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Since filing for Chapter 11 in May 2020, Hertz and its major stakeholders have been in negotiations and, at times, disputes over how best to reduce Hertz’s nearly half-a-million vehicle fleet.  These negotiations and disputes have caught the eye of investors in asset-backed securities (“ABS”) and market watchers alike, as the outcome of the case could have rippling effects across the ABS industry and capital markets, generally.
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Continue Reading E Pluribus Unum or Ex Uno Plures? Attempted ABS Master Lease Rejection in the Hertz Bankruptcy

The Wall Street Journal reports that on September 17, 2020, GNC Holdings, Inc. obtained authorization from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to sell substantially all of its assets to one of its largest shareholders, China-based Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Co., for approximately $760 million in spite of national security concerns raised…

Reporting from Bloomberg indicates that April 2020 consumer spending in the United States dropped 13.6% from March, which is the sharpest month-over-month drop in approximately 60 years’ worth of consumer spending data maintained by the Commerce Department. [Bloomberg; May 29, 2020]

The Wall Street Journal reports that 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide Inc. is seeking a…

In recent weeks, the dispute in Windstream’s bankruptcy between Windstream and its REIT spinoff Uniti Group over the lease transaction that ultimately led to Windstream’s chapter 11 bankruptcy has continued to escalate with Windstream filing an adversary complaint against Uniti.  In its complaint, Windstream seeks to recharacterize the lease as a disguised financing alleging that the lease resulted in a long-term transfer of billions of dollars to Uniti to the detriment of Windstream’s creditors. The debtors’ complaint also alleges that they were insolvent no later than the third quarter of 2017, and argues that the above-market rent payments and tenant capital improvements they were required to make under the lease constitute constructively fraudulent transfers, as the debtors have not received reasonably equivalent value under the lease.
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Continue Reading Windstream Lease Dispute Escalates as Debtors Sue Uniti, Mediator Appointed, and Creditors Intervene

Bloomberg reports on slowing U.S. growth as trade wars weigh on businesses [Yahoo News, Bloomberg; July 26, 2019]

Windstream’s dispute with its REIT spinoff Uniti heats up, as Windstream seeks to recharacterize its $650 million-per-year lease agreement with Uniti as a disguised financing [Law360; July 25, 2019]

Virginia congressman’s bill on small business bankruptcy reform…

Could the US already be in a recession?  [USA Today; June 25, 2019]

Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board proposes bankruptcy plan framework that would cut debt payments by half over the next 30 years [CNBC; June 16, 2019]

As part of proposed agreement between CFPB, attorneys general from 43 states and defunct for-profit…

Yesterday, in an 8-1 decision, the US Supreme Court held in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC1 that under Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code, a debtor-licensor’s rejection of a trademark license agreement does not terminate the rights of the licensee to continue using the trademark where those rights would otherwise survive the licensor’s breach of the agreement under non-bankruptcy law.2  The Tempnology decision resolves the most significant unanswered question regarding the treatment of trademark licenses in bankruptcy.
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Continue Reading Trademark Licensee May Continue Using Trademark Following Debtor’s Rejection of License Agreement, Supreme Court Rules