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October 3, 2005
Picks
Miers for Supreme Court
President George W.
Bush
has nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers, who is not a judge,
to fill
a vacancy on the Supreme Court to replace the retiring Sandra Day
O’Connor,
Reuters reported today. Miers, 60, would be the third woman ever to
serve on
the Supreme Court. The others are O’Connor and a current
justice, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg.
href='http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-03T124306Z_01_EIC341094_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-COURT-MIERS.xml'>Read
more.
id='2'>Federal
Reserve Board to Meet
The Federal Reserve
Board
will meet today to discuss selected interest rates at Constitution
Ave. between
20th and 21st Sts, NW, Washington, D.C. For more information, contact
(202)
452-3206.
id='3'>Lawmakers
Face Long Agenda
The Senate is
expected to
vote Wednesday on a bill to overhaul pension laws, Congress
Daily reported
today. The bill, a merger of efforts by the Finance and Health,
Education, Labor
and Pensions committees, would tighten funding requirements for
companies that
sponsor traditional pension plans. Several senators, however, have
raised concerns
over provisions that would give additional pension relief to the
airline industry.
Continental Airlines says that the new provisions would give the most
aid to
Delta and Northwest, which both filed for bankruptcy protection last
month.
In the House, pension legislation has not yet been cleared by the Ways
and Means
Committee.
href='http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/congressdaily/'>Read more.
id='4'>Stocks
Set to Open Up After Mergers
U.S. stock futures
are slightly
higher Monday following some brisk mergers-and-acquisitions activity,
though
most involved companies based outside the U.S. August auto sales
figures will
be the data highlight of today, with ISM manufacturing data also on
the agenda,
the Associated Press reported today. The U.S. government has
calculated General
Motors Corp.’s pension fund deficit is $31 billion, against
GM’s view that its
pension fund is fully funded, the New York Times reported
Monday. Both
the government
agency’s and GM’s methods of tracking pensions are legally
acceptable, the report
said. The U.S. agency is not suggesting that the company is about to
go bankrupt
or that it needs $31 billion.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100300249.html'>Read
more.
id='5'>Adelphia
Accusations Announced
The Securities and
Exchange
Commission (SEC) has accused two Deloitte & Touche accountants who
audited
the books of Adelphia Communications Corp. of aiding the
company’s accounting
fraud in 2000, BankruptcyData.com reported today. The SEC announced
that the
administrative action against the accountants rests on charges of
improper professional
conduct. Read the full
story.
id='6'>Federal
Judge Dismisses Warnaco Investors’ Suit
An attempt by
disappointed
investors in the bankrupt company The Warnaco Group to hold Deloitte
& Touche
responsible for losses from the company’s fall has been rejected
by a federal
judge, the New York Law Journal reported Friday. Southern
District of
New York Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum found that the plaintiffs
failed to
adequately plead loss causation on the auditor’s alleged failure
to disclose
troubles with a Warnaco subsidiary and misstatements in its financial
statements.
The plaintiffs’ claims failed, she said, because they argued
that Deloitte’s
actions led to an artificial inflation of the company’s stock
price and the
Supreme Court has only recently held that artificial inflation of a
stock price,
without more, is insufficient to show loss causation.
href='http://www.law.com/jsp/newswire_article.jsp?id=1127984710818'>Read
more.
id='7'>Pension
Reform: Too Late?
Congress finds
itself rushing
to complete pension reform before bankrupt carriers Delta Air Lines
Inc. and
Northwest Airlines Corp. offload a combined $11.2 billion in
liabilities on
the already deficit-ridden Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC),
The Deal
said today. A compromise bill introduced in the Senate on
Wednesday would
give the airlines 14 years to make up their pension shortfall, but
many experts
think that both Delta and Northwest will go the route of their
bankrupt rival
UAL Corp., which dumped $6.6 billion in retirement liabilities on the
PBGC.
According to the PBGC’s preliminary estimates of the pension
funding status
of the companies’ plans, Delta is underfunded by $10.6 billion,
while Northwest’s
liability is about half as much, at $5.7 billion.
href='http://www.law.com/jsp/newswire_article.jsp?id=1128071111976'>Read
more.
id='8'>Mirant
Plan Goes to Creditors
U.S. Bankruptcy
Judge Michael
Lynn has sent the proposed reorganization plan for Atlanta-based power
generator
Mirant Corp. to its creditors, the Dallas Star-Telegram
reported Friday.
The company has proposed giving common stockholders a small stake in
the proceeds,
an unusual step in bankruptcy reorganization. Shareholders have argued
that
Mirant’s fortunes, along with other merchant generators, have
improved
since the 2003 filing because of the cyclical nature of the
deregulated electricity
business. Mirant lost more than $6 billion in 2002 and 2003.
id='9'>$19
Million Sought in J.A. Jones Bankruptcy
Fallout from J.A.
Jones Inc.’s
bankruptcy continues, with lawyers seeking more than $19 million in
reimbursements
for bills that Jones and its subsidiaries paid in the months before
its chapter
11 filing two years ago, the Charlotte Business Journal
reported yesterday.
The filings seek to force about 60 creditors to return money Jones and
its subsidiaries
paid for past-due bills in the 90 days before Sept. 25, 2003, when the
company
filed for bankruptcy protection. The chapter 11 case was subsequently
converted
to a liquidation. Read
more.
id='10'>McGill
and Partners Files for Bankruptcy
McGill and
Partners, one
of London’s most prominent marketing and communications firms,
has filed for
bankruptcy, the London Free Press reported today. A Bankruptcy
Trustee
said that about 60 creditors have been notified and will attend an
Oct. 11 meeting.
Most of the creditors are banks, media companies and suppliers. The
statement
of affairs said that the company has assets of $305,544 and
liabilities of $540,512.
href='http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Business/2005/09/30/1242044-sun.html'>Read
more.
id='11'>Baker
of Twinkies and Wonder Bread Cuts, Consolidates
A year after
bankruptcy,
the maker of Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies has taken steps to
solve a host
of internal problems but is still not out of trouble, the Associated
Press reported
yesterday. Interstate Bakeries Corp. has consolidated operations,
announced
more than 4,000 layoffs and is renegotiating more than 500 separate
union contracts
that cover a majority of its 32,000 employees as part of its efforts.
Also part
of its recipe: new products to reach new customers, something that had
been
a problem for the 78-year-old company. The company had spent decades
amassing
national and regional brands and ended up with a glut of bakeries and
distribution
centers that loaded the company down. New management installed after
the bankruptcy
filing reviewed operations in five of its 10 regions, closing six
low-performing
bakeries and consolidating delivery routes, distribution centers and
thrift
stores along parts of the east and west coasts and the Midwest.
href='http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051003/BIZ/510030350/1001'>Read
more.
id='12'>The
Brooklyn Hospital Center Files for Chapter 11
The Brooklyn
Hospital Center
(TBHC) filed for chapter 11 on Friday, according to PRNewswire
reports. The
filings were made in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District
of New
York. TBHC said that it intends to use the reorganization process to
address
balance-sheet and cash-flow issues and to further improve its
operations.
href='http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-30-2005/0004135797&EDATE'>Read
the full story.
id='13'>
Regulator Gives OK on Parmalat Relisting
Italy’s
stock-market regulator
said that it has given final approval for Parmalat Finanziaria SPA to
go public,
part of the dairy giant’s plan to recover from a massive fraud
scandal and pay
back its creditors, Newsday.com reported today. Market regulator
Consob said
on its Web site that it made the decision after Parmalat provided an
extra document
needed to complete the relisting prospectus of the dairy group, which
could
return to Milan’s stock exchange as early as this week. Consob
said that the
extra document it had asked for included an update on a series of
lawsuits launched
by government-appointed Administrator Enrico Bondi against banks in an
attempt
to share the blame for the crash and recoup some money for the company
and investors.
Parmalat’s creditors paved the way for the relisting on
Saturday, when they
approved ratios at which to swap the group’s 20 billion euro
($24 billion) debt
for new shares. Italy’s Industry Minister Claudio Scajola said
Parmalat shares
will start trading Wednesday.
id='14'>Northwest
Plans for Improved Finances
Northwest Airlines
Corp.
told creditors on Friday that it hopes to improve its profitability by
a range
of $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion, according to Reuters reports. In a
presentation
to unsecured creditors on Friday, Northwest said that it hopes to make
the improvements
to its finances through labor savings, capacity reduction and changes
to its
balance sheet, spokesman Scott Tennant said. The company also expects,
in the
fourth quarter, to reduce its available domestic seat miles by 10
percent; 8
percent in a company-wide basis, said Tennant. It also plans to form a
subsidiary
that would run its regional jets with 70 to 100 seats.
id='15'>NRG
to buy Texas Genco for $5.8 billion
NRG Energy Inc.
said yesterday
that it will buy Texas Genco Holdings Inc. for $5.8 billion in cash
and stock,
in a deal that would nearly double the merchant power producer’s
asset base
and give it entry to the growing Texas wholesale electricity market,
Reuters
reported today. The deal may also spark a new round of consolidation
among merchant
energy producers, which are still recovering from a credit crunch in
late 2001
that drove several large independent power producers, including NRG,
into bankruptcy.
The deal marks a nice payout for the private equity firms, which stand
to make
more than five times their investment. On the other side, NRG is
spending a
good chunk of money for a company that was owned by the buyout shops
for barely
a year.
href='http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=107674%2B03-Oct-2005%2BRTRS&srch=bankruptcy'>Read
the full story.
id='16'>Handmaker
Services Files for Bankruptcy
Handmaker Jewish
Services
for the Aging, a senior living organization in Tucson, Ariz., filed
for chapter
11 on Friday, the Arizona Daily Star reported Saturday.
Handmaker has
no plans to close any of its housing units or reduce staff or services
for residents,
officials said. The organization serves about 500 seniors daily. The
bankruptcy
filing comes nearly five years after Handmaker announced a $21 million
expansion
that has left the nonprofit organization with more debt than it can
handle,
officials said.
href='http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/dailystar/95850.php'>Read
more.
id='17'>TransMeridian
Halts Flights, Seeks Bankruptcy Protection
TransMeridian
Airlines, a
Georgia-based carrier, halted all flights on Friday after failed
restructuring
negotiations and now plans to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy, the
New
Brunswick Telegraph-Journal
reported Saturday. A company spokesman would not give
additional information
about the financial status of the Lithia Springs, Ga.-based company.
Most of
the company’s 500 employees will lose their jobs, but a small
number will remain.
TransMeridian was in expansion mode earlier
this
year, obtaining new jets and recruiting executives and other employees
from
rival carriers.
id='18'>Former
Casino Owner Files for Chapter 11
GB Holdings Inc.,
one-time
owner of the Sands Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., filed
for chapter
11, the Associated Press reported Friday. The filing aims to stave off
action
by holders of $43.7 million in debt. The debt is held by institutions
that turned
down earlier offers to swap their debt for convertible notes issued by
Atlantic
Coast Entertainment, which now owns the Sands through a
subsidiary.
id='19'>Liberty
Fibers Corp. Closes Plant, Files For Bankruptcy
Liberty Fibers
Corp. closed
its plant in Hamblen County, Tenn. and filed for chapter 11 protection
with
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Friday, the Greenville Sun
reported Saturday.
Most of the plant’s 340 workers have been laid off, according to
Randy
Alexander, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union,
which
represents the plant’s more than 200 production employees. Asked
whether
the Liberty Fibers plant will reopen, Alexander said it is his
understanding
that the plant’s reopening is only “a slight
possibility.”
Liberty Fibers is the sole manufacturer of rayon staple fibers in
North America.
href='http://www.greene.xtn.net/index.php?table=news&template=news.view.subscriber&newsid=124779'>Read
the full story.
id='20'>N.C.
Golf Courses Emerge from Chapter 11
Carolina Shores
Golf and
Country Club and Colonial Charters Golf and Country Club, both owned
by Cary,
N.C., developer Mike Matheny, emerged from bankruptcy Thursday, the
Myrtle
Beach Sun reported Saturday. Judge Rich Leonard issued the final
decree
ordering the chapter 11 bankruptcy cases closed Thursday. Under the
approved
restructuring of the two courses’ debts, each course is paying
$200,000 to unsecured
creditors. BB&T is the primary secured creditor of both layouts.
The courses
have emerged despite summer play that was down from 2004 numbers,
Matheny said,
and an "awful" September that was likely influenced by high
gas prices
and hurricane threats.
id='21'>Kansas
Head Start Agency Files for Bankruptcy
KCMC Child
Development Corp.,
the Head Start agency that relinquished its federal grant last year,
has filed
for chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing $5.83 million in debts, the
Kansas City
Star reported on Saturday. The debts include nearly $800,000 owed
to the
Kansas City School District and more than $623,000 owed to the
Independence
School District. Both school districts operated Head Start programs
for KCMC.
href='http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/12788619.htm'>Read
the full story.