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Equity research and stock trading firm ThinkEquity LLC filed for chapter 7 liquidation and said that it does not believe customers have any claims arising from the company's insolvency, Reuters reported yesterday. San Francisco, Calif.-based ThinkEquity has listed liabilities and assets in the range of $1 million to $10 million, the court filing showed. ThinkEquity said that it has been in communication with the Securities Investor Protection Corporation and Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the transfer of customer accounts. The case is ThinkEquity LLC, Case No. 12-13034, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware.

Homer City Funding LLC, the issuer of bonds for the Homer City generating station operated by a unit of power-provider Edison International, filed for bankruptcy court protection, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Homer City, formed to issue debt securities, listed assets and debt of $500 million to $1 billion each in chapter 11 papers filed in court yesterday. Edison in September agreed to transfer control of its Homer City coal-fired power plant east of Pittsburgh to General Electric Capital Corp. That agreement is subject to consent by more than two-thirds of bondholders, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

American Suzuki Motor Corp., the U.S. distributor of Suzuki Motor Corp. automobiles and motorcycles, filed for bankruptcy protection to wind down its automotive division, Bloomberg News reported today. American Suzuki had assets of $233 million and debt of $346 million as of Sept. 30, according to chapter 11 documents filed yesterday. Revenue for fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, was about $1.04 billion, according to court papers. American Suzuki said that it will redirect all of its operating resources to its motorcycle, all-terrain vehicle and marine products businesses. The Brea, Calif.-based company said it plans to sell substantially all its assets to NounCo. Inc., a unit of Suzuki Motor Corp.

First Place Financial Corp., the holding company for First Place Bank, filed for chapter 11 protection on Monday, Bloomberg News reported. The company, which listed debts of $64.5 million and assets of $175.3 million in court documents, indicated that it has an agreement to sell assets to Talmer Bancorp Inc. Dimensional Fund Advisers LP was listed in court papers as the only entity holding more than 5 percent of the Warren, Ohio-based company's voting shares and the largest unsecured creditors were company trusts holding subordinated debt.

Nova Financial Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy after its banking unit was closed by regulators, making it the 47th bank to fail in the U.S. this year, Bloomberg news reported today. The chapter 7 petition for the bank holding company listed assets of as much as $100,000 and debt of as much as $50 million. Nova Bank had about $483 million in assets and $432 million in deposits as of June 30, according to a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. statement. The Pennsylvania Department of Banking closed Nova Bank on Oct. 26, according to the FDIC, which became the receiver. The FDIC was unable to find another financial institution to take over the banking operations. Nova Bank’s failure will cost the Deposit Insurance Fund about $91.2 million, the FDIC estimated.

Ohio retirement community South Franklin Circle has filed for chapter 11 protection to execute a lender-supported plan that reduces its senior debt by 50 percent, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. The facility, which opened in October 2009, began to encounter difficulties when potential residents not only had trouble selling their homes before moving in but also saw losses to their retirement accounts, according to court papers filed on Wednesday.

An AstraZeneca Plc affiliate that owns a contaminated former acid-factory site in Richmond, Calif., sought chapter 11 protection, Bloomberg news reported yesterday. Cherokee Simeon Venture I LLC, which uses AstraZeneca’s U.S. headquarters address in Wilmington, Del., cited about $50 million each in assets and debt in court papers filed on Monday. The waste site, along San Francisco Bay, was developed in 1897 by Stauffer Chemical Co., later Bayer CropScience Inc., to make sulfuric acid, and until the 1970s was also used to produce agricultural products including fertilizer, according to a 2005 maintenance plan submitted to the California Environmental Protection Agency.

South Franklin Circle, a nonprofit continuing care retirement community, filed a pre-packaged chapter 11 with a plan to reduce its total secured debt by about 40 percent, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company listed assets of $167.2 million and debt of $166.3 million, measured by book value, as of Dec. 31 in chapter 11 documents filed yesterday. In fiscal years 2010 and 2011, the company had net losses of $9.3 million and $7.8 million, respectively.

Tailored-suit company HMX Group, which owns brands like Hart Shaffner Marx that are sported by both President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, filed for chapter 11 protection on Friday, its second filing since 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The company said that it plans to sell itself in bankruptcy, and Authentic Brands Group will kick off bidding at an auction. It did not disclose how much Authentic is offering for the company. HMX has also secured $65 million in bankruptcy financing from Salus Capital Partners, which is also one of HMX's lenders, to keep the company operational during its chapter 11 case.

Money-losing solar inverter maker Satcon Technology Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday, squeezed by falling demand after top consumer Europe lowered subsidies for renewable energy, Reuters reported yesterday. Shares of the company, which had a market value of $6.32 million as of Tuesday close, fell 77 percent to 7.3 cents in morning trade on the Nasdaq. The company has lost 93 percent of its market value since the beginning of the year to Tuesday. Average selling prices for inverters have fallen by about a fifth this year. Satcon, which makes inverters that help feed solar-generated power into the grid, said in January that it would cut about 35 percent of its workforce and close its Canadian plant. The Boston-based company has reported a loss for 22 consecutive quarters.