href='mailto:Headlines@abiworld.org?subject=Subscribe me to the ABI
Headlines Direct'>
src='http://www.abiworld.org/AM/Images/headlines/headline.gif' />
February 26,
2007
Holders Permitted to Sue Those Who Cashed Out Before
Collapse
Investors who lost money
in Bayou Management LLC, a failed
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Connecticut hedge
fund, got a boost from a federal bankruptcy judge who ruled
Friday that they could
sue investors who cashed out before the fund collapsed in 2005, the Wall
Street Journal reported today.
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Jeff Marwil, a
trustee liquidating Bayou, is attempting to reclaim more than $140
million from a range of investors who cashed out before the fund's
failure. Only $16 million of that sum is profit. An additional $126
million is the original money the investors poured into Bayou.
Bankruptcy Judge Adlai
Hardin Jr. concluded that Marwil could try to
recoup the entire amount. As an alleged 'fraudulent conveyance,' he
wrote, the money was possibly given back to the investors by the
hedge-fund managers in order to perpetuate the fraud. Judge Hardin
denied motions to dismiss by defendants of dozens of suits brought by
Marwil.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117227816284418003-search.html?KEYWORDS=bankruptcy&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
w:st='on'>
id='2'>Tucson
Model
As the Roman Catholic
Diocese of San Diego indicated last week that it might file for
bankruptcy, many observers point to the Tucson filing as the model out
of the four Catholic diocese that have filed for bankruptcy to date,
the San Diego Union
Tribune reported yesterday. The
size='3'>Tucson
became the second of four in the nation to seek chapter 11 protection
three years ago and settled its bankruptcy proceedings within a year.
Conversely, the diocese of
size='3'>Spokane
also filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004, haven't finished their
cases. The Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, filed in October.
size='3'>Tucson
involved the consolidation of litigation stemming from the national
priest abuse scandal to protect as many assets as possible so that the
church could continue its ministry.
href='http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070225-9999-1m25bankrupt.html'>Read
more.
Autos
id='3'>Collins & Aikman Objects to Fee
Examiner
Bankrupt auto parts
supplier Collins & Aikman Corp. has objected to an attempt to have a
fee examiner appointed in its chapter 11 case,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360
size='3'>reported on Friday.
size='3'>Collins & Aikman also argues that it would not be efficient
to bring an examiner onto the case as it would additional costs and
administrative burdens. The company’s motion says that if the
court feels additional fee assessment is appropriate, it could form a
fee evaluation committee made up of the trustee, the litigation trust
administrator and a debtor representative. A confirmation hearing on the
company’s reorganization plan is scheduled for April 19.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=19229'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>
id='4'>Delphi
size='3'>Sues Insurer for Legal Costs
Bankrupt Delphi Corp. has
sued its insurer over a $19 million legal bill the auto parts maker
chalked up while defending itself against accusations of securities
fraud, Bankruptcy
Law360 reported on Friday. The suit, filed
Jan. 31 in the Manhattan bankruptcy court, claims that under the
liability insurance policy issued by National Union Fire Insurance Co.
in February 2004, Delphi is covered for the costs incurred during an SEC
investigation and the ensuing lawsuits. The company says
Pittsburgh-based National Union, a unit of American International Group
Inc., has so far refused to admit liability for the full $19 million
spent since Oct. 15, 2004 on defense. According to court papers, the
insurer maintains the bill includes the costs of an internal
investigation conducted by
argues is not covered under the terms of the policy.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/ViewArticle.aspx?Id=19181'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Home
Lenders Cut the Flow of Subprime Loans
Fears about defaults are
slowing the stream of investor funds going to the subprime segment of
the mortgage market, the
size='3'>Wall Street Journal reported today.
The cost of insuring mortgage bondholders against default risk, as
measured by the so-called ABX index, has soared, deepening the concerns
of investors in collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), among the
biggest holders of riskier mortgage bonds. Investors' loss of confidence
is reordering the mortgage business. 'A lot of loan programs that have
been available for the past several years...are going away,' says Jack
Pevey, president of Integrated Mortgage Services Inc. in
size='3'>Denver
going to keep a lot of people out' of the market.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117245665740318975.html?mod=home_whats_news_us'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
id='6'>Retirement Fund Fees Are Raising Interest on Capitol
Hill
While Congress might have
temporarily exhausted its energy for retirement security legislation
when it passed the Pension Protection Act last year, lawmakers led by
House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) are laying
the groundwork for further changes to regulations of individual
retirement savings,
size='3'>CongressDaily reported on Friday.
Miller plans to hold hearings in early March on 401(k) fees, which he
argues can reduce individual retirement savings by tens of thousands of
dollars. Meanwhile, Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Gordon Smith
(R-Ore.) plan to introduce a bill within the next few weeks that would
require employers to provide automatic payroll deductions for employees
to invest in individual retirement accounts, according to a Bingaman
aide. The legislation is one piece of the AARP's legislative agenda for
defined contribution plans, which also includes proposals for automatic
enrollment in employer-sponsored 401(k) plans and automatic escalation
of employees' investments over time, according to AARP Legislative
Policy Director David Certner.
size='3'>
id='7'>Commentary: Hedge Fund Realities
Last week's report on
hedge funds from the heads of the Federal Reserve, SEC, Treasury and
Commodity Futures Trading Commission was a welcome call to inaction,
according to a Wall
Street Journal editorial today. While hedge
funds themselves are lightly regulated, the report noted that their
counterparties (banks, brokerages, etc.) and sometimes their investors
(such as pension funds) are usually under the eye of some government
agency. Regarding pension funds, the regulators note that pension
managers have a fiduciary duty not to put their beneficiaries at risk
through reckless investment. Pension fund managers, whether private or
public, are also free to demand any disclosure they feel is necessary
from hedge funds in which they are considering investing. The hedge
funds, likewise, are free to decline and see the business go
elsewhere.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117245912326019020.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
id='8'>Commentary: Fed Officials Rethink Unemployment's Effect on
Inflation
While the traditional
view of the Federal Reserve holds that when unemployment falls too low,
inflation goes up, and vice versa, Fed officials are beginning to
rethink the effect that the unemployment rate has on the national
economy, the Wall Street
Journal reported today. They believe it takes
a far bigger change in unemployment to affect inflation today than it
did 25 years ago. Now, when inflation fluctuates, they are far more
likely to blame temporary factors, such as changes in oil prices or
rents, than a change in the jobless rate. One explanation for why
inflation is influenced less by changes in unemployment is that the
American public has come to expect inflation to remain stable. With
unemployment currently 4.6 percent, at or below the Fed's view of its
natural rate, inflation may edge up after the temporary impacts of
energy and rent subside. That could require the Fed to raise interest
rates enough to push unemployment up sharply and bring inflation
down.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117245624842818971.html?mod=home_whats_news_us'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
id='9'>TROUBLED COMPANIES IN THE NEWS
1000’s of companies lose
money or experience some form of difficulty each
quarter.
The business news
articles below are taken from the
size='3'>Daily Summary of Troubled & Fast Growing U.S. Companies and
Other Business News published by Bastien
Financial Publications.
To begin receiving the COMPLETE
Daily e-Summary, that emails you information on over 70 such companies
each morning, email
face='Times New Roman' color='#0000ff'
size='3'>steve@creditnews.com
size='3'>your name, company name, address, phone and fax.
face='Times New Roman' size='3'> We’ll
set you up within 24 hours.
Receive an ABI
member’s discount of 50% off the $500 annual subscription
fee. Indicate “ABI CODE 27” in
your email.
Cavalier Homes Inc., the
Addison, Al. home maker which has seven plants nationwide, reported a
fourth quarter net loss of $87,000 on a 57% revenue decline--to $43
million. For the year, the company reported its net declined
98%--to $170,000 on a 16% revenue decline--to $228
million.
size='3'>Extreme Networks Inc., the
size='3'>Santa Clara
firm which hasn't filed its financial results for its quarter ended
12/31 as a result of an internal investigation into its stock option
grants and other accounting issues, received a delisting notice from
Nasdaq.
size='3'>Graphic Packaging Corp., a
size='3'>Marietta
w:st='on'>Ga
paperboard packaging firm which has been adversely
affected by higher manufacturing and energy costs as well as more than
$15 million in expenses to upgrade its
w:st='on'>
Monroe,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>La.
it's loss in 2006 increase more than 10%-- to $100 million on sales of
$2.4 billion.
size='3'>Kahiki Foods Inc. of
size='3'>Gahanna
being purchased by an unidentified privately-held
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Pittsburgh
in a transaction valued at $8.5 million. For its nine months,
ended 12/31, Kahiki lost $45,000 on sales of $18.6
million.
size='3'>Parlux Fragrances Inc., a Fort
Lauderdale, Fl. fragrance firm which less than three weeks ago saw an
investor force out its CEO while also replacing three of the company's
board members, is delaying filing its report for its period ended 12/31,
giving NASDAQ another reason to delist the firm. The company, which has
seen a class action suit filed against it for allegedly making false
statements about its profitability, is late in filing its financial
reports for the period ended 9/30.
size='3'>Plains All American Pipeline L.P.,
the Houston, Tx. firm which owns terminals and storage facilities
throughout
size='3'>California
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Oklahoma and
size='3'>Texas
pipeline operations into
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Canada,
reported its fourth quarter net declined 29%--to $34.2 million on a 50%
revenue decline--to nearly $4.4 billion. For the year, the company
reported a net increase of 24%--to $245 million on a 28% revenue
decline--to $22.4 billion.
size='3'>Sypris Solutions Inc., a
size='3'>Louisiana
size='3'>provider of outsourced manufacturing services to the aerospace,
defense, automotive and trucking industry and which saw two of its
product shipments for federal programs rescheduled to 2007, reported its
fourth-quarter loss more than tripled-- to $1 million on a revenue
decline of nearly 15%-- to $110 million.