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December 8, 2005
name='1'>Stelco
Board Nixes Latest Bondholder Proposal
Stelco Inc. said
yesterday
that its board had rejected a proposal by its bondholders that would
give them
100 percent recovery on their claims in the insolvent
steelmaker’s restructuring
plan, Reuters reported today. The board said in a release that the
proposal
presented earlier this week "would not garner the stakeholder
support required
to ensure an achievable plan that would lead to an effective
restructuring of
the company."
href='http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&sto…'>Read
more.
id='2'>Refco
Unit Discloses Asset Values
Customers at Refco
Capital
Markets Ltd., the unregulated brokerage unit of Refco Inc., are owed
$3.7 billion
compared with available assets of just $1.9 billion, according to data
that
company officials characterized as a rough financial snapshot, Dow
Jones Newswires
reported today. Refco posted that information on a
href='http://www.refcodocket.com'>Web
site late Tuesday summarizing some 3,000 accounts and the value of
assets
on the offshore unit’s books and transferred among certain parts
of the company.
The disclosure was ordered by the bankruptcy court to help individual
customers
decide how to try to recoup their assets. But the data came with
caveats aplenty:
Refco representatives cautioned that they couldn’t vouch that
the valuations
listed in the disclosures were still accurate or that the balances
collectable.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113400603049216947-search.html?KEYWORDS…'>Read
more.
id='3'>Iron
City Beer Maker Files Chapter 11
The Pittsburgh
Brewing Co.,
the longtime maker of Iron City beer, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection
yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of
Pennsylvania,
the Pittsburgh Business Times reported yesterday. To date, only
the initial
papers have been filed with the court. The Lawrenville, Pa.-based
brewery faces
charges by the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority that it owes more
than $2
million in unpaid water bills dating back a few years. The filing in
federal
court in Pittsburgh shows Pittsburgh Brewing has estimated assets of
less than
$10 million and debts of less than $10 million.
href='http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2005/12/05/daily19…'>Read
more.
Airlines
id='4'>Delta
Pilots Poised for Vote to Strike
Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots may consider a vote to strike if the
bankrupt
airline’s managers impose changes on their contract, a pilots
union spokesman
said yesterday, according to an Associated Press report. The airline
has asked
a bankruptcy judge to let it scrap its current contract with pilots,
as part
of its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy. Delta, besieged by rising
fuel costs
and stiffer competition, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept.
14. Delta
spokeswoman Chris Kelly said that the airline would consider
extending the
Dec. 16 deadline "if we felt a consensual agreement could be
reached."
href='http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051208/BIZ/51208…'>Read
more.
In other news, CIT Group Inc. will buy 10 new Boeing 737-800
aircraft from
Delta Air Lines Inc. for $600 million, the Wichita Business
Journal
reported Tuesday. The aircraft are currently part of Atlanta-based
Delta’s
existing order backlog with Boeing, CIT said. Nine of the aircraft
will be
delivered in 2007 and one in 2008. The sale of the aircraft was
approved by
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York
presiding
over Delta’s chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. New York-based
CIT provides
commercial and consumer finance services. Delta has also tapped
Orbitz Supplier
Link technology in an attempt to lower distribution costs.
href='http://wichita.bizjournals.com/wichita/stories/2005/12/05/daily7.html'>Read
more.
Meanwhile, Delta won’t be able to fully repay creditors the
$28.3 billion
they’re owed, a company lawyer told a bankruptcy judge in New
York Monday.
According to wire service reports, Delta detailed its financial
condition
for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Prudence Carter Beatty to persuade
her to
authorize cuts in pilots’ pay. Delta wants to save $325
million a year as
part of a plan to reduce expenses by $3 billion.
id='5'>Northwest
Workers Rally in Show of Unity
More than 300
Northwest Airlines
Corp. ground workers, pilots and flight attendants rallied yesterday
in a show
of union solidarity as the company closes in on the $1.4 billion in
pay cuts
it’s seeking, the Associated Press reported today. The head of
the ground workers’
union said that ground workers, baggage handlers and ticket agents
would strike
if a judge throws out the union contract. Pilots have said they might
also strike
if that happens. A hearing on Northwest’s request to reject the
union contracts
for those groups begins Jan. 17 before a bankruptcy court judge in New
York;
those two groups and the flight attendants are in talks to try to make
a deal
before that happens.
href='http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2005/12/08/news/state/106654.txt'>Read
more.
id='6'>NYSE
Delisting Calpine
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said Monday that it will suspend
trading
of embattled power producer Calpine Corp. because of its low stock
price,
adding to the problems of a company already on the brink of
bankruptcy and
looking to replace its ousted chief executive and founder,
InsideBayArea.com
reported today. Calpine, which in the 1990s spent billions of
dollars to become
the nation’s largest independent power producer, has struggled
in recent years
to overcome staggering losses and bad credit. The NYSE delisting
announcement
cited Calpine’s slumping stock, which fell to 24 cents a share
Monday, and
the company’s own warnings that it might not have enough cash
to pay $313
million owed to bondholders as required by a recent court ruling.
In other news, Calpine Corp. asked a Delaware court yesterday to
block a
move by bondholders demanding that the company immediately restore
$312 million
in cash to a special account or face being declared in default on
the debt,
Dow Jones reported. Wilmington Trust Co., trustee for $3 billion in
second-lien
secured bonds, told Calpine Monday that it could declare the company
in default
on the debt, if cash spent by Calpine to buy natural gas this summer
isn’t
returned Wednesday.
href='http://news.morningstar.com/news/DJ/M12/D07/200512071336DOWJONESDJONLIN…'>Read
more.
id='7'>Owens
Corning Agreement Announced
Owens Corning
announced that
it has reached an agreement with Asahi Glass Co. to acquire its
composites business.
Further details were not immediately available, BankruptcyData.com
reported
today. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of
2006 and
is subject to regulatory and court approvals.
id='8'>Texas
Collects $8.3 Million in Back Taxes From Enron
Enron Corporation
has given
the Texas Attorney General’s office its largest single tax
collection, the Associated
Press reported yesterday. Attorney General Greg Abbott announced that
his office
has collected $8.3 million in back taxes from the failed Houston
energy company
and three subsidiaries. Abbott says that’s the largest single
tax collection
in the bankruptcy and collections division’s history.
id='9'>Frontier
Plan Confirmed
A U.S. bankruptcy
court confirmed
Frontier Insurance Group’s reorganization plan, and the company
anticipates
emerging from chapter 11 protection in the fourth quarter of 2005,
BankruptcyData.com
reported today. The plan calls for the company’s emergence under
the ownership
of Lancer Financial.
id='10'>Metropolitan
Mortgage Claim Filed
Western United Life
Assurance,
a Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities insurance affiliate has filed
a $220
million claim against the company, BankruptcyData.com reported today.
The report
states that if Western United’s claim is upheld, Metropolitan
could be forced
to set aside money that would reduce what would have been paid to
creditors
from 9 cents on the dollar to 5 cents.
id='11'>Footstar
Disclosure Statement Approved
A U.S. bankruptcy
court approved
Footstar’s disclosure statement related to the company’s
reorganization plan,
BankruptcyData.com reported today. The court order also approves the
retention
of Financial Balloting Group as voting and tabulation agent. Ballots
accepting
or rejecting the plan and/or any plan objections must be received by
Jan. 17,
2006, and the court scheduled a Jan. 25, 2005 hearing to consider
confirming
the plan.
International
id='12'>Yemen
Customers Enraged as Watani Bank Declares Bankruptcy
The Watani Bank
announced
last week that it failed to meet its financial obligations to its
customers
as stipulated by the articles 43, 44 and 46 of the Law No. 38 issued
in 1998
concerning banks and financial institutions, the Yemen Times
reported
today. The Central Bank of Yemen decided to take firm measures against
the bankrupt
bank as of last Wednesday and put an end to the authority of its board
of directors
and executive administration. Hundreds of angry customers gathered at
the WB,
which was surrounded by a large number of security troops and police
vehicles
to avoid its being stormed.
href='http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=901&p=front&a=1'>Read
more.