Bankruptcy

Aloha Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a little more than two years after emerging from a previous bankruptcy. Aloha Airgroup Inc. said it was unable to generate sufficient revenue because of what it called "predatory pricing" by Mesa Air Group's Go airline. Mesa Air Group Inc., based in Phoenix, launched Go into the inter-island market in 2006 to compete with Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines Inc. All three airlines have reported losses totaling $85 million.

The city filed for bankruptcy protection Friday after administrators were unable to sufficiently trim a nearly $17-million shortfall. The Bay Area city, with a population of about 120,000, had been bracing for the possibility since February as tax revenues fell and employee costs remained high. Eighty percent of the city's budget goes to police and firefighters, far above the norm for most California cities. "I had hoped that even at the 11th hour and 59th minute we could come up with an alternative," Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis said.

A Silicon Valley financier who owns a stake in the NHL's Nashville Predators has filed for personal bankruptcy two weeks after being accused of loan fraud. William "Boots" Del Biaggio III, 40, scion of a prominent San Jose banking family, has at least $57 million in unpaid personal and business loans, credit card bills and other financial obligations, according to the Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California. The filing didn't enumerate Del Biaggio's assets or debts.

Restaurant chains Bennigan's and Steak & Ale have filed a bankruptcy petition and will shut their doors and liquidate their assets. The chains' owner, privately held Metromedia Restaurant Group of Plano, Texas, said recently that it was not preparing to put the chains in bankruptcy.

Washington Mutual Inc., a holding company for the savings and loan that became the biggest U.S. bank to fail, has filed for bankruptcy, listing more than $8 billion in debt. WaMu, the 119-year-old Seattle-based thrift, sought Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., late Friday, according to court records. The filing covered the bank's holding company and its WMI Investment Corp. unit. WaMu's banking subsidiary was seized Sept. 25 by U.S. government regulators after customers withdrew $16.7 billion over 10 days.

A bankruptcy judge has approved an investment agreement that would provide $600 million in loans and other capital to reorganize Interstate Bakeries Corp. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry Venters approved the package, paving the way for the Kansas City, Mo., maker of Hostess Twinkies and Wonder Bread to continue trying to exit more than four years of Chapter 11 protection.

Franklin Bank Corp., the owner of a Houston-based lender closed by regulators last week, filed for court protection from creditors under bankruptcy rules used to liquidate assets. Franklin, which is controlled by mortgage-bond pioneer Lewis Ranieri, filed under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in Wilmington, Del., listing assets worth less than $500,000 and debts of as much as $500 million.

A bankruptcy judge on Monday approved the sale of Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc.'s prized investment management unit to a group of managers and employees. The sale was worth $922 million to the Lehman bankruptcy estate, a Lehman lawyer said, and includes the Neuberger Berman money management business.

LyondellBasell Industries, the third-largest independent chemical company, said it was considering bankruptcy protection as a broadening recession cuts consumer demand. The company is controlled by Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik, who serves as chairman. Blavatnik is also one of several wealthy Russian investors involved earlier this year in a fight for control over TNK-BP, a joint venture with British oil company BP. LyondellBasell's problems come just a year after Basell International Holdings paid $12.7 billion for Houston-based Lyondell Chemical, taking on an enormous debt load shortly before credit markets dried up.

Technology consultant BearingPoint Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, saying it had negotiated a "prearranged" plan with lenders that could reduce its debt load. In U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, the McLean, Va., company declared $2.23 billion in total debt and $1.76 billion in total assets as of Sept. 30. The filing includes only the company's U.S. operations. The company has faced heavy debt after buying several consulting companies from 1999 to 2002. It was the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission probe of its accounting practices in 2005.