Next Week in Bankruptcy

Investors are working up their appetites for some hearty bankruptcy auctions in the upcoming week.

An auction is slated be held next Friday for the remainder of the Haggen Holdings LLC grocery chain. One interested bidder may be Ceberus Capital Management, which leads the group of investors that backs the Albertsons grocery chain. Cerberus received antitrust clearance to bid on the Haggen stores, according to documents filed March 4 with the Federal Trade Commission.

This final bankruptcy auction features the best of the grocery chain–a group of cash-producing “core” outlets in the Pacific Northwest, Haggen’s stronghold.

Haggen filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., in September, less than a year after it bought 146 supermarkets that Albertsons was forced to sell in order to get antitrust clearance to merge with Safeway.
Haggen has already sold or shut down most of these acquired Albertsons stores.

Albertsons showed up at previous Haggen auctions, though, and has bought back 30 of its former stores.

Quaker Steak & Lube is also set to hit the auction block on Wednesday. The restaurant chain already has a bid in tow from stalking horse, or lead, bidder TravelCenters of America LLC, which offered $25 million for the restaurants if no other bids are submitted.

TravelCenters has said that if it fends off competing bidders at the auction, it plans to keep the Quaker Steak brand and expand the franchise so that it becomes nationally recognized. Founded in 1974, Quaker Steak is known for its restaurants adorned with race cars and other auto memorabilia, mostly located in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Quaker Steak filed for chapter 11 protection in the Akron, Ohio, bankruptcy court, blaming its woes on cash-strapped diners that have cut back on eating out in recent years. The chain also struggled with ill-timed acquisitions and declining sales.

Also Wednesday, the Chicago bankruptcy court is expected to rule on Caesars Entertainment Operating Co.’s dueling chapter 11 cases.

The company’s unhappy junior bondholders filed an involuntary chapter 11 petition against it in a Delaware court Jan. 12, 2015. Three days later, Caesars voluntarily sought chapter 11 protection in Chicago with the goal of implementing a restructuring plan backed by senior creditors, which the junior creditors have opposed.

The three days’ difference might not seem that important, but at stake is some $468 million of Caesars’ cash. If the voluntary filing date stands, it will preserve senior creditors’ claims to the cash. But if the judge rules that the bankruptcy began at the time of the involuntary filing, then junior creditors may challenge the senior creditors’ claims to the cash.

-Peg Brickley, Patrick Fitzgerald and Jacqueline Palank contributed to this post.

Write to Lillian Rizzo at lillian.rizzo@wsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @Lilliannnn