src='/AM/Images/headlines/headline.gif' />
August 25, 2005
id='1'>Bankruptcies
Set Record
The number of
bankruptcies
in the United States surged to an all-time high in the second quarter
of this
year as financially troubled consumers scrambled to file before a
rewrite of
bankruptcy laws takes full effect. Bankruptcy filings to federal
courts in the
April-to-June quarter totaled 467,333, according to data released
Wednesday
from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. That marked a
record number
of filings made in any quarter. Of that total, most — 458,597
—
were personal bankruptcy filings; the remaining 8,736 were businesses
bankruptcies.
id='2'>July
Reports Give Mixed Picture of U.S. Economy
Two government
reports painted
a mixed U.S. economic picture yesterday, as sales of new homes
unexpectedly
rose to another record but orders for durable goods fell more than
expected
in July, Reuters reported. New single-family home sales rose 6.5
percent from
the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.41
million units.
The July sales pace was 27.7 percent higher than a year earlier.
Economists
had expected a 1.333-million-unit pace for July new-home sales.
href='http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-econ25aug25,1,2001675.story?coll=la-headlines-business'>Read
more.
id='3'>San
Diego Fund’s Attorneys Allowed to Stay
A San Diego judge
ruled yesterday
that attorneys for the city pension system can continue to represent
the fund,
as its leaders try to block city attorney Michael Aguirre’s
attempt to
take over as the pension’s legal counsel, the San Diego
Tribune
reported yesterday. Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Barton decided
several issues
connected to the system’s lawsuit against Aguirre and to his
office’s
countersuit, including dismissing the pension fund’s request to
bar the
city attorney from publicly criticizing or threatening its leaders.
Barton also
narrowed the focus of the Aguirre complaint, rejecting several of the
city attorney’s
allegations, but agreeing to reconsider whether a receiver should be
appointed
to oversee all or part of the pension system.
href='http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/pension/20050824-9999-7m24pension.html'>Read
the full story.
id='4'>Vencor
International Subsidiary Files for Chapter 11
Canadian giftseller
Bowrings’
mall stores are currently in liquidation, partially victims of high
rents and
reduced traffic, the Canadian Financial Post reported today.
The chain
plans to close at least half of its stores, falling victim to an
influx of powerful
competitors in the giftware and home decor segment. Bowrings operator
Tereve
Holdings Ltd., with 64 stores across Canada and in operation for half
a century,
owes its secured and unsecured creditors $20.6 million and has been
granted
protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The
company
plans to close all 34 of its stores within traditional shopping malls
and either
restructure or sell 30 outlets in suburban big-box power centers,
according
to court filings.
href='http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=eb758202-a427-4170-a228-f4098dd81591'>Read
more.
id='5'>ATA
Airlines Given More Time
The bankruptcy
court overseeing
the chapter 11 case of ATA Airlines extended the company’s sole
right
to file a reorganization plan to Sept. 30, the Associated Press
reported yesterday.
An order issued Tuesday by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis
also extended
ATA’s exclusive right to lobby creditors for support to Nov. 30.
According
to court papers, the airline initially had sought to extend its sole
right to
file a plan to Nov. 10 and move the deadline for its exclusive
solicitation
period to Jan. 9, 2006. An attorney for the airline said that the new
dates
reflect a request made during a recent hearing, but declined to
elaborate on
why the change was made.
href='http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-08-24-ata-deadline_x.htm'>Read
the full story.
id='6'>Company
Swaps Debt for Bonds to Avoid Bankruptcy
Charter
Communications Inc.’s
shares and bonds soared on a plan to swap $8.4 billion in debt for new
bonds
to conserve cash and help avert bankruptcy for the cable operator
controlled
by Mercer Island billionaire Paul Allen, Bloomberg News reported
today. Charter,
with about $19 billion in debt, will exchange notes maturing from 2009
to 2012
for securities due in 2015, the company said in a statement. The
exchange would
reduce outstanding bonds by as much as $1.65 billion, according to UBS
AG analyst
Aryeh Bourkoff. Speculation that St. Louis-based Charter would run out
of money
to pay its debts has driven the fourth-biggest U.S. cable
company’s stock
down 49 percent this year. Charter, with only one profitable quarter
in the
past four years, has $5.1 billion of debt due in 2009.
href='http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/237903_charter25.html'>Read
the full story.
id='7'>‘Miraculous’
Return for Crown Holdings
Crown Holdings
Inc., the maker of cans for Coke,
Pepsi,
Green Giant, and many other products, is steadily regaining Wall
Street’s
confidence just a few years after it came close to bankruptcy, the
Philadelphia
Inquirer reported today. “They’ve made it,” said
Tim Burns,
a veteran industry analyst and president of Cranial Capital, a
Cleveland research
firm. “It’s been a miraculous turnaround, and the stock
price reflects
it.” Crown’s shares traded for as little as 83 cents in
December
2001, when it was unclear whether the company would escape the wave of
asbestos-related
bankruptcies that had engulfed several other major companies,
including Armstrong
Holdings Inc., of Lancaster. But since then, as Crown has sold off
assets to
reduce debt and focused ever more tightly on its primary business, the
stock
has responded. The shares, which have traded between $14 and $17 since
March,
closed yesterday at $16.50.
id='8'>Anchor
Glass Wants to Void Snapple Deal
Anchor Glass
Container Corp.
sought bankruptcy court permission to cancel its five-year contract
with British
conglomerate Cadbury Schweppes PLC, the St. Petersburg Times
reported
yesterday. Under the contract, Anchor is supposed to provide 16-ounce
glass
bottles for Snapple and other Cadbury beverages, as well as containers
for certain
Motts Inc. products, through 2008. Anchor claims the contract has
caused the
company "substantial losses" and will continue to because
the terms
do not let it recoup the rising costs of natural gas, electricity and
other
raw materials used to make glass bottles.
href='http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/25/Business/Anchor_Glass_wants_to.shtml'>Read
the full story.
id='9'>Banks
Sued by Parmalat Administrator
Parmalat
Finanziaria’s
SPA’s bankruptcy administrator has sued two more banks, Deutsche
Bank
AG and UBS, as part of his attempts to turn around the Italian juice
and dairy
company after it nearly collapsed in a fraud scandal in 2003, the
Associated
Press reported today. In separate statements, Deutsche Bank AG and UBS
both
denied any wrongdoing by the institutions and their employees. UBS
said in a
statement from London that the damages sought in the two suits totaled
nearly
2.2 billion euros ($2.69 billion).
href='http://www.forbes.com/associatedpress/feeds/ap/2005/08/25/ap2191374.html'>Read
more.