Category Archives: Bankruptcy

UPDATED April 27, 10:50 p.m.: George Filopoulos gave up on a Greenwich Village building, but the troubled loans left behind have triggered a bizarre legal fight over the property, which is now being offered for sale as a condominium development site.

The drama began when the longtime real estate investors LLC was notified in August 2020 that it had defaulted its $9.3 million first mortgage at 307-309 Sixth Avenue.

The LLC in which Filopoulos says he owned a 10 percent interest in separate from his firm, Metrovest Equities failed to repay the loan at its maturity date and lender Castellan Capital filed to foreclose.

The case laid quiet during the pandemic and in December of 2021 Castellan sold its loan, according to property records. Filopoulos then transferred its interest in the property in May 2022, according to an attorney for his firm. A court filing does not say who took control of the ownership LLC. Paperwork for the entity was signed by a person named William Schneider, who in November filed project plans for a seven-story, 39-unit building with ground-floor retail and community space.

The judge in the foreclosure case ruled in June that the LLCs debt had grown to about $15 million, and a foreclosure sale was scheduled for Dec. 14.

But on the eve of the auction, another stakeholder went to bankruptcy court to prevent it from going through.

William Rainero, whose family sold Filopoulos LLC the property in 2017, said in court papers that he had provided the buyer a $5 million mortgage to close the $17 million deal. That loan is in the second position behind the one originated by Castellan.

Rainero argued in court papers that the new owner was conspiring to wipe him out by agreeing to hand the property back to the lender. The bankruptcy court agreed to put off the sale. The new ownership LLC filed its own bankruptcy case and the side-by-side buildings at 307 and 309 Sixth Avenue are now being marketed for sale by a team at Meridian Investment Sales led by David Schechtman.

The ownership LLC asserted in a January 2023 bankruptcy filing that Filopoulos, who owns the upscale Gurneys Montauk resort in the Hamptons, had recognized the Greenwich Village development site was underwater and had agreed not to contest the foreclosure and to transfer ownership to an entity affiliated with his lender.

Filopoulos disputes that, saying he has nothing to do with the bankruptcy case and divested his interests in the property after trying to find retail tenants for it.

The Rainero familys attorney, meanwhile, said they will enforce their rights in the owners bankruptcy case.

My clients the Rainero family have owned property in Greenwich Village for over 100 years, attorney Bruce Bronson wrote in a text. They are owed $7 million and expect to be paid. Filopoulos said that second mortgage became the buyers responsibility when he sold the two-story Sixth Avenue buildings.

In court papers, Rainero insinuated that the lender may be paying the LLCs legal fees in order to take the property over.

The independence of the debtor is critical to the proper marketing of the property to obtain the best price, his lawyers wrote.

This story and the photo were updated after George Filopoulos provided evidence he sold his interest in the property prior to the ownership group filing for bankruptcy, which he and Metrovest are not parties to.

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Bankruptcy Battle Breaks Out Over Greenwich Village Dev Site - The Real Deal

Benzinga| Detroit Free Press

The S&P 500 logged a weekly gain following the release of encouraging inflation data and a weaker-than-expected first-quarter economic growth report.

On Friday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported the personal consumption expenditures price index increased by 4.2% year-over-year in the month of March, down from 5% in February. Core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, was up 4.6%, above analyst estimates of a 4.5% gain.

On Thursday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported U.S. GDP grew 1.1% year-over-year in the first quarter, far below the 2% growth economists predicted. GDP growth slowed from 2.6% in the fourth quarter and 2.1% full-year growth in 2022.

On Monday, First Republic Bank reported its deposits dropped nearly 41% in the first quarter, sending the stock tumbling nearly 50%. With shares down more than 95% year-to-date, investors are concerned First Republic may be the next bank to collapse in the ongoing U.S. regional banking crisis that brought down Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate in March.

Shares of Bed, Bath & Beyond dropped to around 10 cents on Friday following the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing last Sunday. Bed, Bath & Beyond announced on Tuesday that it received a notice from Nasdaq that its common stock will be delisted from the exchange and trading will be suspended on May 3.

More: Rolling back Michigan's retirement tax triggers plenty of questions, confusion

Meta Platforms shares jumped Thursday after the Facebook and Instagram parent company reported its first positive revenue growth in four quarters and exceeded expectations with its second-quarter guidance.

Shares of popular restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill also gained nearly 14% on the week after the company reported first-quarter earnings and revenue numbers that beat analyst expectations.

In the week ahead, investors will get more quarterly reports from Ford Motor, Uber Technologies and Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday and Apple on Thursday.

S&P 500 net profit margins are on track to decline for the seventh consecutive quarter, according to FactSet.

Following the March PCE inflation data, Wall Street will get more economic updates on Wednesday when the Federal Reserve releases its latest interest rate decision and related commentary and on Friday when the Labor Department releases its April U.S. jobs report.

More: Higher living costs force Americans to cut back on retirement savings, survey says

Benzinga is a financial news and data company headquartered in Detroit.

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Bed Bath & Beyond shares drop after it files for bankruptcy protection - Detroit Free Press

Distressed US companies are increasingly resorting to debt restructurings to avoid expensive bankruptcy proceedings, but many borrowers ultimately end up in court anyway with their deals amounting to little more than can-kicking exercises.

Almost three-quarters of US corporate debt defaults last year were out-of-court distressed exchanges, where a company offers creditors assets worth less than their original bonds or loans, according to a report by Moodys this month. That is up from roughly half in 2020, the rating agency said.

Moodys predicts that far-reaching private equity ownership of companies with very weak ratings will further fuel the growth of distressed exchanges because this type of restructuring can protect such backers investments.

Private equity sponsors heavily favour distressed exchanges as a debt restructuring tool of choice because it helps them sidestep bankruptcy and preserves their equity, Moodys said.

However, many businesses default again following such restructurings. The re-default rate monitored by Moodys currently stands at 47 per cent.

Some companies are just kicking the can with distressed exchanges and merely delaying an inevitable bankruptcy, said Sinjin Bowron, head of high-yield and leveraged loans at Beach Point Capital Management.

In the event that theres a distressed exchange at a company, not only are you potentially losing asset value as a lender he said.But also, if the company is having operational difficulties, then it doesnt necessarily fix those problems.

Of the companies tracked by Moodys that defaulted a second time, the majority ended up in bankruptcy. Mattress company Serta Simmons entered bankruptcy proceedings in January. KKR-backed Envision Healthcare is also reportedly considering filing for bankruptcy, according to the Wall Street Journal, while retailer Bed, Bath and Beyond not backed by private equity filed for Chapter 11 on Sunday after a distressed exchange in 2022.

Envision did not respond to a request for comment.

The accelerating trend underscores the challenges faced by distressed companies that face a combination of rising borrowing costs and a slowing economy. These difficulties, and investor scrutiny of such businesses, are likely to intensify this year against a backdrop of rising recession fears.

Rating agency S&P sees the US junk-grade default rate reaching 4 per cent by December, from a rate of 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to March. Moodys anticipates a US rate of 5.6 per cent by next March, up sharply from its own figure of 2.7 per cent as of March 31.

As more companies are forced to renege on their borrowings, some may opt for exchanges because they believe the business overall is sustainable with a lower debt load, said Matt Mish, head of credit strategy at UBS. Heading into a more difficult financial environment, they want to resize the capital structure, he added.

The proliferation of distressed exchanges follows a dealmaking frenzy when buyout groups took advantage of cheap borrowing costs to pile leverage on to lowly rated companies with already creaking balance sheets, funding billions of dollars worth of mergers and acquisitions.

In recent years, much of this debt has comprised leveraged loans, instruments sold by junk grade businesses, whose coupons move with prevailing interest rates. These were considered attractive when monetary policy was ultra-loose with issuance roughly doubling to $615bn between 2019 and 2021 as interest rates plunged early in the Covid pandemic, according to data provider LCD but have lost their appeal as the Federal Reserve embarked on its most aggressive campaign of interest rate rises in decades to tame inflation.

High-yield or sub-investment-grade corporate bond issuance also picked up as interest rates were slashed after the outbreak of Covid, reaching $465bn, compared with $263bn in 2019, according to Refinitiv data.

Historically, unsecured bonds debt not backed by company assets were usually restructured in distressed exchanges. However, since the start of the pandemic, the rising number of defaulting loan-only borrowers without bonds has changed that dynamic.

At first glance, distressed exchanges can be appealing to lenders who typically recover a greater proportion of their outlay than they would in a bankruptcy, according to Julia Chursin, senior analyst at Moodys.

But the current repeat rate for defaults means that often, you get hit once, then a second time your recovery rate deteriorates, Chursin said.

Historical data for unsecured bonds indicates that if a company goes through a distressed exchange, then files for bankruptcy, [creditors] losses can accumulate and it can be worse than just filing for bankruptcy.

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US companies in distress turn to debt exchanges to dodge bankruptcy - Financial Times

Texas-based home goods retailer Tuesday Morning will close its remaining 13 stores in South Carolina, including locations in the Midlands, Upstate, along the Grand Strand and in the Charleston area.

According to reports from the stores Dallas headquarters, the company was sold out of bankruptcy for $32 million to a liquidation company, Hilco Merchant Resources.

Tuesday Morning first filed for bankruptcy in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Earlier this year the store had about 480 stores nationwide, down from more than 700 prior to the pandemic.

After filing for bankruptcy a second time in February, the company closed more than 250 of its stores nationwide, including six in South Carolina.

An employee at one of the Columbia-area locations confirmed Friday morning that employees had been notified of the stores closing, but no details have been released on when liquidation sales will begin.

This is the latest big retailer to shut down stores statewide. Bed Bath and Beyond is shuttering all stores remaining in South Carolina after its announcement earlier in April that it would be going out of business.

Reach Christina Lee Knauss at 803-753-4327.

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National retailer sold out of bankruptcy, will close remaining South ... - columbiabusinessreport.com

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been implementing various changes to the platform and policies since taking over the company last year. The latest change that has caused an uproar among employees and the public is the reduction of paid parental leave from 20 weeks to just 14 days for those employees who work in states in the US that do not have a paid leave policy. The information was revealed through internal company documents cited by the New York Post.

The reduction in paid parental leave has received severe criticism from many quarters. As per a report in the New York Post, there is no federal law in the United States mandating paid parental leave. However, the Family and Medical Leave Act allows for "unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons'' for up to 12 weeks for certain employees. Additionally, 12 states provide paid family and medical leave of some kind. California allows up to eight weeks of paid leave under state law, while both New York and New Jersey permit up to 26 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in addition to 12 weeks of paid leave.

Many Twitter users expressed their disappointment and frustration at the reduction of paid parental leave. Some accused the company of breaching an acquisition deal that protected benefits for one year after close. Others pointed out that reducing the leave will have a significant impact on new mothers who need time to rest, recover, and spend time with their newborns. Several users argued that the reduction of paid parental leave will contribute to the gender pay gap as women will have to choose between returning to work after two weeks or taking a long, unpaid break from work.

Some users also questioned the logic behind reducing paid parental leave, especially at a time when there is a global concern about declining birthrates. One user commented, "You can't be obsessed with declining birthrates and then incentivise your employees to not have children." Another user accused the company of making the decision due to financial troubles, saying, "Only a company facing bankruptcy does this."

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Companies facing bankruptcy do this: Internet irate after Elon Musk led-Twitter reportedly slashed parental leaves - Business Today

Who says no one wants a Midtown office?

Brooklyn investor Tim Zisss Allied Properties entered into a contract to buy a vacant seven-story office at 14 East 52nd Street for $22.5 million in February, but he claims the owner Inmoprisa, which was once tied to Spanish fashion mogul Alberto Palatchi balked on an extension prior to its April deadline.

Inmoprisa sent Ziss a notice of default and put his $3 million deposit at risk. So he filed a bankruptcy petition to keep the contract in place.

We made a good-faith effort to secure a short extension and close as planned, said Ziss in a statement. The seller was unwilling to accommodate, leaving us no option but to seek protection of our interest and allow for the needed time to close.

Although bankruptcy is often a last-ditch effort to refinance or sell a property prior to a foreclosure, it can also be used to extend contracts.

Using bankruptcy to preserve a contract is nothing new. [It] has been done before many times, said Adam Stein-Sapir of Pioneer Funding, a bankruptcy specialist uninvolved in the case. Its seen as an asset of the estate.

PincusCo first reported the bankruptcy.The building was previously occupied by Pronovias, a luxury Spanish wedding dress designer who used the building as a showroom and office headquarters, but moved to 45 East 58th Street in 2019. The site also has 19,000square feet of unused air rights. It is being listed for sale by Avison Young.

The property was once eyed by Harry Macklowe as a piece in his plans tobuild a 1 million-square-foot supertall office tower known as Saint Stevens New York. He acquired neighboring properties to create an assemblage.

Macklowe was believed to be connected to entities shielded by the late lawyer Steven Holm. In 2016, a Holm entity acquired the property at 12 East 52nd Street for $32 million. In 2018, a Holm entity entered a contract to buy 14 East 52nd Street from the owners of Pronovias in 2019, but the deal never closed.

Tim Ziss is no stranger to bankruptcy. The investor, whose legal name is Efthimios Zisimopoulos, recently acquired a 100,000-square-foot Bay Ridge office building out of bankruptcy through a $25 million credit bid. He attracted controversy over his sale of a Nathans restaurant in South Brooklyn to New York City School Construction Authority for more than double what hed paid for it just six months earlier.

An investigation by The City found that Ziss had been paying New York Building Congress head Carlo Scissura to meet with local leaders and elected officials about the development of five properties in Bay Ridge.

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Tim Ziss Files For Bankruptcy To Extend Contract For Midtown Office - The Real Deal

The future is uncertain for Structurlam Mass Timber Corp.'s Conway plant as the company moves through bankruptcy proceedings, an official said Tuesday.

The Conway plant, which was producing cross-laminated timber for buildings in Walmart's new headquarters campus in Bentonville, had about 144 employees when it was suddenly shut down in January after Walmart canceled the contract.

Mercer International Inc., a global forest products producer, has reached an agreement to buy the 288,000-square-foot Conway plant and all of Structurlam's assets for $60 million, according to the bankruptcy announcement.

That proposal, however, is subject to a court-supervised auction process.

"Mercer International has not yet acquired ownership of the Structurlam company and its Conway facility," Paul Sehn, Structurlam's senior vice president of sales and marketing, said, noting the agreement is binding but is subject to a better offer from another bidder.

"During the auction process, other interested parties can provide higher bids, including Mercer," Sehn said in a statement. "The process is expected to conclude towards the end of May, at which time one successful party will take ownership of Structurlam's operating assets."

Structurlam stirred great interest in December 2019 when it announced a $90 million investment to make the Conway facility the company's first manufacturing facility outside Canada, highlighting a strategic partnership with Walmart that included an equity investment from the retailer. The investment was tied to a deal to produce 1.7 million cubic feet of timber for Walmart's new corporate headquarters in Bentonville.

The company also outlined ambitious expansion goals, which included adding sales offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Nashville, Tenn., to win other clients.

In the bankruptcy filing, Structurlam listed assets between $100 million and $500 million and the same range in liabilities. Walmart was the largest unsecured creditor at $34 million.

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Future at Conway plant unclear after bankruptcy - Arkansas Online

A Johnson and Johnson subsidiarys second Chapter 11 with an $8.9 billion offer to settle cancer claims stunned many interested parties, but it was a product of weeks of hustling, out-of-court talks and a nationwide search for victim lawyers willing to cut a deal.

In anticipation of its first bankruptcy case failing, LTL Management LLC, a unit created by the healthcare giant to house mass tort claims that its talc products caused cancer, made sure to fund the pool this time around with a seemingly eye-popping figure thats higher than the offer in the first bankruptcy. It then filed a new bankruptcy case just two hours after the first one was dismissed.

LTL also spent weeks matching up with attorneys eager to persuade their claimant-clients to support the settlement and prodding other more reluctant attorneys to bend their views.

The effort could result in giving J&J more momentum in finally putting to rest a controversial case that has triggered criticism saying its an abuse of the US bankruptcy system. The larger offercompared to only $2 billion in the first bankruptcycould mean more victims will see some payout.

But the companys speedy efforts are also running into some plaintiff attorneys concerns that its committing fraud and trying to ram through a settlement that wouldnt sufficiently address all victims claims.

J&J says the settlement now has the purported support of up to 80,000 claimants, including about 16,000 who are represented by a lawyer, Mikal Watts, whose role in the case grew in recent months.

Negotiations continued between the Debtor and J&J, and various plaintiff law firms, John Kim, chief legal officer of LTL, said in a first-day declaration filed with its second bankruptcy filing. Those negotiations ultimately culminated in an agreement with thousands of claimants on a broad outline of terms for a plan of reorganization.

On April 4, LTL filed its second Chapter 11 filing, containing the new settlement offer, roughly two hours after the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey formally dismissed its first bankruptcy case.

The formal dismissal seemed inevitable after the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rebuked in January J&Js first attempt to use bankruptcy to limit and resolve the claims.

Facing the near certainty of its bankruptcy case being tossed, LTL ramped up settlement talks with attorneys in the weeks leading up to the formal dismissal, multiple people with knowledge of the talks said.

Some of the lawyers backing the plan didnt formally pledge their support until the two hour window between bankruptcies, they said.

The new bankruptcy filing immediately allowed LTL to again halt ongoing multi-district litigation over claims that some J&J products contained asbestos that caused cancer and mesothelioma. J&J says its products are safe.

The day after the second LTL case was filed, Judge Michael Kaplan of the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey again paused the lawsuits against J&J. He later narrowed the protection to only prevent trials but allow new talc-related lawsuits to be filed.

J&Js new offer frustrated many attorneys who led multi-district litigation. J&J was largely unable to strike a deal with those firms, many of which were members of a select committee representing claimants in LTLs first bankruptcy.

Thats when Watts, the prominent plaintiffs attorney who negotiated a multi-billion dollar settlement in the PG&E California wildfires bankruptcy, entered the fray.

Watts said he reached out to other plaintiffs attorneys in the two weeks before the new filing, assisting an effort by J&J counsel Jim Murdica of Barnes & Thornburg, to drum up support for the new settlement offer.

He had been speaking with J&J, but his day-to-day involvement ramped up in mid-March, he said. The term sheet was negotiated during the week of March 17, Watts said.

I needed to understand what firms representing claimants wanted to see in the deal, Watts said. There was very much careful collaboration.

With the new funding in hand and a new filing imminent, lawyers for LTL and J&J moved quickly in the roughly two hours between bankruptcies to solidify other plaintiff attorneys support .

During that time, LTL reached out to plaintiffs attorneys, including Majed Nachawati, about the new resolution, he said. Nachawati, who represents about 5,000 claimants, has publicly supported the plan.

Im always open to listening, and thats when we had a discussion, Nachawati said.

J&J continued to rally support for the proposal during the two-hour window. The company landed the support of Jim Onder, who represents about 20,000 claimants. His support was notable because he was one of the few attorneys from the talc claimant committee in the first bankruptcy who backed the new offer.

But some attorneys who backed the deal during the two hours later backtracked, underscoring the frantic nature of the brief window.

I dont think J&J, the mothership, should get out of exposure just by setting some arbitrary amount theyre willing to put in a settlement pot, Mark Lanier, who represents around 30 claimants, said. The firm Seeger Weiss has also rescinded its public support of the deal.

J&J is publicly saying it has agreed to a settlement. But negotiations are still ongoing, according several people involved in the talks.

Theres many things to work through, Nachawati said.

LTLs proposal would need approval from 75% of total claimants voting on the bankruptcy plan. And J&J could find itself short.

There is still a possibility that a higher settlement amount may be needed to pass the 75% hurdle, according to a Bank of America report, written by analyst Geoff Meacham and others.

J&J may need to raise the offer to get further support. But any incremental amount would likely be within a few billion, said the report, issued on April 5.

J&J remains confident that itll get the deal through.

We remain confident that thousands more will join once this plan is allowed to be put out for a vote, Erik Haas, J&Js worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement to Bloomberg Law.

With assistance from Alex Wolf

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J&J Uses Cajoling, $9 Billion Offer to Sell New Talc Bankruptcy - Bloomberg Law

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Filing for bankruptcy is often considered a last resort, and for good reason. It's often expensive and can ruin a person's credit score. Plus, it can make it harder to qualify for financing -- like credit cards or loans -- with decent rates and terms.

Read: 8 Urgent Tips from Suze Orman for Surviving the Looming Recession -- Starting with Keeping Your Money in BanksSee: How To Build a Financial Plan From Zero

But like most things, there's a time and place for bankruptcy -- as you can see from some of the famous business titans who've filed at least once in their lives. In many of these cases, bankruptcy is nothing more than a strategic tool used to restructure debt and ensure future financial prosperity.

With that in mind, here are six famous business individuals who have filed for bankruptcy and how it turned out for them.

Dave Ramsey

The founder of Ramsey Solutions, Dave Ramsey is a well-known financial self-help guru in the personal finance space. But before all of that, Ramsey took on a lot of debt -- primarily real estate loans -- that he couldn't afford to pay back. As a result, he filed for bankruptcy -- he was in his late 20s at the time. It took Ramsey some time to build his way back to financial success. Today, his net worth is around $200 million, $150 million of which is in real estate.

Read More: Dave Ramsey's Net Worth

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Walt Disney is famously known for his work in animation and innovation. He was also a visionary when it came to entrepreneurship. Today, he's perhaps best known for co-founding Walt Disney Productions, as well as Disneyland and Disney World.

But in 1921, two years before The Walt Disney Company came into being, Walt founded a film animation studio called Laugh-O-Gram Studio. This was Walt's first major attempt in the industry, and one that wasn't very successful. Just two years after founding the company, it went bankrupt. Soon after, Walt moved to Hollywood and began working on what would later become The Disney Company. In 2023, Disney had a net worth of approximately $108.87 billion.

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Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

Both a businessman and a skilled machinist, Henry Ford started his career in building automobiles in the early 1890s. His innovation and skills earned him a reputation in the industry, and he gained the support of several investors. As a result, he founded the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899.

However, Ford only ever manufactured one vehicle at a time. This limited his ability to expand and caused dissatisfaction amongst the shareholders. By 1901 -- just 18 months after launch -- Detroit Automobile Company went bankrupt and was dissolved. That didn't stop Ford, though. He continued manufacturing cars and, through a combination of good connections and innovation, founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903. By the mid-1920s, Ford had an estimated net worth of about $1.2 billion.

Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/Shutterstock / Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Donald Trump is, of course, the former president of the United States. But he's also a prominent businessman with a history of filing for bankruptcy. In fact, Trump has filed for business bankruptcy (Chapter 11) anywhere from four to six times over the years. He has never filed for personal bankruptcy.

Trump's first business bankruptcy case was for the Trump Taj Mahal, a casino he owned, in 1991. After that, he filed for bankruptcy for several other hotels, casinos, and entertainment resorts.

Despite having filed for bankruptcy several times, Trump was able to keep his assets secure while restructuring massive amounts of debt. Today, he has an estimated net worth of about $2.5 billion.

More Info: How Rich Is Former President Donald Trump?

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A prominent talk show host in his later years, Larry King began his career as a radio announcer. In the beginning, he struggled financially due to a low salary and a series of unwise financial decisions.

At the age of 38, King allegedly used borrowed money rather than give the money to its intended recipient, New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison. As a result, he was charged with grand larceny.

Although he wasn't prosecuted, the entire scandal ruined King's name and reputation. It also cost him his job as a radio host. By 1978, King owed $352,000 in various debts and had to file for bankruptcy.

King spent the following years rebuilding his reputation and making a name for himself in the industry. He got his own CNN television show -- "Larry King Live" -- in 1985. He continued on with this show for over 25 years. By the time of his death in 2021, he had an estimated net worth of $50 million.

Hershey Community Archives / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain

Milton Hershey got his start in the late 1800s when he launched his own candy shop using a $100 loan from his aunt. Unfortunately for Hershey, his first several attempts at business resulted in bankruptcy.

It wasn't until he joined forces with Henry Lebkicher, a former employee, that he managed to raise enough money to launch the Lancaster Caramel Company. This company became rather successful, but Hershey ended up selling it to the American Caramel Company in 1900 for $1 million.

Hershey used the money to start mass-producing chocolate. He also built his first factory in Pennsylvania -- a factory that would later become the famous Hershey Company. In 1918, the company was worth about $60 million -- equivalent to over $1 billion today.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Donald Trump and 5 Other Famous People Who Filed for Bankruptcy and What Happened Next

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Donald Trump and 5 Other Famous People Who Filed for Bankruptcy and What Happened Next - Yahoo Finance

PARTY City has announced the closures of nine additional store locations.

The beloved event supply store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the start of the year and is undergoing restructuring processes.

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The filing allows a business to keep running while it works to restructure its debts and move forward.

As The U.S. Sun previously reported, at least 22 store locations around the US were closed due to Party City's filing, and now the retailer will be shutting the doors on nine more.

On April 20, Party City issued a statement explaining that nine leases to buildings that housed their stores would be auctioned off, per MSN.

A&G Real Estate Partners, the company that will auction the leases on behalf of Party City, noted that the stores would be sold by Friday.

Residents in several states will be affected by the additional closures.

Three locations in California are said to be closing, with two more in New York.

One Party City per state in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Oklahoma will also shut down.

Along with another closing in New Jersey, the retailer will close 31 stores in total, per North Jersey.

The Michaels competitor usually operates 26 locations in New Jersey, according to its website, and 823 locations across the US.

In January, there were only 770 locations nationwide.

Subsidiaries outside the country and franchise stores are not part of the restructuring, along with Party City's foil balloons business.

The retailer's restructuring and bankruptcy filing occurred due to reported struggles during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With social distancing in place, customers weren't gathering together for parties as often.

Supply chain issues and merchandise hiccups didn't help things, either.

Not to mention, helium has been in short supply making several factors the culprits to Party City's closings, perReuters.

High costs of products from inflation and increased labor costs paired with lower sales also put Party City in a difficult position.

The company had more than 16,000 full-time and part-time employees in 2021.

It's unclear if those employees at the closing locations will be offered an option to transfer to other store locations.

Either way, liquidation sales have begun for several of the closing Party City stores.

Pictures obtained by the radio station 1240WJIM-AM showed empty shelves at a closing store in Detroit as bosses tried to eliminate all store stock.

Shoppers may get deals and discounts as high as 90 percent off some products.

These liquidation sales have likely begun at the nine new Party City locations announced to close as well.

Party City isn't alone in its bankruptcy filing amid what financial experts have dubbed the "retail apocalypse."

Bed Bath & Beyond recentlyfiled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after attempting to raise enough capital to avoid doing so.

Since the announcement, bumper sales started, and some products are being sold for 80 percent off at varying locations.

The company will now begin winding down operations at its 360 stores.

For related content, check out The U.S. Sun's coverage on why analysts at the investment bank UBS warned earlier this month that up to90,000 stores could close in the next five years.

The U.S. Sun also has the story of how Walmart will be closing more stores in a major shakeup.

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Beloved retailer and Michaels rival to close nine more stores amid bankruptcy fears see the full list of... - The US Sun