Energy Future Holdings Corp. expected to be well on its way out of bankruptcy by now when it filed for chapter 11 protection in April hoping to implement a restructuring deal struck with some of its leading creditors, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Instead of preparing for a first quarter 2015 emergence from chapter 11, however, the Texas electricity seller is still hiring professionals for a bankruptcy proceeding in which the fate of $42 billion in debt is up in the air and the chapter 11 exit sign is barely in view. Energy Future scrapped its pre-packaged restructuring pact in favor of a strategy pinned to a sale of some assets, but the sale rules are being renegotiated after a judge faulted the corporate governance process behind it. Energy Future is back at the bargaining table, or in litigation, with creditors. A fee committee set up to review the bills from court-supervised professionals counts 30 legal and financial advisory firms hired, or in the process of being hired, to work for Energy Future or its affiliates or other official bodies in chapter 11. For the first four months of the case, from April 29 through the end of August, 14 Energy Future firms ran up a combined $66 million in bills, the fee committee reported in a filing Sunday. Some were approved Monday; the rest await review.
