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Advantage Rent A Car, which Hertz Corp. shaved off last year as part of its deal to buy Dollar Thrifty, is expected to be placed under chapter 11 protection today as its new owners question the book value of the fleet that was causing losses, Reuters reported today. Hertz sold its Advantage brand, which competes with Dollar Thrifty in the low-cost segment of the market, to Franchise Services of North America and Macquarie Capital. Simply Wheelz LLC, a unit of Franchise Services of North America that does business as Advantage Rent A Car, bought 24,000 vehicles from Hertz as part of the deal. The master lease agreement required Simply Wheelz to bear the residual value risk of the leased fleet. Simply Wheelz, as part of its fleet management operations, began to sell Hertz vehicles in June and booked losses on these sales, FSNA said. As of Oct. 25, Simply Wheelz had sold 5,295 vehicles through auctions for an average loss of about $1,633 per vehicle, and a total loss of about $8.6 million, according to FSNA.

Atlantic Express Transportation Corp. filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday, a court filing showed, as the school bus operator faces a union battle, weak earnings, and cash shortage, Reuters reported yesterday. Atlantic Express said that it expects to use the chapter 11 process to tap additional debt or equity financing, market its assets for sale and negotiate a new labor agreement with the union Local 1181-1061, Amalgamated Transit Union, AFL-CIO. The company has also filed a motion seeking authorization to sell some or all of its assets in December if it is unable to reach an agreement with Local 1181 on a new labor contract and obtain additional financing. New York-based Atlantic Express listed out estimated liabilities and assets of $100 million to $500 million.

Longview Power LLC says that it has found the financing needed to fix its coal-fired power plant and its balance sheet, setting the stage for an exit from bankruptcy in March 2014, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Lenders have agreed to bail out the company with a financing package of up to $150 million, in a deal that will allow them to own as much as 90 percent of the power-plant operation once it's out of chapter 11, according to court papers.

Bankrupt LightSquared on Friday sued leaders in the GPS industry, including Deere & Co. and Garmin International Inc., saying that they kept silent about interference concerns stemming from LightSquared's wireless network until the company had already pumped $4 billion into building it, Reuters reported on Friday. In a lawsuit filed in bankruptcy court, where LightSquared is fighting to keep control of its spectrum, the company alleged that farm equipment maker Deere, and GPS companies Garmin and Trimble Navigation Ltd. led it to believe its network would not interfere with global positioning system devices. The complaint comes on the heels of a similar lawsuit against the GPS industry by Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital, LightSquared's controlling shareholder. Last month, LightSquared received permission from the bankruptcy judge overseeing its chapter 11 case to pause the Harbinger lawsuit so that LightSquared could decide whether it wanted to join the suit or bring claims of its own.

U.S. golf retailer Edwin Watts Golf Shops LLC filed for chapter 11 protection today, Reuters reported. The retailer, owned by private equity firm Sun Capital Partners Inc., listed out estimated liabilities and assets of $100 million to $500 million. The Fort Walton Beach, Fla.-based company sells golf equipment, apparel, and accessories through its more than 88 domestic retail stores and also via its web portal. The case is Edwin Watts Golf Shops LLC, Case No. 13-12877, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware.

Atari Inc., the bankrupt video-game maker, won bankruptcy court approval to seek creditors’ votes on its plan to exit chapter 11 protection as a going concern, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge James M. Peck approved the company’s disclosure statement, an outline of the restructuring plan, finding that it contained adequate information for creditors to make an informed vote, according to court documents filed Oct. 29 in Manhattan. Unsecured creditors are projected to receive a recovery of as much as 25 percent. The company is scheduled to seek court approval of its reorganization plan at a Dec. 5 hearing.

Chevron Corp. wants a bankruptcy judge to revisit his decision allowing Edison Mission to keep its share of a natural-gas joint venture involving the two companies now that Edison has a deal to sell its assets to NRG Energy Inc. for $2.6 billion, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Friday. In a court filing last Wednesday, lawyers for the oil company asked Bankruptcy Judge Jacqueline P. Cox to re-open the case record before granting final approval to Edison Mission's bid to legally "assume," or retain, its stake in the lucrative natural-gas deal.
The sale to NRG "fundamentally alters" some of the key premises underlying Edison Mission's bid to assume the contract and "debunks" its argument that it didn't intend to transfer their contract to a third party. Chevron, which sued Edison Mission shortly after its bankruptcy filing to remove its partner from the deal, also said that a newly discovered document establishes Edison Mission is the "parent" of two subsidiaries involved in the Chevron partnership.

U.S. antitrust authorities want to see a broad package of divestitures from AMR Corp. and US Airways Group Inc. as part of any deal to settle the government's challenge to their merger plan, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Justice Department's antitrust suit, which seeks to block the merger of AMR's American Airlines and US Airways, argues that the deal would harm consumers by reducing air service and increasing fares. It lists more than 1,000 routes on which regulators believed competition would suffer. The opening of settlement talks suggests that the government isn't taking an absolute stand against the deal, and that a trial isn't a certainty. At the same time, however, the airlines might resist the broad concessions that the government is seeking. The Justice Department's suit challenging the merger warns against overconcentration in the U.S. air-travel market if the deal goes ahead as planned, because it would leave the U.S. with just four airlines controlling more than 80 percent of the domestic market. Both sides have said they are prepared to go to trial, which is scheduled to begin Nov. 25.

Energy Future Holdings made an interest payment of about $270 million to subordinated bondholders on Friday, setting the stage for a few more months of restructuring talks that are likely to come to a head early next year, Reuters reported on Friday. The Texas power generator has been negotiating for months with creditors to restructure its $40 billion in debt ahead of an expected bankruptcy filing. Friday was expected to be a deadline in those talks, with senior lenders hoping the company would skip the payment to subordinated bondholders and file for chapter 11 instead. But the company made the payment on schedule, EFH spokesman Allan Koenig said, two days after a source close to the matter told Reuters the company was leaning toward paying it.

Velti Inc., a provider of technology for marketing on mobile devices, filed for bankruptcy protection to arrange a sale of its U.S. businesses, Bloomberg News reported today. The company, with operations in San Francisco, plans to auction some assets with an affiliate of GSO Capital Partners, the credit division of Blackstone Group LP, acting as the stalking-horse bidder, according to Velti. Velti, a U.S. unit of Velti Plc, listed assets of $10 million to $50 million and debt of $50 million to $100 million in chapter 11 documents filed today.