%1

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.

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.

Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber on Friday urged settlement talks in a dispute between General Motors Co and plaintiffs seeking compensation for the lost value of their cars stemming from a massive recall over a faulty ignition switch, Reuters reported on Friday. Judge Gerber said that he would welcome the prospect of a resolution that avoided a "monstrous battle." "Frankly, it would be great if whatever money is available for injured people could go to them, and not to litigation costs and attorneys' fees," Gerber said at a court conference with GM and the plaintiffs. Gerber is the same judge who in 2009 oversaw GM's whirlwind chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Now facing dozens of lawsuits over a faulty ignition switch that has led to the recall of some 2.6 million vehicles, GM is asking Judge Gerber to enforce the bankruptcy shield, in a pre-emptive move aimed at staving off dozens of lawsuits from customers who say they took a financial hit from the recall. Under the plan approved by Gerber, GM channeled its liabilities into a shell known as "Old GM," while selling its profitable assets to "New GM," a separate corporate entity that took GM out of bankruptcy and now operates as General Motors Co.

Energy Future Holding Corp. won approval for its main unit to borrow more than $2 billion to keep operating in bankruptcy after the company and junior creditors negotiated details about how the cash would be used, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi signed the order on Friday after the company made a handful of changes to the wording with the consent of creditors that objected to the loan. In return, the company agreed not to use $150 million in cash as collateral after creditors complained that might threaten Energy Future’s ability to repay them.

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.

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.

During the 12 months before Genco filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 21, Chairman Peter Georgiopoulos received $1.46 million in compensation, plus more than $436,000 in expense reimbursements — the majority of which were for sporting event tickets, according to newly filed court documents, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Georgiopoulos has also faced headwinds with another shipping company where he is chairman: General Maritime Corp., which emerged from bankruptcy in 2012 after lowering its debt and receiving a $175 million investment from Oaktree Capital Management LP. Overall, Genco said that it paid $4.2 million in compensation to six directors, its chairman and two executives during this year-long period, and more than $663,000 in reimbursements for items like travel and lodging to the same group.

Attorneys for Jon Corzine and other former MF Global officials have an "urgent need" to tap the company's insurance money to continuing defending themselves against a deluge of litigation tied to the brokerage's collapse, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. More than a dozen former directors, officers and employees of MF Global Holdings and its defunct brokerage on Tuesday filed a letter urging a bankruptcy judge to let them draw additional insurance proceeds, which a pending legal battle has blocked them from tapping for almost a year.

Before Energy Future Holdings Corp. can start fighting junior creditors opposed to the company’s more-than $40 billion bankruptcy plan, the judge overseeing the case must pick the battleground, Bloomberg News reported today. Minutes after Energy Future’s chapter 11 filing hit the docket April 29, the junior creditors asked Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi to move the case from Wilmington, Delaware, one of the busiest bankruptcy venues in the U.S., to a federal courthouse in Dallas, just blocks from company headquarters. A trustee for the lower-ranking creditors wants Judge Sontchi to consider the request at a hearing today, saying that operations would face fewer disruptions if the biggest bankruptcy in the energy industry were handled closer to home. The Dallas-based electricity provider, taken private seven years ago by Henry Kravis and David Bonderman in a record leveraged buyout, filed for bankruptcy this week after negotiating a restructuring deal among creditors, owners and management.

Bankruptcy may be the best thing to happen to Energy Future Holdings’ coal-burning power plants, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Saddled with $49.7 billion in debt under the stewardship of private-equity firms that included KKR & Co., the Texas electricity generator is poised for a turnaround after emerging from bankruptcy court. Its five coal plants, some at risk for closure, will have more staying power as debt gets slashed, higher natural gas prices boost profits and concerns about grid reliability increase their value. Energy Future filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday after months of negotiations with creditors, owners and management yielded a plan to eliminate $26.1 billion in debt. The Dallas-based company, formerly known as TXU Corp., said that it hopes to exit bankruptcy within a year.