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Party City receives approval to exit bankruptcy

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By The Indianapolis Business Journal

INDIANAPOLIS — Party City on Wednesday received court approval to exit bankruptcy and emerge with a leaner balance sheet, avoiding the fate of retail peers who stumbled in Chapter 11 and ceased operations.

The New Jersey-based retailer is set to hand ownership of the company to lenders and reduce its debt load by some $1 billion, according to court papers. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones on Wednesday said he would approve the company’s restructuring plan.

“This plan sets the company up for success going forward,” Ken Ziman, an attorney for the company, said during the hearing. “And most important, your honor, this is a plan that preserves thousands of jobs.”

As part of the Chapter 11 process, the company closed more than 60 stores across the country, but was able to keep the vast majority of its more than 700 stores open, according to court papers. “It wasn’t a wholesale exiting of lease locations,” said Ziman.

Party City has three stores in Indianapolis: at 8703 Hardegan St. on the south side 10537 E. Washington St. on the east side and 3622 Bethany Road on the

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Party City to Emerge from Bankruptcy with Most Stores Intact

A bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of Texas has approved Party City’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy, multiple sources report. The plan, which will cancel $1 billion in company debt, will enable Party City to close just a “handful” of its nearly 800 stores and save thousands of jobs, Party City attorney Ken Ziman said at a court hearing in Houston, as reported by Reuters.

Ownership of the company will be turned over to the retailer’s current lenders, but the deal will wipe out individual shareholders. “The math is what the math is,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones told a shareholder who spoke up at the hearing per Reuters. “It’s one of those things where there simply is not an alternative.”

Under the plan, $1 billion in pre-petition debt will be converted into equity shares, and Party City will receive a new $562 million loan from its existing lenders. The company also will raise additional cash by selling $75 million in new equity shares.

Party City’s junior creditors, including unpaid trade vendors, will receive $3.5 million in cash plus Party City’s share of a $5.6 billion class action settlement related to credit card payment

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Estes enters as serious financial backer in Yellow bankruptcy

Yellow Corp. has received an offer from rival less-than-truckload giant Estes Express Lines that would fund its short-term efforts to wind down its operations via Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. An attorney for Nashville-based Yellow, which was No. 6 on the 2023 for-hire FleetOwner 500, said on Aug. 11 that the Estes Express “financing proposal [had] continued to gel” late last week.

Richmond, Virginia-based Estes Express (No. 11 on the for-hire FleetOwner 500) surfaced earlier last week as a possible source of so-called debtor-in-possession (DIP) funding for Yellow, which filed for protection from its creditors on Aug. 6 and is looking to sell off its equipment and real estate in the next two months. Yellow has an estimated $1.5 billion in debt, but its assets to sell are substantial: 12,700 tractors (about 1,000 of them leased) as well as 42,000 trailers (of which 7,200 are leased), 169 terminals, and six warehouses run by its Yellow Logistics subsidiary. And the entry of rival Estes Express as a financial backer has introduced complications and interest in the fate of Yellow’s holdings.

See also: Fleet failures playing role in fueling used-truck market surge

Yellow executives and their attorneys have said since filing Chapter 11

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AppHarvest files for bankruptcy | News

Kentucky-based agricultural technology company AppHarvest filed for bankruptcy amid doubts about the business’ future.

The company, which has built some of the world’s largest indoor farms, announced plans Monday morning for “a financial and operational transition” that includes filing for bankruptcy. Recent media reports have highlighted turmoil associated with the company, such as a lease termination and facility foreclosures.

An attorney for AppHarvest filed documents late Sunday night in the Southern District of Texas U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The case is assigned to Judge David R. Jones.

A company press release said AppHarvest’s course correction plan revolves around the bankruptcy filing. Additionally, the company has a commitment from creditor Equilibrium for $30 million of debtor-in-possession financing to support its operations in Morehead, Richmond and Somerset. The financing is subject to the court’s approval.

Earlier in July, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the property owner of AppHarvest’s Berea facility wanted to terminate the company’s lease. As part of its plan, AppHarvest wants to transfer its Berea operations to distribution partner Mastronardi Produce or an affiliate at the cost of $3.75 million, along with additional support. This, too, is subject to court approval.

AppHarvest’s stock price was $0.33 at the close of business

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Johnson and Johnson bankruptcy claim is a ruse to limit liability, cancer victims say

Juliet Gray has felt many things since she was first diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma two years ago.

Pain, which flares up when she’s stressed or tired. Fear, with every new doctor’s visit as she dreads the return of her rare, terminal cancer. Heartache, when she thinks of her 9-year-old son and how quickly her time with him is running out.

Mostly, though, she’s mad. She’s furious with New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, whose talc products she blames for her incurable cancer. And her fury recently curdled into betrayal after Johnson & Johnson filed for bankruptcy in a controversial strategy company attorneys say will expedite the nearly 40,000 lawsuits against them.

Critics say the company — worth over $400 billion — is far from bankrupt and instead just wants to keep their cases from being heard by juries. Maryland-based attorney Jonathan Ruckdeschel, who has filed several lawsuits against J&J, said such a strategy forces plaintiffs into a collectively negotiated, judicially enforced settlement and removes their Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.

“What they’re trying to do is cram everybody into a one-size-fits-all mandatory settlement that nobody has the choice to opt in or out of, and if you

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