Home » Posts tagged 'chapter 11 bankruptcy'

Tag Archives: chapter 11 bankruptcy

Olduvai
Click on image to purchase

Olduvai III: Catacylsm
Click on image to purchase

Post categories

Post Archives by Category

Major Freight Carrier Bankrupted, Leaving 3,000 Truckers Jobless, Many Stranded On Highways

December 10, 2019

Major Freight Carrier Bankrupted, Leaving 3,000 Truckers Jobless, Many Stranded On Highways

As the manufacturing recession gains momentum, the largest U.S. truckload carrier filed for bankruptcy Monday morning, leaving 3,000 truck drivers and 500 administrative positions without a job two weeks before Christmas. 

Indianapolis-based Celadon filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the early hours on Monday morning.

Around 1:43 am est., headlines via Reuters confirmed the bankruptcy and how all domestic and international operations have been halted.

  • CELADON GROUP, INC. AND AFFILIATES COMMENCE VOLUNTARY CHAPTER 11 CASES
  • CELADON GROUP INC – CELADON ALSO ANNOUNCED THAT IT WILL SHUT DOWN ALL OF ITS BUSINESS OPERATIONS EFFECTIVE AS OF TODAY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2019
  • CELADON GROUP INC – THIS SHUT DOWN DOES NOT INCLUDE TAYLOR EXPRESS BUSINESS HEADQUARTERED IN HOPE MILLS, NORTH CAROLINA
  • CELADON GROUP – CELADON INTENDS TO USE ITS CHAPTER 11 PROCEEDINGS TO WIND DOWN ITS GLOBAL OPERATIONS
  • CELADON GROUP INC – HAVE FILED VOLUNTARY PETITIONS FOR RELIEF UNDER CHAPTER 11 OF BANKRUPTCY CODE IN U.S. BANKRUPTCY COURT FOR DISTRICT OF DELAWARE
  • CELADON GROUP INC – TO SUPPORT WIND DOWN OF OPERATIONS, CELADON’S LENDERS HAVE AGREED TO PROVIDE INCREMENTAL DEBTOR-IN-POSSESSION FINANCING

Celadon CEO Paul Svindland told WTHR Indianapolis that the entire company would shut down business operations except for the “Taylor Express” subsidiary in Hope Mills, North Carolina, on Monday. 

Svindland said the company will guarantee delivery of their last loads and will instruct drivers where to leave trucks. 

“We have diligently explored all possible options to restructure Celadon and keep business operations ongoing, however, a number of legacy and market headwinds made this impossible to achieve,” Svindland said in a press release.

“Celadon has faced significant costs associated with a multi-year investigation into the actions of former management, including the restatement of financial statements…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

You Can Kick The Can Down The Road, But Reality Will Catch Up With You Eventually

October 13, 2018

You Can Kick The Can Down The Road, But Reality Will Catch Up With You Eventually

Nobody can defy the laws of economics forever.  Whether it is an individual, a company or the nation as a whole, reality always catches up with everyone eventually.  For years, I have been warning that Sears was eventually going to zero, but of course it didn’t happen immediately.  Sears CEO Eddie Lampert kept convincing investors to pour more money into his beleaguered money pit, and so the can kept getting kicked down the road.  It takes a great con man to be able to pull off what Eddie Lampert was able to pull off, and we should all be in awe at the level of skill that he has displayed.  But all good cons eventually come to an end, and now the retailer that was once the largest in world history is coming to an end.  According to multiple media reports, a Sears bankruptcy filing is imminent.  For a while there it looked like it would be a Chapter 7 filing which would mean immediate liquidation for Sears.  But it appears that Lampert will be able secure enough funding to give Sears a little bit of breathing space.  A Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing will allow most of the stores to stay open through the holidays and will give Sears more time to sell off more assets.

I can’t even imagine who would be dumb enough to hand Lampert more money at this point, and this is yet another example that shows that the old saying “a sucker is born every minute” is definitely true.

And we are not talking about a small amount of money.  According to USA Today, Sears is going to need between 300 and 500 million dollars just to keep operating through the holidays…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Chap. 11 Bankruptcies Spike 107% from Year Ago

January 9, 2018

Chap. 11 Bankruptcies Spike 107% from Year Ago

What caused the biggest jump since the Financial Crisis?

New Chapter 11 bankruptcies in the US more than doubled in December 2017 from a year ago to 699 filings. That jump of 362 filings from December 2016 was the largest year-over-year jump since the Financial Crisis.

This chart shows Chapter 11 filings back to 2011, based on data from the American Bankruptcy Institute. I marked the prior five Decembers with red dots. Note how they’re near the low point of the seasonal swings. That makes the spike in December 2017 even more spectacular:

A spike like this in Chapter 11 filings in a month of December is unheard of in normal times. Normally, bankruptcies jump during tax season, the first four or five months of the year, but not at the end of the year. But these are not normal times.

In December, Chapter 11 filings soared 61% from November. This is also highly unusual, as over the prior five years, presumably the “normal times,” the number of filings from November to December has fallen by an average 8.7%.

The chart below shows the year-over-year change in Chapter 11 filings. I marked the prior Decembers in yellow. I circled the oil bust and the brick-and-mortar meltdown. But December 2017 was special:

In a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a company attempts to restructure its debts under the supervision of a judge, and in the process often transfers part or all of the ownership of the company from pre-bankruptcy shareholders to creditors. In many cases, shareholders lose everything, and some creditors too lose everything. But in the end, the hope is that the company can “emerge” from bankruptcy with less debt and keep going, with a reasonable chance the make it. So what is causing this brutal spike in December bankruptcies?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

End Of An Era: Peabody Declares Bankruptcy

April 13, 2016

End Of An Era: Peabody Declares Bankruptcy

The St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp. warned a month ago that it was considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and on Wednesday they made it official. Peabody’s mines will continue to operate uninterrupted through the bankruptcy process. According to Peabody’s court filing, it has obtained $800 million in debtor-in-possession financing facilities.

“Through today’s action, we will seek an in-court solution to Peabody’s substantial debt burden amid a historically challenged industry backdrop. This process enables us to strengthen liquidity and reduce debt, build upon the significant operational achievements we’ve made in recent years and lay the foundation for long-term stability and success in the future,” the company said in a press release.

Peabody has suffered a dramatic fall from grace, after paying $5.1 billion to acquire major coal-producing assets in Australia in 2011. Since then, coal prices have collapsed, coal demand has ground to a halt, and Peabody’s debt has piled up. In the U.S., cheap natural gas and environmental regulation has led to coal’s downfall in the electric power sector. Abroad, a slowdown in China has hurt both thermal and metallurgical coal demand. China’s demand for steel has slowed and it is undertaking a shift away from coal because of air pollution, leaving the world’s top coal producers with a vastly smaller market than they had expected just a few years ago.

U.S. coal exports have declined in recent years, leaving Peabody – who oversees large mining operations in Wyoming – with too much coal and not enough demand. U.S. coal exports fell by 23 percent in 2015 compared to a year earlier.

Peabody’s bankruptcy is the latest in a string of bankruptcies from major coal producers, including Arch Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, Patriot Coal, and Walter Energy.

“Nowhere To Hide” As Baltic ‘Fried’ Index Careens To Fresh Record Low

January 7, 2016

“Nowhere To Hide” As Baltic ‘Fried’ Index Careens To Fresh Record Low

Another day, another fresh all-time record low in The Baltic Dry Index as Deutsche Bank’s “perfect storm” appears ever closer on the horizon. Plunging 4.7% overnight to 445 points, this is 20% lower than the previous record low in 1986 and as one strategist warns, “It’s a brutal start of the year, there’s just nowhere to hide on the market.”

“This looks like a ripple effect from what happened back in August,” adds Alexandre Baradez, chief market analyst at IG France, hopefully looking forward, “it might continue for a few weeks, but given China’s central bank fire power, it shouldn’t last for more than that.”

But Deutsche’s “perfect storm” looms…

The improvement in dry bulk rates we expected into year-end has not materialized. And based on conversations we’ve had with several industry contacts, we believe a number of dry bulk companies are contemplating asset sales to raise liquidity, lower daily cash burn, and reduce capital commitments. The glut of “for sale” tonnage has negative implications for asset and equity values. More critically, it can easily lead to breaches in loan-to-value covenants at many dry bulk companies, shortening the cash runway and likely necessitating additional dilutive actions.

Dry bulk companies generally have enough cash for the next 1yr or so, but most are not well positioned for another leg down in asset values

The majority of publically listed dry bulk companies have already taken painful measures to adapt to the market- some have filed Chapter 11, others have issued equity at deep discounts, and most have tried to delay/defer/cancel newbuilding deliveries. 

The additional cushion, however, is likely not enough if asset values take another leg down; especially given the majority of publically listed dry bulk companies are already near max allowable LTV levels.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Big Natural Gas Driller Bites Dust, ‘Smart Money’ Gets Crushed

August 12, 2015

Big Natural Gas Driller Bites Dust, ‘Smart Money’ Gets Crushed

Natural gas driller Samson Resources is planning to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy by August 15, when a $110 million interest payment comes due on $2.25 billion of senior unsecured junk bonds, Bloomberg reported, citing “two people with knowledge of the matter.” Samson doesn’t have the money, can’t pay, and won’t pay.

The 9.75% bonds maturing February 2020 aren’t traded anymore. The last trade was on July 29 for a quarter of a cent on the dollar. They’re part of the vast high-yield bond pile, and they have become worthless. These kinds of bonds are nicknamed “junk” for a reason.

Stockholders – private equity firms, the ultimate “smart money” – are getting wiped out too.

Samson was acquired in 2011 by a KKR-led group of private equity firms for $7.2 billion. They invested $4.1 billion of equity in the deal. Debt piled on the company made up the rest. Then Samson went on to drill this cash into the ground to produce lots of natural gas and sell it below cost, losing money all along. Now its cash is running out, and new cash to drill into the ground isn’t readily forthcoming.

In the pre-packaged bankruptcy filing, these stockholders would lose their equity stakes in the company, and their shares would become worthless.

Then there are the holders of $1 billion of second-lien covenant-lite term loans. “Covenant-lite” because the debt doesn’t provide creditors the classic protections. During the credit bubble, purposefully constructed by the Fed via its zero-interest rate policy, yield-hungry investors take on just about any risk to earn a discernable yield. Borrowers gobble up the fresh cash and set the terms. And when realty hits, this “covenant-lite” debt leaves investors twisting in the wind.

Holders of these second-lien covenant-lite term loans won’t get their money back either. But their proposal to restructure the company in court and gain control over the company is beating out a competing proposal by holders of the $2.25 billion of unsecured junk bonds that are now going up in smoke.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Olduvai IV: Courage
Click on image to read excerpts

Olduvai II: Exodus
Click on image to purchase

Click on image to purchase @ FriesenPress