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FTX Investors Search for Shaq; Incora Nears Bankruptcy; Softbank Vet Backs WeWork On His Own
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Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Thursday, May 18. In today's newsletter, how unhappy FTX investors have tried without success to serve their lawsuit on one of the most recognizable people on the planet. Aircraft parts distributor Incora is nearing a chapter 11 filing to sort out competing claims by creditors. And a former Softbank Group veteran who struck out on his own is now a major creditor of one of its largest investments, WeWork.
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Photo Illustration by Cam Pollack/The Wall Street Journal; AP (3), Getty Images (2), ZUMA Press
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Lawyers for FTX investors ask: Where’s Shaq? There’s one group of people who has had trouble finding Shaquille O’Neal, the 7-foot-1-inch NBA Hall of Famer turned actor, sports analyst and entertainer.
O’Neal is one of several celebrities named in a proposed class-action lawsuit filed by FTX investors against the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange and the stars who appeared in its advertisements. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say he is dodging them after they tried to serve him at his homes and studio and tossed legal papers at his fast-breaking SUV.
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Photo: Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
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Platinum Equity's Incora nears bankruptcy filing. The distributor of airplane parts is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks, after missing interest payments and facing creditor lawsuits, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based company is seeking financing to fund a chapter 11 restructuring, the people said. A bankruptcy filing would give Incora a new forum to try to address pending lawsuits by minority creditors that allege it disadvantaged them through a $250 million rescue deal last year.
Incora would be only the latest company to file for chapter 11 after such a nonconsensual debt deal. Other borrowers that have pitted lenders against each other to raise rescue financing have wound up in bankruptcy anyway, including Revlon, Serta Simmons Bedding and most recently Envision Healthcare.
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Photo: Timothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
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Once a key lieutenant to SoftBank’s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, Misra struck out on his own last summer. The debt deal involving Misra’s new fund and his previous full-time employer puts the former Deutsche Bank executive, considered one of the most prolific debt deal makers on the planet, on two sides of the same deal.
In addition to the deal with his firm, WeWork struck deals with SoftBank and other lenders to reduce its debts—converting some loans to shares in the company, and pushing the maturity dates of others.
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Photo: Andrew Harnik/Associated Press
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Virgin Orbit’s assets include Cosmic Girl, a modified Boeing 747 jet.
Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
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Virgin Orbit has $17 million chapter 11 bid. Richard Branson’s bankrupt satellite-launch venture tapped Cerberus Capital Management's Stratolaunch as the leading bidder for assets that include a modified Boeing 747 aircraft known as Cosmic Girl. The buyer, which designs, makes and operates aerospace vehicles, was founded by the late billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
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Vice Media gets $10 million of new money in bankruptcy loan. Vice Media got interim court approval on Wednesday for a $60 million loan, $10 million of which would be available to fund the media company’s operation and bankruptcy proceedings.
The other $50 million is earmarked to pay back a portion of the pre-bankruptcy loans that Vice had borrowed from a group of lenders—Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital—that are also sponsoring the bankruptcy loan.
The “roll-up to new money” ratio of 5 to 1 is on the higher side. The Justice Department’s bankruptcy watchdog initially objected to the proposed loan, saying that creditors should have a chance to weigh in on it. But government lawyers agreed to the proposal on Wednesday after Vice added some language on reserving the rights to unwind the roll-up. —Akiko Matsuda
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