Bloomberg reports on shifting dynamics in the retail sector caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the transition that certain financial advisory firms have made from advising on liquidating retail assets to sourcing and selling goods at brick-and-mortar retail locations they operate. The article highlights a new off-price department store, Shopper’s Find, that two global financial
Mayer Brown Restructuring Partner Lucy Kweskin recently discussed the current state of the restructuring market with the legal news site Law360.
“I don’t think we’ll really know” where the market is headed, Kweskin noted, “until we see what happens at the end of the year and in the first quarter of 2022.” We need to
CNBC analyzes the Labor Department’s latest jobs report, which showed 850,000 jobs gained in the U.S. in June, much higher than economists expected. The hospitality sector, particularly bars and restaurants, accounted for the largest share of employment gains, with education and professional services also seeing increased employment. The article notes that hiring has accelerated as
Bloomberg reports that shareholders in Latam Airlines Group SA’s chapter 11 case have organized into an ad hoc committee and hired the same counsel that represented equity holders in Hertz. Shareholders see the potential for the Latam bankruptcy to produce a recovery to common equity; similar to Hertz, Latam is a travel company, was in
The Wall Street Journal reports that hedge-fund founder, Dan Kamensky, was sentenced to six months in prison for bankruptcy fraud in connection with his attempt to quash a competing bid for shares of Neiman Marcus subsidiary MyTheresa during Neiman’s bankruptcy case. As a member of the official unsecured creditors’ committee, Kamensky had a fiduciary obligation
In a March 30, 2021 announcement, the Biden administration announced that it would be extending relief to approximately 1.14 million student loan borrowers who previously were not covered under the CARES Act relief enacted last year. These are borrowers who have defaulted on loans issued pursuant to the Federal Family Education Loan Program (“FFELP”). Specifically, under the measure, borrowers who have defaulted on FFELP loans will not face further penalties (and will see penalties already assessed unwound) and will also see their current interest rates reset to 0%.[1] The Biden administration’s action will be retroactive to March 13, 2020—the day the governmental formally declared a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic—and will return FFELP loans that defaulted during this period to good standing, with credit bureaus asked to remove any related negative credit reporting, allowing the applicable borrowers to rehabilitate their credit scores.[2]
Continue Reading Approaching Student Loan Relief Piecemeal: The Biden Administration Extends CARES Relief to Defaulted FFELP Student Loan Borrowers; Weighs Options for Further Measures
The Wall Street Journal reported that the wave of cash raised by special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) is fueling activity in the junk debt market at levels not seen since the dot.com-boom from two decades ago. So far this year, SPACs have issued roughly $100 billion of stock to purchase private companies and take them public,
Bloomberg and CNN reported on the potential impact the pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 shot could have. In the wake of the announcement, stay-at-home company stocks bounced, while travel company stocks fell as investors worried about the potential long-term impact. [Bloomberg; April 13, 2021 & CNN; April 14, 2021]
A recent New York Times article highlights the challenges oftentimes faced by smaller vendors in large bankruptcy cases. The article profiles a couple, who owns a warehouse leased to Brooks Brothers, who were left holding a $240,000 cleanup fee bill when Brooks Brothers rejected their warehouse lease and refused to clear the equipment and other
Reporting from the Wall Street Journal details an independent monitor’s conclusion that Texas’ Public Utility Commission overcharged market participants by approximately $16 billion dollars during Texas’ recent energy crisis by electing to keep wholesale prices raised for 33 hours longer than the monitor deemed necessary. Although the monitor urged the Public Utility Commission of Texas