 and no decisions have been made about whether to close facilities. Moody’s said that it “wouldn’t rule out the potential for an early retirement of a coal fired generating plant” during or after the company’s bankruptcy. In Titus County, in northeast Texas, a power plant provides 38 percent of the tax base. In Rusk County, in east Texas, 23 percent of the assessed value of its property-tax base is from the company’s Martin Lake plant, Moody’s said. The Franklin Independent School District in south-central Texas gets about half its property-tax collections from the Oak Grove plant, Moody’s said.

Fisker Automotive Inc. wants more time to complete its revamped creditor-payment plan now that it has reached a crucial settlement over its $150 million sale to Wanxiang Group, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Fisker wants the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., to push back a preliminary hearing on the plan to May 20 from May 6, according to court papers. The defunct maker of hybrid cars said that it is continuing talks with its unsecured creditors to complete the plan in the wake of the settlement, announced in April.