%1

Constar International Holdings LLC, a maker of plastic soda bottles, won bankruptcy court approval of three asset sales totaling about $113.6 million, including a sale of the majority of its assets to Plastipak Packaging Inc. for about $102.5 million, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi yesterday granted the company permission to sell its U.S. and U.K. assets including real estate in Havre De Grace, Md., to the winners of a bankruptcy auction held last week. In 29 rounds of bidding, the sale price for the U.S. assets rose about $34 million, or almost 50 percent, from Amcor Rigid Plastics USA Inc.’s initial bid of $68.5 million.

Assistant U.S. Trustee Debra A. Wertman wants to investigate the ties between Freedom Industries Inc.'s bankruptcy lawyers and key parties in its chapter 11 case, including the company that acquired Freedom shortly before the chemical spill that tainted the water supply of a large swath of West Virginia, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported on Friday. Wertman is asking the bankruptcy court to give her and Freedom's creditors time to conduct a "full review" of disclosures of past client relationships by Freedom's bankruptcy lawyers at McGuireWoods LLP to ensure the firm doesn't have any conflicts of interest. "A preliminary review of McGuireWoods's disclosures, however, revealed several connections between McGuireWoods and key parties in this case that require further investigation," Wertman said in court papers filed on Wednesday.

The bankruptcy auction of the failed electric-vehicle maker Fisker Automotive remains on track after a federal district court judge’s ruling on Friday, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. The Delaware judge denied an emergency motion by Hybrid Technology, a group led by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, to appeal a previous ruling limiting how much debt it could use to buy Fisker. A bankruptcy judge had rejected Hybrid’s plan to use $75 million it claims it is owed as Fisker’s senior secured lender on the bid. He capped Hybrid’s credit bid at $25 million, setting up a competitive auction with Chinese auto parts conglomerate Wanxiang Group Corp., whose offer includes $35.7 million in cash. Hybrid is offering $30 million in cash for Fisker. The auction is scheduled for Wednesday.

A retired bankruptcy judge from Reno has been appointed mediator in the chapter 11 reorganization case of the Catholic Diocese of Stockton, the San Joaquin (Calif.) Record reported on Saturday. Gregg W. Zive is expected to convene mediation sessions between diocese attorneys and those representing creditors within 30 days. He retired from the federal bench in 2011 but serves when needed. Judge Zive was appointed by Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Klein, who is overseeing both the diocese's bankruptcy and the chapter 9 bankruptcy of the city of Stockton. Last month, Stockton's became the 10th diocese in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy protection. Over the past two decades, the diocese has spent $32 million in legal fees and settlements.

Bankruptcy lawyers who are turning over Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd .'s operations to its new owner are running out of money. In a loan request filed to U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Bangor, Maine, lawyers in charge of the railway asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to borrow $1.8 million so the company — which filed for bankruptcy after a deadly train derailment July 6 in Quebec — can keep operating until its sale closes, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In January, an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group won a bankruptcy auction with a $15.85 million offer for the railway, which operates more than 500 miles of track in Maine, Vermont and Quebec. Before the accident, the railroad company employed 179 people and operated about 15 trains daily with a fleet of 26 locomotives, according to court papers.

Bankruptcy Judge Donald Steckroth on Monday found that labor contract changes requested by five HealthBridge Management LLC-owned skilled nursing facilities are essential to the survival of the businesses, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The modifications, including changes to work hours and benefits for 700 union employees, will save the HealthBridge facilities $7.5 million per year during the next four years, according to court documents.

Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman yesterday approved a $33 million loan from a group that includes Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charles Ergen, to keep wireless venture LightSquared afloat as it tries to hash out a bankruptcy exit plan, Reuters reported yesterday. LightSquared's equity owner, Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, is fighting to keep control of the company in chapter 11. An investment vehicle owned by Ergen has bought up much of LightSquared's debt, while Dish offered and later withdrew a $2.2 billion offer to purchase the company's spectrum, an offer Harbinger did not accept. LightSquared, which had been on pace to run out of cash by March, needed a loan to be able to extend restructuring talks that could go past that.

The Texas-based operator of the Furr’s Fresh Buffet restaurant chain filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday, citing a surprising culprit for the move — the brutal winter weather, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Already crunched for cash by an effort to overhaul its restaurants, located throughout the Southwest, Buffet Partners LP said the December storm that brought ice and sleet to North Texas, leaving tens of thousands of people without power and stranding drivers, put a chill on its business. Buffet Partners, of Plano, Texas, said that it would use the breathing room of bankruptcy to restructure a debt load that tops $40 million. The chain, which employs more than 2,000 people, plans to continue operating its 29 restaurants in Arizona, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas during the chapter 11 case.

Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur yesterday placed the parent company of Comcast SportsNet Houston under chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Houston Chronicle reported today. Judge Isgur’s order came at the conclusion of a day-long hearing at which attorneys for Comcast and the Rockets asked that the case remain under bankruptcy court jurisdiction and the Astros asked that the case be dismissed. Dismissal would have resulted in the almost certain demise of the 16-month-old network owned by the Astros, Rockets and Comcast, which is owned by a limited partnership known as Houston Regional Sports Network. Isgur’s order assures that the network will remain in operation while the three network partners work on a reorganization plan. A key to that plan will be arranging the carriage agreements that management has thus far been unable to arrange with such major carriers as DirecTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-verse and Suddenlink. CSN Houston at present is available to no more than 40 percent of the Houston area’s 2.2 million TV households. Judge Isgur set a Friday hearing for the next phase of the bankruptcy case, which was filed last September by four Comcast affiliates. The Astros had sought dismissal of the case so they could retain their broadcast rights and shop them to another carrier, which would have doomed the network.

The owner of Hot Dog on a Stick, the employee-owned purveyor of corn dogs and deep-fried cheese in dozens of malls in the western U.S., filed for bankruptcy to reorganize and cut real estate costs, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. HDOS Enterprises listed debt of less than $10 million and less than $50 million in assets in a chapter 11 petition filed yesterday. The chain “signed some very expensive leases during the booming economy of the mid-2000s,” Chief Executive Officer Dan Smith said in a statement. It also suffered from a decline in foot traffic at the malls where it does much of its business.