Dr. Ricardo Corona
Nine West store owner in Canada files for bankruptcy protection
The Canadian owner of one of Canada’s best-known shoe retailers has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Sherson Group, a Canadian distributor and retailer of footwear and accessories, is the licensed distributor of Nine West shoes in Canada. It also holds the Canadian rights to brands such as Anne Klein, Easy Spirit, Bandolino, Flogg, and Mootsies Tootsies.
The privately held company operates 47 Nine West locations in Canada.
Toronto-based Sherson is the latest in a series of Canadian retail bankruptcy protection filings or store closings, some stemming from a slower Canadian economy. This time, the culprit appears to be intense competition.
In documents filed Tuesday with Ontario Superior Court, Sherson lists 69 creditors to whom it owes at least $250.
The largest amount is more than $19 million owed to Nine West Group Inc. in the U.S., which licenses the Canadian rights of the brand to Sherson and supplies the shoes, handbags and jewellery for the stores.
Sherson also owes its chairman and CEO Stephen Applebaum and Stephen Applebaum Inc. at least $3.8 million, the documents show.
The total amount owed to all creditors is upwards of $32 million.
read more http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/nine-west-store-owner-in-canada-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-1.3142837
It was unclear what the debt restructuring means for the fate of Nine West in Canada.
According to the documents, Richter Advisory Group will serve as trustee in the process.
Intense competition
Sherson last hit financial trouble during the recession in 2009. The company closed about a dozen Nine West stores, cut expenses and came up with a footprint for smaller, more efficient stores.
Other operators of Canadian retail outlets have also run into financial trouble in the past two years:
- In January, less than two years after opening, Target announced it was shuttering its 133 locations and leaving Canada.
- Last December, Mexx filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada and said it would close all its 95 stores.
- In November, parent company Reitmans said it was closing its 107 Smart Set locations.
- In August, Bombay, Bowring & Co. and Benix & Co. — three retailers owned by the Benitah family — filed for bankruptcy protection and said it would close 110 stores.
- Also in August, Holt Renfrew said it would close its stores in Ottawa and Quebec City.
- In May 2014, Jacob abandoned restructuring efforts and announced it was closing all of its 92 stores.
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F-Squared files for bankruptcy
F-Squared Investments Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday and arranged for its investment strategies to be managed by a new firm, capping the rise-and-fall story of an exchange-traded fund manager once popular with financial advisers.
The firm filed documents seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and asked the court to allow it to sell its investment strategies, contracts to manage money and other intellectual property to a competing, Chicago-based money manager.
The move will likely allow the firm’s flagship AlphaSector strategy to live on, managed by the buyer, Broadmeadow Capital, which is affiliated with F-Squared rival Good Harbor Financial.
“The opportunity presented itself,” said Paul R. Ingersoll, chief executive officer at Cedar Capital and Good Harbor. “For all the things that F-Squared has gone through and however unfortunately some of their materials have been represented, there are a significant amount of their clients that like their approach to investing and like their strategy.”
He said their primary goal, if the deal closes as expected within 45 days, is to “maintain the client relationships.”
read more: http://bit.ly/1NOMtSO
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ALLEGRIA HOTEL SEEKS SECOND BANKRUPTCY
Owners of the Allegria Hotel have filed for a second bankruptcy in four years after state agents seized 50 rooms at the Long Beach hotel because the company owes more than $6 million in unpaid taxes.
Alrose Allegria LLC and its owner Allen Rosenberg filed for Chapter 11 protection on July 2 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan, citing at least 20 creditors….
Read more: http://nwsdy.li/1To14sg
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HOUSE GOP OPPOSES BANKRUPTCY PROTECTIONS FOR PUERTO RICO
WASHINGTON (AP) — Leading House Republicans declared their opposition Wednesday to allowing debt-ridden Puerto Rico access to Chapter 9 bankruptcy protections, raising new uncertainty about how the island can emerge from its financial crisis.
A statement from House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia said members of his committee share a concern that «to provide Puerto Rico’s municipalities access to chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code would not, by itself, solve Puerto Rico’s difficulties, which are associated with underlying, structural economic problems.»
Earlier, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, referred reporters asking about the issue to Goodlatte’s committee.
The White House and leading Democrats, including presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, have raised bankruptcy as a possible way out of Puerto Rico’s economic crisis.
As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico is prohibited from allowing its municipalities, such as a debt-burdened state-run power company, to enter bankruptcy protection as a way to restructure their debts. Schumer is pursuing legislation to change that, though he has not yet succeeded in attracting Republican co-sponsors. The reaction Wednesday from House Republicans suggests such a bill could hit a dead end in the House anyway.
read more: http://yhoo.it/1LYA41k
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Bankruptcy judge approves $2.5 million cleanup deal in West Virginia chemical spill case
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A bankruptcy judge has approved a $2.5 million deal involving the cleanup of a massive 2014 chemical spill in West Virginia.
Wednesday’s order by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson says the agreement is in the best interests of Freedom Industries, the company’s estate and its creditors.
Freedom will contribute $1.4 million and its parent, Chemstream Holdings, will add $1.1 million to clean up the Charleston spill site.
Previously, Freedom proposed only $150,000 for additional cleanup, which Pearson had rejected.
The cleanup plan was pushed by Freedom, the state Department of Environmental Protection and creditors. The agreement says DEP can’t sue Chemstream for the spill or cleanup.
The January 2014 spill spurred a tap-water ban for 300,000 people for days.
Read more: http://fxn.ws/1UBaqlW
Abogados de Miami 