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November 9, 2006
id='1'>Report: Corporate Bankruptcies Set to Rise
A report
released by the American Bankruptcy Institute and Dow Jones' Daily
Bankruptcy Review indicated that corporate bankruptcy filings,
subdued by the high availability of credit in recent years, should hit
courts in a wave within the next six to 18 months, the Associated Press
reported yesterday. Loan default rates have stayed lower than predicted
so far this year. However, the bankruptcy experts who contributed to the
report, which included lawyers, bankers and investors, expect defaults
will soon move back up, leading to a greater number of filings.
Attorney Robert
Bernstein, who responded to the survey, said
turnaround managers had recently been reporting an uptick in activity.
The cyclical downturn over the past couple years is 'attributable to
hyper-liquidity, too much money chasing after too few good
deals,' John
Penn of Haynes and Boone LLP said. 'The
effect of this liquidity is it props up the weaker companies and defers
when they have to face the music. The trigger is when the liquidity
dries up.'
href='http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061108/corporate_bankruptcies.html?&printer=1'>Read
more.
href='http://coletrain.abiworld.org/t/21542/4108964/828/0/'>Click
here to read the report.
id='2'>Musicland's Unsecured Creditors Sue Fox for $15
Million
The unsecured
creditors’ committee of bankrupt Musicland Holdings Corp. has
filed suit against Twentieth Century Fox, claiming the entertainment
company owes them more than $15 million for various offenses
in the wake of the former retailer’s chapter 11 filing,
Portfolio Media
reported yesterday. In the suit, the unsecured creditors
claim there were preferential and fraudulent transfers between Fox and
Musicland. Musicland transferred money to Fox for a prepayment during
the preference period, or 90 days before Musicland filed its petition
for bankruptcy. The unsecured creditors’ committee is now seeking
the return of all these transfers because by receiving the transfers,
Fox received preferential treatment over Musicland’s other
creditors. The case is The Official
Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Musicland Holdings Corp., et al. v.
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC
size='3'>and
size='3'>Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Inc
size='3'>., case number 06-10064 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the
Southern District of New York.
w:st='on'>
id='3'>Davenport
face='Times








New
Roman'
size='3'> Diocese and Creditors Discuss
Assets
Parties involved in the
bankruptcy of the Davenport Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church
discussed the diocese's assets at a creditors' meeting Wednesday,
the Des Moines (Iowa)
Register reported today. The meeting,
conducted by Assistant U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee James Snyder, focused on
amended documents that set the diocese assets at more than $9.1 million,
with about $4.5 million of that in real estate. Just after declaring
bankruptcy last month, the diocese in court filings said it had $4.5
million in assets. The latest estimate of the diocese's worth does not
include any insurance coverage that may pay for claims by people who
have alleged they were sexually abused as children by diocesan
priests.
href='http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061109/LIFE05/611090392/1045'>Read
more.
w:st='on'>
id='4'>Utah
size='3'> Bankruptcy Filings Down 80 Percent in
October
U.S. Bankruptcy Court
data released yesterday showed that a total of 461 Utahns filed for
bankruptcy in October, nearly an 80 percent decrease in filings compared
to the 5,680 filings in October 2005 the
size='3'>Salt Lake Desert News reported today.
The October 2006 figure included 264 filings for chapter 7 and 197 for
chapter 13.
id='5'>Entergy Unit Blasts Insurer's Idea of Competing
Plans
Bankrupt utility Entergy
New Orleans said that allowing an insurer in the case to present its own
restructuring proposal would merely add confusion to the process and
delay the company’s exit from chapter 11 protection,
Portfolio Media
reported yesterday. Late last month, Financial Guaranty
Insurance Co. filed papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern
District of Louisiana contending that it was ready to submit a chapter
11 plan that would help accelerate payments to creditors, among other
promises. However, Entergy said in a filing with the court Tuesday that
FGIC is proposing its own plan only because it is no longer satisfied
with the bonds it originally insured. The case is
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>In re Entergy New Orleans
Inc., case no. 05-17697, in the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of
Louisiana.
id='6'>Foamex Seeks Extension for Removal of Civil
Actions
Facing a mountain of
civil suits, Foamex International Inc. is asking a federal bankruptcy
court in
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Delaware
for permission to push back the deadline for the flexible
polyurethane and advanced polymer foam maker to remove civil actions,
Portfolio Media reported yesterday. The current deadline for
the debtors to file removal notices is Nov. 10. In a motion signed on
Tuesday, Foamex asked the court to change that cut-off date to March 7,
pointing to various state and federal lawsuits in at least 13 different
jurisdictions.
size='3'>Foamex is a party to various open cases in the federal courts,
including a massive lawsuit in
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Rhode Island
size='3'>in which Foamex is among a slew of defendants being sued over a
fire at The Station nightclub in
w:st='on'>West
Warwick
w:st='on'>
size='3'>R.I.
100 people on Feb. 20, 2003. The case
size='3'>is Foamex International Inc., case
number 05-12685, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of
Delaware
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>
id='7'>Delphi
size='3'> Delays Filing Quarterly Report
Bankrupt auto parts maker
Delphi Corp. said on Wednesday that it would delay filing its third
quarter earnings report after determining its designation of foreign
currency hedges may not satisfy accounting rules, Reuters reported
yesterday. The potential change would not affect cash flows, but could
change the timing of previously deferred gains or losses, it said in a
filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
size='3'>Delphi
lenders who provided bankruptcy financing for more time to complete the
filing.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110800651.html'>Read
more.
id='8'>Privacy Ombudsman Appointed in Refco Case
Following through on an
order signed last week by the federal judge in charge of Refco
Inc.’s chapter 11 case, U.S. Trustee Diana G.
Adams has appointed a consumer privacy
ombudsman in connection with the proposed sale of customer and marketing
information pertaining to Refco F/X Associates LLC's foreign exchange
clients, Portfolio Media reported
yesterday. In court papers dated Nov. 7, Adams announced that she had
appointed Elise Berkower, an attorney and Certified Information Privacy
Professional with the privacy consulting firm Chapell & Associates
in
size='3'>, as Refco’s consumer privacy ombudsman. Refco’s
motion asking for an ombudsman to be added to the case centered on the
proposed sale of Refco F/X Associates LLC’s customer and marketing
lists to Saxo Bank A/S.
id='9'>SEC Seeks to Help Small Companies on
Audits
Christopher Cox, the
chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), said that
regulators are seeking a way to lighten the burden of the Sarbanes-Oxley
law on smaller companies by addressing the focus and cost of audits of
internal controls, the
size='3'>New York Times reported today. Cox
said in an interview that the goal was to focus the attention of
auditors on only those controls that could be important to assuring the
accuracy of financial records, a measure required by §404 of the
Sarbanes-Oxley law, and to hold down the cost of the audits. Cox said
his goal was to smooth the way for the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board to propose a new auditing standard in the area, and for
the SEC to approve it, by this spring.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/business/09sec.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&adxnnlx=1163078258-8nbMpN6qcm4QEN8lxlZjEw&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='10' id='10'>Credit Managers Daily Business News
Report
The following articles are
taken from the Daily Summary of Troubled & Fast Growing U.S.
Companies published by Bastien Financial Publications. For more of
the latest business news visit
http://dailybusiness.creditmanagers.biz. 
ABI Members receive a 50
percent discount when subscribing to the complete Daily Summary. Enter
“ABI Member” in the comments section when you fill out the
subscriber form.
size='3'>American Science & Engineering Inc
size='3'>., a
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Billerica
size='3'>,
size='3'>Mass.
X-ray detection systems, reported its second quarter net income fell
43%--to just over $4.7 million. Revenue declined 40%--to $29.6
million.
size='3'>BearingPoint, the McLean, Va.-based
consulting company, reached an agreement in principle with bondholders
whereby it will be permitted to alter the terms of certain bond
agreements, in exchange for higher rates. Back in September,
BearingPoint was found to be in default on certain
bonds.
size='3'>Dominion Homes Inc., a
size='3'>Dublin
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ohio
homebuilder, reported a third quarter net loss of $5.9 million. Revenue
declined 39%--to $64.9 million.
size='3'>Great Wolf Resorts Inc., a
size='3'>Madison
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Wis.
resorts, reported its third quarter net income tumbled 70%--to $2.1
million. The results included nonrecurring charges of $816,000 from the
extinguishment of debt and the sale of property.
size='3'>Revenue declined 31%--to $40.8 million.
size='3'>Milacron Inc., a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Cincinnati
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ohio
industrial-fluids company, reported a third quarter net loss of $7.2
million. Its operating loss of $7.2 million
included restructuring charges of $2.9 million. Revenue rose 10%--to
$209 million.
size='3'>Peoples Energy Corp.,
size='3'>Chicago
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ill.
fourth quarter net loss of $21.2 million, including an operating loss of
$29.5 million. Revenue edged up 1.5%--to
$385 million. For the year, it lost $17.6
million, including an operating loss of $27.9 million.
Fiscal revenue rose 16%--to $3 billion. The quarter
included a gain of $6.9 million and year included charges of $8.6
million related to merger-related and property-sales
costs.
size='3'>Revlon Inc., the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Manhattan
w:st='on'>
size='3'>N.Y.
firm, reported a widened third quarter net loss of $100 million,
compared with a loss of $65.4 million in the year-earlier
period. The recent results included about
$14 million in restructuring charges and another $49 million in charges
related to the discontinuation of its Vital Radiance line.
Sales rose 11%--to $306 million.
size='3'>Tenet Healthcare Corp., the Dallas,
Texas-based hospital operator, reported a third quarter net loss of $89
million. This is down from a net loss of $401 million in the
year-earlier period, which was dragged down by costs related to
hurricanes. Revenue slipped 1.5%--to $2.1
billion.