|
|
|
|
|
Hospital Operator Steward Health Files for Chapter 11; Sam Ash Seeks Buyer; Bondholders Push Ukraine To Resume Paying
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Monday, May 6. In today's briefing, Steward Health Care System, the largest U.S. physician-owned hospital operator, filed for chapter 11, marking one of the biggest hospital bankruptcies in decades. Famed music-instrument retailer Sam Ash is shutting down its stores but holding out hope for a buyer, its family CEO says in an interview. And bondholders are preparing to push Ukraine to end its debt holiday.
|
|
|
|
|
Rockledge Regional Medical Center, a Steward-operated hospital, in Rockledge, Fla.
PHOTO: TIM SHORTT/ FLORIDA TODAY/USA TODAY NETWORK
|
|
|
|
Hospital operator Steward files for bankruptcy. Steward Health Care System, the largest U.S. physician-owned hospital operator, filed for chapter 11 protection while saying it was finalizing the terms for a bankruptcy loan of up to $300 million from its landlord, Medical Properties Trust.
Steward has faced a cash crunch and shut down hospitals as its financial troubles worsened. Lawsuits by unpaid vendors have piled up at some other Steward hospitals.
The company’s liquidity problems have prompted questions about its dealings with MPT, the nation's largest hospital landlord, which fueled Steward's acquisitions but has injected more and more money into the company in recent years.
|
|
|
|
“We honestly believe we’ll find someone who wants the brand and some of the locations,” Chief Executive Richard Ash said. PHOTO: RICHARD B. LEVINE/ZUMA PRESS
|
|
|
Sam Ash Music hunts for buyer as stores close down. Sam Ash Music, the renowned musical-instruments retailer that recently announced plans to shut down all 45 of its stores, is looking for a buyer to keep the chain and its online retail presence going, Chief Executive Richard Ash said.
|
|
|
The family recently brought on investment bank Capstone Partners to field interest from buyers, Ash said in an exclusive interview with WSJ Pro Bankruptcy. The chain catering to musicians announced in March that it would shut down nearly half its stores is now in the process of shutting all its retail locations down.
|
|
|
|
The CEO who hired his wife, gave his dog a title, and brought down a bank. Vernon Hill, the builder of Commerce Bank and Metro Bank, was also behind the recently-toppled Republic First. His latest project was seized by regulators last weekend, after shareholders had ousted Hill in a last-ditch effort to save the bank.
-
Context: Republic First, which did business as Republic Bank across the mid-Atlantic region, was the fourth notable banking collapse since the start of 2023. It came under pressure for some of the same missteps that sank Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and the similarly named First Republic.
|
|
|
|
|
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Without a deal, Ukraine could default after its debt holiday ends in August. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
|
Bondholders to push Ukraine to resume debt payments after hiatus. Foreign bondholders including BlackRock and Pacific Investment Management plans to press Ukraine to start paying interest on its debt again as soon as next year. The group wants Kyiv, which is fresh off clinching roughly $60 billion in U.S. aid, to strike a deal in which it would resume payments in exchange for forgiveness of a big chunk of the country’s outstanding debt.
-
Context: The U.S. and its allies are concerned that taxpayers’ money will wind up in bondholders’ hands if Ukraine resumes any type of debt service.
|
|
|
|
|
|