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Aerospace manufacturer Hawker Beechcraft Inc. on Monday unveiled a bankruptcy exit plan that would give control of the company to secured creditors after a proposed sale to a Chinese firm fell through, Reuters reported yesterday. The Wichita, Kansas-based firm filed a disclosure statement in Manhattan bankruptcy court revealing plans to hand 81.1 percent of its new equity to senior lenders, which include Angelo Gordon & Co, Centerbridge Partners, Sankaty Advisors and Capital Research & Management. The rest of the equity would go to senior and junior noteholders, according to the filing.

The Office of the U.S. Trustee and private equity investor Palm Beach Capital say that Digital Domain Media Group is a corporate shell that is trying to sell what is left and pushing a settlement with unsecured creditors and top-ranking lenders, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. Once a prize-winning provider of special effects for movies such as "Titanic," Digital Domain collapsed on Sept. 11 and sold its operating business in a high-speed bankruptcy sale.

Nearly a year after MF Global raided customer accounts in a failed bid to survive, regulators moved this week to tighten restrictions for brokerage firms and adopt new safeguards for client money, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted unanimously to propose new customer protections aimed at closing loopholes, bolstering internal controls and forcing firms to provide more disclosures to their clients. The proposal, which may be changed over the next several months, comes as the futures industry suffers a crisis of confidence in the wake of the MF Global debacle.

Authentic Brands Group has offered to pay $70.1 million for men's suit maker HMX Group, according to court documents, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. HMX plans to hold an auction for its assets on Dec. 3, assuming it receives bids to challenge Authentic's. If Authentic is unsuccessful at auction, it will be entitled to a $2.2 million breakup fee and up to $700,000 in expense reimbursement.

Solyndra, the solar panel maker that failed despite a $528 million federal loan, won court approval yesterday for its plan to repay creditors and end its politically charged bankruptcy after a judge overruled objections by the U.S. government, Reuters reported. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath rejected the government argument that the plan was improper because its main purpose was to provide tax breaks. Venture capital firms Argonaut Private Equity and Madrone Capital Partners will control Solyndra's tax breaks, known as net operating losses (NOLs) that are potentially worth $341 million after the bankruptcy. "It is clear in this case the bankruptcy and the reorganization dealt with many other things than the value of the NOLs or the preservation of the NOLs," Judge Walrath said.

Ocwen Financial Corp. and Walter Investment Management Corp. have teamed up to top Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc's starting bid for Residential Capital LLC's mortgage business, ensuring a bankruptcy auction goes ahead next week, Reuters reported on Friday. The consortium offered to buy the mortgage business for $40 million more than Nationstar's $2.45 billion opening bid, though Nationstar was expected to make an updated bid. Several other potential buyers that had shown interest in the business, including private equity firm Blackstone Group and technology company IBM Corp, were not expected to submit offers, potentially leaving Nationstar and the Ocwen-Walter group as the main contenders.

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.

Hawker Beechcraft Inc., the business-jet maker partly owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., plans to emerge from bankruptcy as a stand-alone company after a sale to Superior Aviation Beijing Co. collapsed, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. A review of strategic alternatives for the Hawker jet line is under way, and that business may close "if no satisfactory bids are received," according to the company. The post-bankruptcy company would be renamed Beechcraft Corp. and focus on planes including civilian turboprops and military trainers. The failed $1.79 billion deal with Superior may rekindle interest in Wichita, Kansas-based Hawker.

LSP Energy is seeking to keep exclusive control over its Chapter 11 case as it works to close on the sale of its assets and end an outage that's taken its gas-fired Mississippi power offline, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. In court papers filed on, the company asked for an extension through Nov. 21 of its exclusive right to file a creditor payment plan. The extension would prevent creditors from filing rival plans while LSP works to complete its own. The company's current plan-filing deadline is Oct. 22.

ABI's Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11, whose 22 members constitute a venerable bankruptcy industry Hall of Fame, held a hearing yesterday to gather feedback on what is right and wrong with the statutory scheme that has governed chapter 11 bankruptcy since 1978, Reuters reported. The commission's charge includes "literally considering starting from scratch and re-inventing the statute," said Robert Keach, attorney and commission co-chairman. The commission plans to eventually submit a report to Congress, targeted for April, 2014, that could serve as "part blueprint, part outline" for new legislation, Keach said. The commission will study 13 areas of bankruptcy law, including labor & benefits issues, financing rules and government supervision. It is collecting feedback from several groups through a series of hearings, with upcoming dates at the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges in San Diego on Oct. 26, and a convention of trade group the Turnaround Management Association in Boston on Nov. 3. Read more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/18/bankruptcy-reform-idUSL1E8LHP…

To obtain the prepared witness testimony from yesterday's hearing, view background information on the Commission members or to see upcoming dates of activity, please click here: http://commission.abi.org/