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December 19,
2006
Files Restructuring Plan
Delta Air Lines Inc.
today filed an expansive restructuring plan that values the company at
between $9.4 billion and $12 billion when it expects to exit bankruptcy
in 2007, effectively lodging its official opposition to an $8.4 billion
hostile-takeover bid from US Airways Group Inc., the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Wall Street Journal
size='3'>reported today. The blueprint for a new Delta is an all-equity
valuation with no cash payout to creditors, who would receive a return
of 63 to 80 percent of the current value of their claims. The figures
don't include an executive compensation package, which the airline says
would be added later. Delta valued the total amount of claims against
the airline at $15 billion.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116653089676454428.html?mod=home_whats_news_us'>Read
more . (Registration required.)
In related news, Delta
rejected a hostile $8.38 billion merger proposal from US Airways Group
Inc. and said it would exit bankruptcy as an independent company with a
value of as much as $12 billion. Delta's board said its plan will create
a greater return for creditors. The US Airways offer is unlikely to
receive antitrust approval, is based on flawed economic assumptions and
would give Delta the largest debt load in the industry,
size='3'>Atlanta-
Delta said in a statement today.
href='http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aul3BO7muZpA'>Read
more.
Autos
name='2'>Equity Firms Commit $3.4 Billion to
size='3'>
w:st='on'>Delphi
Delphi Corp. said
yesterday that a private equity group led by Appaloosa Management and
Cerberus Capital Management committed $3.4 billion to lift the
auto-parts company out of bankruptcy, although final resolution hinges
on support from labor unions, the
size='3'>Washington Post reported
today.
size='3'>Delphi
that the investor group has agreed to put up $1.4 billion for an equity
position in the reorganized company in the form of preferred and common
shares. The group has committed an additional $2 billion to buy any
leftover shares after a stock sale to existing shareholders. The Troy,
Mich.-based company made the announcement as part of a 'reorganization
framework' that it said was contingent on approval from labor unions and
set a target date of Jan. 31 to reach a deal.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/18/AR2006121800164_pf.html'>Read
more.
name='3'>Judge Lowers CEO Bonus Cap for Dana
Corp.
A bankruptcy judge capped
annual bonuses yesterday for Dana Corp.'s CEO at $5.5 million, which is
$1 million less than the Toledo, Ohio-based company had negotiated,
the
size='3'>Toledo
size='3'>(
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Ohio
size='3'>) Blade reported today. Judge
Burton Lifland
size='3'>of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Manhattan
an order saying that Dana can pay chairman and CEO Mike Burns up to $5.5
million in annual bonuses during the bankruptcy on top of his salary of
just over $1 million a year if the company meets certain financial
targets. Five other executives, each paid $385,000 to $440,000 a year,
will be eligible for a total of up to $7.01 million in annual bonuses,
as Dana had proposed last week.
href='http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061219/BUSINESS03/612190378'>Read
more.
w:st='on'>
name='4'>Oregon
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'> Archdiocese Offers Bankruptcy Plan
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of Portland has filed a bankruptcy reorganization plan that would pay
about $75 million to settle nearly 170 claims of priest sex abuse, the
Associated Press reported today. Insurance companies have agreed to pay
nearly $52 million under the proposal, with the rest of the money coming
from various archdiocese assets, but not its parishes or schools. The
reorganization plan indicated that 143 claims had been settled for $40.7
million. It would require the archdiocese to provide up to $13.75
million to pay 26 remaining claims that have not yet been settled
and a $20 million fund to pay future claims.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Church-Abuse-Settlement.html?pagewanted=print'>Read
more .
name='5'>Interstate’s Board Faces Opposition
Opponents to Interstate
Bakeries Corp.'s current board of directors are continuing to line up,
with more parties hoping that a change in leadership will allow the
bakery giant to emerge from bankruptcy protection,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360
size='3'>reported yesterday. Interstate’s creditors and
shareholders have reached a tentative agreement to oust the company's
current board of directors, according to court papers filed last week.
The senior lenders, fronted by JP Morgan Chase, and the unsecured
creditors’ committee decided to push for the board’s
replacement after becoming increasingly concerned that the maker of
Hostess Twinkies and Wonder Bread was running through millions of
dollars each month. A representative for Interstate declined to say
where the company stood on the board issue, revealing only that the
matter could be addressed at a Thursday hearing.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=15223'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='6'>Bankruptcy
w:st='on'>Sale
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Keep
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>New Jersey
size='3'>Hospital
size='3'>Open
U.S. Bankruptcy Court
Judge Novalyn L.
Winfield approved the sale of the
bankrupt
size='3'>PBI
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Regional
size='3'>Medical
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Center
size='3'>yesterday to St. Mary's
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Hospital
size='3'>Passaic
$36.7 million, NorthJersey.com reported today. After the sale is
finalized on Feb. 28, St. Mary's will move its operation to PBI. The
merger will leave
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Passaic
N.J. with one hospital, down from three facilities
that served the city just two years ago. Until the sale to St. Mary's is
final, PBI will remain open, kept afloat by a last-minute $5 million
bridge loan organized by New Jersey Health Commissioner Fred M. Jacobs.
PBI came within days of closing last month before getting the bridge
loan. It owes creditors more than $60 million, with Commerce Bank being
the largest creditor.
href='http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MTAmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcwMzY0NzEmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky'>Read
more.
w:st='on'>
name='7'>Pittsburgh
face='Times New Roman' size='3'> Brewing's Creditors Object to
Investment Plan
Three of bankrupt
Pittsburgh Brewing's creditors are objecting to an unnamed investor's
plans to provide the company with up to $500,000 in short-term financing
to help it reorganize, the
size='3'>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported
today. The objections were outlined in papers filed yesterday in federal
bankruptcy court by the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, the U.S.
Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau and MeadWestvaco, which
leases equipment to the brewery. The creditors said terms of the
proposed financing decrease the likelihood they will be paid what they
are owed because of preferences that would be given to the lender. The
investor, who the company refuses to identify publicly, would also
finance the company's emergence from bankruptcy.
href='http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06353/747153-28.stm'>Read
more.
name='8'>Paying Health Care from Pensions Proves Costly for Local
Governments
Some local governments
that began turning to their pension funds to help pay for health care
for retired public workers in the 1990s are now regretting it,
the New York
Times reported today. Rising medical costs are
particularly wreaking havoc on public pension funds in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Chicago
w:st='on'>Battle
Creek
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Mich.
of
size='3'>Alaska
threaten longer-term harm in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Cincinnati
Rueckert Jr., senior vice president and an actuary with Aon Consulting
who has been helping state and local governments, said that when all the
calculations are done, the governments’ total retiree health bill
will probably turn out to be about $1.1 trillion. Relieving the strain
on government budgets from rising health care costs will probably mean
taking one or more unwelcome steps: tax increases, union givebacks,
sales of bonds or public assets, mass-transit fare increases, or
increases in the cost of other local services.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/business/19retire.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more .
name='9'>TROUBLED COMPANIES IN THE NEWS
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size='3'>Ahold NV, the Netherlands-based
supermarket operator and foodservices giant, is in talks to sell its US
Foodservice unit to a private-equity group that includes Clayton
Dubilier & Rice Inc. and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in a deal
that puts the value of the unit at more than $5 billion. Also
considering submitting buyout bids for US Foodservice are Blackstone
Group and Texas Pacific Group. Ahold, a U.S.-European retail and
foodservices giant, said that its retail operations are large enough to
stand on their own. Overall, Ahold is
capitalized at about $16.7 billion and gets 75% of its sales from
its
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>operations, which include the foodservices business and
supermarket chains.
size='3'>Atwood Mobile Products, a maker of
plastic windows for recreational vehicles, plans to trim the payroll at
its LaGrange, In. facility. Atwood is a unit
of Dura Automotive Systems Inc., a Rochester Hills, Mi. automotive
supplier which recently filed Chapter 11.
size='3'>Chrysler Group's chief executive,
Thomas LaSorda, will apparently have more to say about the carmaker's
turnaround plan in January. One of the big
issues facing Chrysler is a glut of inventory, but Mr. LaSorda has
suggested that the company will continue making cars that dealers
haven't ordered although it will reduce the planned production.
Restructuring plans will likely include plant closings, job cuts,
spending reductions, all aimed at reducing production costs by about
$1,000 per vehicle. Chrysler, a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
DaimlerChrysler AG of
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Germany
is expected to rack up losses of more than $1.2 billion for the current
year.
size='3'>Ford Motor Co. easily attracted bond
investors which bought into the carmaker's recent issuance of billions
of dollars in debt on confidence that the Dearborn, Mi. company has
enough cash and a bit more breathing room to carry out its restructuring
while also being able to repay the debt. And in any case, if Ford does
end up in bankruptcy, bondholders would take precedence over
shareholders in claims payouts. Ford
shareholders, in contrast, seem to be jumping ship, forcing down the
firm's shares 12% this month alone and 50% since the beginning of
2005.
size='3'>Great Florida Bank has been hit with
a cease-and-desist order by banking regulators, who claim that the
company used unsafe and unsound practices, in violation of the Bank
Secrecy Act. The
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Miami
was ordered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to develop new plans,
by 1/25, for compliance and customer identification and to hire an
independent auditor to look into high-risk accounts.
size='3'>Isilon Systems Inc., a
digital-storage company that focuses on clustered storage systems, saw
its stock price take off 78% during its recent initial public offering.
Oddly, while the company more than tripled its revenue during the nine
months ended in October--to $41.6 million, the company lost $15 million
during that period, continuing its string of losses since starting up
business five years ago. The company has also warned that it may never
become profitable.
size='3'>Star Gas Partners LP,
size='3'>Stamford
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Conn.
fourth quarter net loss of $21.7 million, including an operating loss of
$21.7 million. Revenue edged up less than 1%--to nearly $152 million.
For the year, it lost $1.7 million. Its
fiscal operating loss of $1.3 million included a $6.6 million
debt-redemption charge. Revenue rose 3%--to nearly $1.3
billion.
size='3'>Williams Industries Inc., a producer
of structural steel, reported a first quarter net loss of $370,000 on a
17% revenue decline--to $10 million.