Exide Technologies Inc. and its creditors are vying for the right to launch a probe into suspected metal price-fixing, with an eye toward collecting damages if it turns out the battery-maker was victimized, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Suspicions that warehouse owners and the London Metal Exchange conspired to inflate metals prices (and warehouse rents) by stockpiling the commodities in “shadow warehouses” surfaced last year, triggering questions from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Department of Justice as well as a wave of lawsuits. If proven, the claims of anticompetitive behavior could mean money for Exide, a lead-acid battery maker that filed for chapter 11 protection in June 2013. The chapter 11 case is Exide’s second in less than a dozen years, and the company is under pressure to produce a restructuring plan that will win the approval of its creditors and the court. The chance to collect damages due to alleged anticompetitive behavior would be a valuable asset to put on the table in plan negotiations, according to court papers filed by Exide’s unsecured creditors' committee.
