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December 7, 2005
name='1'>Federal
Reserve Board Releases Monthly Consumer Report
The Federal Reserve
Board
will release its Consumer Installment Credit for October 2005 today.
For more
information, call (202) 452-3206 or
href='http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/'>visit
the Web site.
id='2'>Pa.
Brewery Offloads Pension Fund without Bankruptcy
The Pittsburgh
Brewing Co.
has struggled to survive amid a declining beer market and tough
competition.
Now it’s trying to rid itself of pension obligations without
first seeking
a bankruptcy court reorganization that likely would have wiped out the
equity
of its owners, the Associated Press reported today. In April, the
company asked
the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) to take over one of
its two
pension funds, saying that it had lost $1.2 million from operations
since 2002
and would be forced to close unless it was relieved of obligations to
more than
500 former and current employees. The agency said that it was unclear
when a
decision would be reached, but Pittsburgh Brewing executives say that
they hope
to have an answer by the end of the year. But such requests are
extremely rare
and can take years to process. And, with the PBGC’s own finances
stretched,
observers say it’s unlikely they will become a trend.
href='http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=115906'>Read
more.
id='3'>Questions
Arise About GM's Cash
It seems a strange
question
to ask about a company with $19.2 billion in cash and short-term
investments
on the balance sheet for its troubled auto operations, and even more
cash on
hand for its finance unit, GMAC, CNN News reported yesterday. But
given the
doubts and troubles facing the world's largest automaker, it's a very
important
question. The answer is that the $19 billion might not be as much
money as it
appears to be at first blush. Some of the funds are committed to pay
future
retiree health care benefits and some is cash that GM will owe back to
dealers
for incentives. A spokesman for the troubled automaker says that all
of the
accounting practices used to report that $19 billion figure are well
established
and have been in use for years, and that the company, no matter its
other problems,
isn't facing any kind of cash crunch.
href='http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/06/news/fortune500/gm_balancesheet/index.h…'>Read
more.
id='4'>N.C.
Drug Co. Files for Bankruptcy
A Durham,
N.C.-based drug
company working to develop an insulin pill has filed for bankruptcy
and gone
up for sale two years after a deal with GlaxoSmithKline PLC worth up
to $283
million disintegrated, the Associated Press reported today. Nobex
Corp. has
attracted at least one interested buyer. Biocon, India's leading
biotechnology
company, and a Nobex investor, has offered to pay $3.5 million for the
company's
intellectual property. Nobex had raised more than $80 million since
its founding
in 1993 and employed about 50 people at its peak. The company has 12
remaining
employees and it's unclear what will happen to them.
href='http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/business/13341525.htm'>Read
more.
id='5'>Delphi
Hiring Approvals Sought
Delphi filed a
motion seeking
court approval to retain Howard & Howard Attorneys as intellectual
property
counsel; Price, Heneveld, Cooper, Dewitt & Litton as intellectual
property
counsel; Butzel Long as commercial and litigation counsel; Banner
& Witcoff
as intellectual property counsel; and Cantor Colburn as patent
counsel, BankruptcyData.com
reported today.
Airlines
id='6'>FLYi
Orders Issued
A bankruptcy court issued a final order approving FLYi’s
motion to
renew and obtain letters of credit, and permit the letter of credit
issuer
to offset cash collateral, BankruptcyData.com reported today.
Separately,
the court also issued an order prohibiting utilities from altering,
refusing,
or discontinuing services to, and/or discriminating against, the
debtors,
and establishing procedures for determining requests for assurance
of payment,
and modifying the amount of assurance of payment that a utility
demands as
adequate.
Meanwhile, Independence Air parent
href='http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2005/12/05/daily16.html'>FLYi,
says that it's weighing offers, Business First of Buffalo
reported
yesterday. The company has "received a number of expressions of
interest
from parties interested in participating in its court-supervised
auction process,"
according to a statement from the airline. "[They] include
proposals
to acquire the company as a going concern, to invest in the company
and to
acquire specific assets." FLYi says it is evaluating the
proposals but
did not identify bidders or specific offers.
id='7'>Unions
Reach Agreement with US Airways
Unions representing
passenger
agents at the newly combined US Airways reached a preliminary deal
with the
airline yesterday, increasing wages while other contract terms are
negotiated,
the Associated Press reported. The deal raises the top wage for all
7,150 passenger
service and reservation agents, while the Communications Workers of
America
and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters negotiate with the
company on
transition details, including seniority, vacation and other concerns
raised
by the combination of two work forces. America West Airlines took over
US Airways
in late September. The combined company kept the US Airways name.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-US-Airways-Agents.html'>Read
more.
id='8'>Analysts
Say Delta Faces Liquidation
Delta Air Lines Inc. is the weakest among traditional U.S. airlines
and faces
risk of liquidation if things do not go well in bankruptcy court,
analysts
said yesterday, according to a Reuters report. Fitch Ratings analyst
Bill
Warlick said that Delta has mortgaged everything it had left.
Analysts attending
a summit held in Washington, D.C., said that the airline industry
needed to
consolidate to become profitable.
href='http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/06/news/fortune500/delta.reut/index.htm'>Read
more.
In other news, United Auto Workers (UAW)
href='http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2005/12/05/daily14.html'>union
leaders warned today of a "probable" strike at Delphi
Thermal
& Interior in Lockport and other Delphi Corp. sites in the next
three
months, the Buffalo Business Journal reported. UAW Local 686
Unit No.
1 officials at the Lockport plant, where the union represents 3,200
hourly
workers, said in a communiqué that national Vice President
Richard
Shoemaker "has asked the leaders of all UAW locals to inform
their membership
of an increased likelihood of a strike which could happen as early
as the
first quarter of next year.”
Meanwhile, a bankruptcy court-appointed committee of
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113392199849415862-search.html?KEYWORDS…'>Delta
retirees accused the carrier of improperly diverting more than $30
million
from a trust fund set up to pay benefits to widows and dependents of
retirees
for other employee payments, the Wall Street Journal
reported today.
The committee said in a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New
York,
which is overseeing Delta's chapter 11 reorganization, that the
Atlanta-based
carrier has improperly used the money to pay severance benefits to
employees
since 2002, in violation of the regulations governing the trust
fund. Last
month, the committee won the right to represent the interests of
10,000 non-pilot
retired workers.
id='9'>ATA
Holdings Discontinuation Announced
ATA Holdings
announced that
it will be suspending its service between Chicago-Midway and Ft.
Myers, Fla.,
Orlando, Fla., and San Francisco after Spring 2006, BankruptcyData.com
reported
today. Service to Ft. Myers will end on Sunday, April 23, 2006;
service to Orlando
will end on Monday, April 24, 2006. ATA’s two daily roundtrips
between
Chicago-Midway and San Francisco will end on Thursday, April 27, 2006.
id='10'>Pinnacle
Air Says Northwest Rejects Leases on 15 Planes
Pinnacle Airlines
Corp. said
yesterday that Northwest Airlines Corp. has rejected the aircraft
leases on
15 planes that Northwest subleased to Pinnacle, Dow Jones reported.
Pinnacle,
a regional carrier for Northwest based in Memphis, Tenn., removed the
airplanes
from operation in early November, according to its filing with the
Securities
and Exchange Commission.
id='11'>Eisenhart
Wallcoverings Files for Chapter 11
A Hanover, Pa.,
wallpaper
business filed for bankruptcy protection Monday to reorganize while it
looks
for a buyer, the Evening Sun reported yesterday. Eisenhart
Wallcoverings
Co. and its parent company Eisenhart Corp. cited a decline in sales
and financial
conditions.The company, which employs about 30 people full time, will
continue
to run as usual, but the company has placed itself on the selling
block so the
long-term forecast isn't as clear. President and CEO Forry Eisenhart
said that
the company is negotiating with a potential buyer, who he declined to
name.
Read
more.
id='12'>Tower
Schedule Sought
Tower Automotive
filed a
motion seeking a court order establishing a schedule on the debtors'
motions
to reject collective bargaining agreements under §1113(c) and
modify retiree
benefits under §1114(g) and determining certain collective
bargaining agreements
are subject to such schedule, BankruptcyData.com reported today. The
court scheduled
a Jan. 5, 2006 hearing.
id='13'>Refco
Bondholders Want Access to Data
An investor group
that holds
$487.5 million in Refco Inc. bonds asked a judge to grant it direct
access to
secret information being gathered by a committee of creditors
investigating
the company's financial collapse, the Associated Press reported
yesterday. The
group said that Refco's official creditors committee, which last week
won the
right to subpoena a broad array of Refco records, can't be relied upon
to decide
fairly which creditors should get access to that information. The
creditors
committee won that right only after promising to limit who gets access
to the
records.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Refco-Bondholders.html'>Read
more.
International
id='14'>New
Aussie Bankruptcy Laws Introduced
New laws, which aim
to crack
down on people abusing Australia's bankruptcy system, have been
introduced to
Australian parliament, AAP reported today. Introducing the bill today,
Assistant
Treasurer Mal Brough said that the changes would strengthen existing
provisions
relating to bankruptcy. Brough said that the bill would also amend the
claw
back provisions in the existing law, by increasing the period from two
to four
years that a bankrupt can sell or give a property to a relative for
less than
market value ahead of becoming insolvent.
href='http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/New-bankruptcy-laws-introduced/2…'>Read
more.
id='15'>U.K.
Health Trusts Facing Bankruptcy 'Need System to Protect Patients'
A rescue package to
save
failing hospital and primary-care trusts from closure must be put in
place to
protect patients, the Independent reported today.
Britain’s NHS
is facing a financial crisis with more than a quarter of trusts having
overspent
their budgets in order to cut waiting times and meet other government
targets.
Operations are being delayed and outpatient appointments deferred or
cancelled
to save money. Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt admitted last week
that overspent
trusts are heading for a combined deficit of £948 million this
year, despite
record NHS funding.
href='http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article331596.ece'>Read
more.
id='16'>Debt
Fears for Young Brit Spenders
The U.K. government
has launched
a campaign to warn young consumers not to go overboard with credit
this Christmas,
This Is Money reported today. The Office of Fair Trading,
Trading Standards
and credit reference agency Equifax are advising 18- to 24-year-olds
to be careful
about the type of credit they choose. A survey by Equifax showed a
fifth of
22- to 24-year-olds have debts of £5,000 or more, suggesting
that young
consumers are already overburdening themselves with debt. A separate
survey
by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, which is also involved in
the campaign,
found young women tend to owe numerous, smaller debts to store cards,
credit
cards and catalogue providers. Men typically have larger debts on
fewer credit
cards and personal loans.
href='http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/credit-and-loans/article.html?in_article_i…'>Read
more.