Next Week in Bankruptcy

Energy Future Holdings Corp. on Tuesday will ask the bankruptcy court to grant initial approval of its restructuring deal, allowing it to begin to poll creditors and move a step closer to exiting chapter 11.

The Dallas energy company’s restructuring plan is built around the $12.1 billion sale of its stake in Oncor, its cash-generating, regulated transmission business, to investors including Hunt Consolidated Inc. and junior creditors from one of its two main divisions, the so-called “T-side” of the company.

The plan has been met with criticism from unsecured creditors from Energy Future’s other main division, the “E-side,” who said the deal is no more than a “free option” to buy Oncor that leaves E-side creditors to bear the risk if the deal fails.

Patriot Coal Corp. is slated on Tuesday to ask for a similar preliminary court approval of its own contested bankruptcy plan.

The company is asking the court to allow it to send the deal—built around a sale of the bulk of its operations to Blackhawk Mining, subject to a court-overseen auction—to a creditor vote as well.

However, many of the materials the company has proposed sending to creditors are short on details, including information on how much they will be paid. And the plan is facing opposition from officials in West Virginia and Kentucky, from federal bankruptcy watchdogs, and from the union looking out for thousands of miners, among others.

Lawyers for those groups say Patriot is intent on walking away from its environmental cleanup costs and its obligations to workers after handing over its valuable assets.

Baha Mar Ltd. has delayed a hearing on a motion to dismiss its chapter 11 case in the U.S. as the proceeding in the Bahamas moves forward.

The developer of a $3.5 billion stalled resort in the Bahamas will still head to court on Monday over several smaller issues, but the headline issue of bankruptcy dismissal will be delayed. The company is still scheduled on Wednesday to face the Bahamian Supreme Court, which will decide whether to appoint a liquidator to restructure the project at the government’s request. That decision would leave current-owner Sarkis Izmirlian sidelined.

On Wednesday, Colt Defense LLC will request court permission to hold an auction for its assets without a lead bidder to set a price floor.

When the gun maker filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in June, Colt was determined to put itself on the block in August, with a leading offer from private-equity owner Sciens Capital Management. But Sciens took its buyout offer off the table after a bondholder coup shifted the balance of power in the case.

Colt is still aiming to move forward with the auction plan despite the lack of a lead bidder and despite uncertainty about whether the gun maker will be evicted from its Connecticut plant, a bondholder lawyer previously said during a court hearing.

Under the proposed auction timeline, Colt will be seeking court approval of a sale by Oct. 8, just weeks before the lease runs out.

-Peg Brickley contributed to this post.

Write to Stephanie Gleason at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @stephgleason