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December 9, 2005
name='1'>Wheel-Maker’s
GM Business In Doubt
Amcast Industrial
Corp. resumed
shipping wheels to General Motors (GM), but federal bankruptcy court
documents
show that the relationship between the two companies is coming to an
end, the
Associated Press reported yesterday. Amcast stopped all deliveries of
previously
ordered wheels on Nov. 30, the day before Amcast filed for emergency
bankruptcy
protection, court documents filed this week said. Although plants were
receiving
parts from Amcast on Wednesday, GM spokesman Tom Hill said that the
automaker
is not planning to continue doing business with the wheel
manufacturer.
href='http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051208/BUSINESS/51…'>Read
more.
id='2'>Winn-Dixie
Eyes June Bankruptcy Exit
Winn-Dixie Stores
Inc. said
yesterday that it hopes to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection by June
with about a third of the pre-filing number of stores concentrated in
the Southeast,
MarketWatch reported yesterday. The grocery-store chain said that it
hopes to
operate 575 stores across Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and
Mississippi,
and 12 in the Bahamas, according to a filing with the Securities and
Exchange
Commission. The company expects that it will employ 58,000 people when
the restructuring
is completed. Winn-Dixie said that 81 stores already have been sold,
generating
proceeds of about $40.8 million. Another 245 stores were closed at the
end of
November, as well as three distribution centers and two dairies.
href='http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7BC2122C0F%2D5E33%2D479…'>Read
more.
id='3'>Calpine
Reaches Agreement with Bondholders
Calpine Corp.
withdrew its
request for a temporary restraining order yesterday after reaching an
agreement
with bondholders who had threatened to declare the struggling power
merchant
in default if it did not immediately restore $312 million into an
escrow account,
the Associated Press reported yesterday. Wilmington Trust Co., acting
as trustee
for bondholders holding $3 billion in second-lien secured debt,
notified Calpine
on Monday that it would declare the company in default if the money
was not
restored to the escrow account by Wednesday.
Airlines
id='4'>Atlas
Air Reports Best Quarter Since Bankruptcy
Freight operator
Atlas Air
Worldwide today reported its most profitable quarter since emerging
from chapter
11, NewYorkBusiness.com reported yesterday. The Purchase, N.Y.,
company blamed
a sluggish economy and reduction in aircraft leasing values for its
seven months
in bankruptcy last year. It recently announced a $100 million
cost-saving plan,
and revamped its management and cut debt. An analyst said that the
company can
now better weather economic downturns.
id='5'>US
Air Merger Is Start of a Trend: CEO
Further
consolidation among
U.S. airlines is inevitable as carriers hunt for ways to eke out a
living in
an industry dogged by soaring fuel costs and low-cost competition, the
CEO of
US Airways Group said yesterday, Reuters reported. Doug Parker, who
runs the
merged version of the former US Air and America West Airlines, said
that the
formation of the new US Air was just the beginning of a wave of
consolidation
that will grow in the coming years.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-transport-summit-usair…'>Read
more.
id='6'>Delta
Pilots to Vote on Strike
The executive
committee of
the pilots union at Delta Air Lines Inc. voted unanimously yesterday
to ask
rank-and-file members to authorize a strike, the Associated Press
reported.
The decision came after a day-long closed-door meeting in New York,
said Lee
Moak, chairman of the executive committee.
href='http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=72995'>Read
more.
id='7'>Forecast
Sees ‘Soft Landing’ in Calif. Housing Slump
California’s
economy is
likely to weaken over the next two years, but how much it slows will
depend
on a delicate dance between housing prices and employment growth,
according
to the latest forecast from UCLA’s Anderson School of Business,
the Sacramento
Bee reported yesterday. And that, in turn, will help determine whether
California
lawmakers are able to finally balance the state’s perpetually
deficit-ridden
budget. While the housing boom of recent years appears to have already
paused
in most of the state, a widespread price decline remains unlikely, the
forecast
says, unless employment also drops. The catch is that employment
itself has
become increasingly intertwined with the housing market, so a slowdown
in one
could feed weakness in the other, causing a downward spiral to a
full-blown
recession. While the Anderson school has been relatively pessimistic
about the
housing market and California in general for the past 18 months, the
latest
outlook lightens up just a bit, suggesting that a soft landing to the
recent
expansion is more likely than an abrupt downturn.
href='http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=WEINTRAUB-12-08-…'>Read
more.
id='8'>Fluortek
Makes Several Bankruptcy Filings
Fluortek Inc. and
Fluortek
Compounding Inc., two companies involved in reuse of plastic and
manufacturing
plastic tubing, have filed for bankruptcy, the New Jersey
Express-Times
reported today. In addition, Botti Inc., which handles personnel,
administrative
and other functions for the Fluortek companies, has filed for chapter
11 protection.
Together, the companies employed about 200 people as of last year.
Steven D.
Usdin, an attorney representing the companies, said yesterday that he
was unsure
of the current employment count because Fluortek Compounding has filed
for chapter
7 bankruptcy, or straight liquidation. Fluortek Inc. is under chapter
11 bankruptcy
protection. In a chapter 11 filing, a company is freed from
creditors’ lawsuits
while it reorganizes its finances. The business can continue to
operate.
href='http://www.nj.com/business/expresstimes/index.ssf?/base/business-0/1134…'>Read
more.
id='9'>Bankruptcy
Filing Puts Sale of Former Inn on Hold
A New York
developer’s plan
to refurbish the former Harriet Bradford Inn is on hold yet again
after the
owner of the historic property in Bristol, N.Y., filed for chapter 11
bankruptcy
protection in federal court, the New York Journal reported
today. Center
Development Corp., of New York City, seemed to have completed the
purchase of
the hotel and surrounding properties Nov. 23 after foreclosing on a
$1.3-million
mortgage held by Bristol businessman Ted Barrows. However, two days
later, before
the $825,000 purchase had been recorded, Barrows’ company,
Belvedere Developers
LLC, filed for bankruptcy protection, automatically triggering a stay
on the
sales.
href='http://www.projo.com/eastbay/content/projo_20051209_blbrad9.1d19c61d.ht…'>Read
more.
id='10'>Pasta
Maker Emerges from Chapter 11
Dry-pasta maker New
World
Pasta says that it has hired its fifth new CEO in three years and
emerged from
a reorganization under bankruptcy protection yesterday, the Associated
Press
reported today. Scott Greenwood will join New World Pasta after
serving as the
domestic chief of worldwide bakery supplier Puratos Corporation. The
Harrisburg,
Pa.-based company also says it has secured $240 million dollars in
financing
from banks. The nation’s largest maker of retail dry pasta
products, New World
Pasta’s brands include Healthy Harvest, Ronzoni, San Giorgio,
Creamette, American
Beauty and Catelli. When it filed for chapter 11 in May 2004, the
company was
struggling with high debt and internal accounting problems that
cropped up soon
after it purchased one of its largest competitors, Borden’s
pasta division.
id='11'>W.
Va. Bankruptcy Sparks Lawsuits
A car dealership
that went
out of business earlier this year has left dozens of consumers stuck
in a bind
without titles and liens on traded-in vehicles unpaid, the West
Virginia
State Journal reported yesterday. Vision Automotive Group in
Randolph County,
W. Va., closed shop abruptly in October and filed for bankruptcy after
the company’s
owner, Thomas Hanna Jr., revealed his company was millions of dollars
in debt.
As a result, 58 customers allege liens on their trade-in cars were
never paid
off, according to Steve Dale, assistant to the commissioner of the
Department
of Motor Vehicles. Another 30 customers were left owning cars that
were never
properly titled, he said. Now several of Vision’s customers are
suing the banks
that underwrote the dealership under the West Virginia Consumer Credit
and Protection
Act. The suit alleges that since the banks underwrote the loans
entered into
by customers and Vision, the banks are partially responsible for
paying off
the liens and taxes Vision left behind.
href='http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=7187&catid…'>Read
more.
id='12'>Communications
Group Emerges from Chapter 11
Epicus
Communications Group,
Inc. (ETG) announced Wednesday that it has emerged from its chapter 11
bankruptcy
proceedings as a newly reorganized company, according to a press
release. The
company will no longer function as a holding company, but as part of
its plan
of reorganization, it has acquired the assets of its former operating
subsidiary,
Epicus, Inc., and will now operate as a CLEC (Competitive Local
Exchange Carrier).
href='http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=new…'>Read
more.
id='13'>Heilig
Plan Filed
Heilig-Meyers Co.
and its
official committee of unsecured creditors filed a restated joint
chapter 11
liquidation plan with a bankruptcy court yesterday, BankruptcyData.com
reported
today. A related disclosure statement was not filed with the
court.
id='14'>Pillowtex
Settlement Approvals Sought
Pillowtex’s
official
committee of unsecured creditors filed a second omnibus motion seeking
a U.S.
Bankruptcy Court order, pursuant to Fed. R. Bankr. P. 9019, approving
settlement
agreements with certain preference defendants, BankruptcyData.com
reported today.
The motion seeks specific settlements with the following parties:
Alabama Gas
Corp.; CIBA Specialty Chemicals Corp.; Ferolie Corp.; Kanematsu USA,
Inc.; Milco
Industries, Inc.; Nelson Hall & Associates, Inc.; Olin
Corporation; Plus
Relocation Services, Inc.; Precision Industries Inc.; Promotion
Fulfillment
Center; Ramtex, Inc.; Roanoke Trade Services; R.L. Stowe Mills, Inc.;
Samin
Textiles, Ltd.; Southern Yarn Dyers, Inc.; Syntec Industries, Inc.;
Wayne Brothers,
Inc.; and York International Corp. The court scheduled a Jan. 4, 2006
hearing
to consider the motion.