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April 3, 2007
Subprime
Mortgages
name='1'>New Century Files for Bankruptcy
The bankruptcy filing
yesterday by New Century Financial Corp.'s is the latest sign of a
shakeout drastically shrinking the business of the subprime mortgage
industry, the Wall
Street Journal reported today. After weeks of
courting buyers for its main lending operation, which reaches consumers
through brokers, New Century filed for chapter 11 protection. While the
filing gives the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Irvine
size='3'>,
size='3'>Calif.
time to try to sell the lending business, it is likely to be difficult
amid soaring defaults on subprime loans and a loss of confidence among
investors who buy such mortgages. New Century recently negotiated with
Bear Stearns Cos. about further financing, but those talks fell through.
The subprime business in general is dwindling as fast as it grew
during the housing boom of the first half of this decade. The dollar
value of subprime loans granted this year is likely to drop 30 percent
from last year's total of around $600 billion, according to analysts at
Bear Stearns.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117552687315156891.html?mod=home_whats_news_us'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='2'>Auditor Resigns Duties for Two Subprime
Lenders
Accounting firm Grant Thornton
resigned as auditor for Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. and Fremont
General Corp., Reuters reported yesterday. The two troubled subprime
lenders said that Grant Thornton had resigned as their auditor after
advising them that it needed to 'significantly expand'' the scope of its
audit of their 2006 financial statements. Both firms said they were now
seeking new independent auditors.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-usa-subprime-accredited.html?pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='3'>Barclays Bank Buys Subprime Lender
In the midst of a major
slide in the subprime mortgage industry, Barclays Bank PLC said on
Monday that it completed its purchase of Charlotte, N.C.-based lender
EquiFirst Corp. for $76 million, or two-thirds less than the amount
originally offered, the
size='3'>Charlotte Observer reported today.
The British bank said in January it was buying EquiFirst from
Alabama-based Regions Financial Corp. for $225 million. Despite the
struggles of many competitors, Barclays is building its subprime
mortgage business. The bank wants to create its own pipeline of
mortgages that can be packaged into securities by its capital markets
division.
href='http://www.charlotteobserver.com/122/story/72327.html'>Read
more.
name='4'>Supreme Court Refuses Appeal over Pilot
Pensions
The U.S. Supreme Court
refused Monday to hear a labor union’s challenge of the Pension
Benefit Guarantee Corp.'s deal to terminate its members’ United
Airlines pension plans as part of the airline's bankruptcy
reorganization,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.
In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the Air Line Pilots Association
asked the court to overturn the PBGC's termination of the pilots’
pension, one of four plans UAL ended during its bankruptcy. The Supreme
Court’s refusal to hear the case leaves the pilots with few
options, after a federal bankruptcy court backed the PBGC in October
2005 and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the
decision.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=21837'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='5'>Insurer Takes Aim at Le-Nature's CEO
New Jersey-based insurer
Federal Insurance Co. claims Le-Nature’s founder and CEO, Gregory
Podlucky, lied in his application for a $7.5 million policy to protect
the bankrupt company from legal costs, Bankruptcy Law360
reported yesterday. In a complaint filed Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy
Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Federal claims Podlucky
inflated the company’s total revenues, assets and cash flow for
the fiscal year 2004 on a policy application form. The policy provided
coverage for fiduciary liability, directors’ and officers’
liability, employment practices liability, Internet liability and crime,
and Podlucky sought to increase coverage from $5 million to $7.5
million. Podlucky claimed Le-Nature was in compliance with all debt and
loan covenants, and provided false financial statements showing steady
growth, solid profits and a strong cash position, according to court
papers.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=21775'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='6'>Millions to Be Repaid after College Loan
Inquiry
New York Attorney General
Andrew M. Cuomo announced yesterday that Citibank, one of the largest
providers of student loans, as well as five universities have agreed to
pay $5.2 million to students and the New York AG’s office to
resolve an investigation into student loan practices, the
New York Times
size='3'>reported today. Citibank, which at year’s end had $33.7
billion in student loans outstanding, agreed to pay $2 million into a
fund to educate students and parents about student loans.
York
size='3'>University,
size='3'>Syracuse
w:st='on'>St.
John’s
size='3'>University of
size='3'>Pennsylvania
size='3'>will make payments of more than $3.2 million to student
borrowers who received loans from companies that paid money to the
institutions to steer students their way. Though neither Citibank nor
the universities admitted to any wrongdoing, they all agreed to adopt a
code of conduct governing relations between student lenders and academic
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/us/03loans.html?pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
Closings Part of Auto Supplier's Restructuring Plan
Dura Automotive Systems
Inc. said that it wants to close four manufacturing facilities in
size='3'>Indiana
size='3'>Canada
size='3'>Missouri
size='3'>Pennsylvania
the end of the year as part of its strategic restructuring plan,
the Detroit Free
Press reported today. The Rochester Hills,
Mich.-based supplier of automotive drive control, seating and glass
systems said it plans to close a 68,400-square-foot plant in Brownstown,
Ind., that employs 114 people; a 120,000-square-foot facility in
Bracebridge, Ont., that has 176 workers; the Hannibal South, Mo.,
operation that employs 65 people; and the Selinsgrove, Pa., plant that
has 61 employees. The work being done at those facilities would be
shipped to plants in
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Mexico
size='3'>,
size='3'>Tennessee
in
size='3'>Indiana.
Dura’s previously announced restructuring plan called for the
idling of 10 plants by the end of 2007. The company also said it expects
to announce additional consolidation plans in the third quarter.
href='http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070403/BUSINESS06/70403009'>Read
more.
name='8'>AirTran Airways Raises Offer for
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Midwest
size='3'>Air
AirTran Holdings Inc.,
parent of low-cost airline AirTran Airways, said on Monday that it
increased its hostile offer for Midwest Air Group Inc. to $15 per
size='3'>Midwest
million, Reuters reported yesterday. It is the second time AirTran has
increased its bid for
size='3'>Midwest, which has said it
prefers to remain independent. AirTran originally offered to buy
size='3'>Midwest
The bid now consists of $9 in cash and 0.5842 shares of AirTran common
stock for each
size='3'>Midwest
about 65 percent higher than the closing price of
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Midwest
day before AirTran disclosed its initial proposal. AirTran said its new
offer will expire May 16.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-midwest-airtran.html?pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
International
name='9'>British Chancellor Faces Debate over Pension
Cuts
British Chancellor Gordon
Brown faces a parliamentary debate over claims that he ignored warnings
over the impact of changes he made to pension funds in his first budget,
Reuters reported yesterday. Conservatives in the parliament said that
they would call for Brown to explain his decision in July 1997 to scrap
tax relief on dividends paid into pension funds. Pension experts say
Brown's tax credit cut was a contributory factor in the decline
of
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>Britain
size='3'>'s once-generous company final salary schemes. Treasury
documents released on Friday showed that Brown was warned the move would
cost pension funds between £3 - 4 billion pounds a year and cut the
value of their assets by £50 billion.
href='http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=personalFinanceNews&storyID=2007-04-02T132704Z_01_NOA223473_RTRUKOC_0_BRITAIN-PENSIONS.xml'>Read
more.
name='10'>Soccer Star Fights to Lift Bankruptcy
Order
Lawyers for Liverpool FC
star John Arne Riise appeared in court in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Liverpool
attempt to get the bankruptcy order against him lifted, the
Liverpool Daily Post
reported today. It was revealed last week that the
Norwegian defender had been declared bankrupt with debts of almost
£100,000, following a dispute with his former agent Einar Baardsen.
The court refused to release details of the bankruptcy annulment
application, which was held behind closed doors. Riise, who earns around
£2.5m a year, had earlier dismissed the bankruptcy order as an
'oversight.'
href='http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=riise-fights-to-lift-bankruptcy-order%26method=full%26objectid=18850247%26siteid=50061-name_page.html'>Read
more.
name='11'>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.
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through April 15, you can receive an annual subscription to the U.S.
Business Journal¹s weekly summary of troubled
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>companies for only $99! Indicate “ABI CODE 27” in
your email.
size='3'>Career Education Corp. has seen a
district court in
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Chicago
size='3'>,
size='3'>Il
certain securities litigation that charged the company with lying to
investors about its finances.
size='3'>Carnival Corp., the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Miami
cruise-ship company, warned that earnings for the year may be lower than
earlier anticipated because of high costs for fuel and unfavorable rates
of currency exchange.
size='3'>Foamex International Inc., the
Linwood,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Pa.
size='3'>maker of foam products, said that it will undertake a reverse
stock split of its common shares at a one-to-four ratio, hoping to
create additional liquidity. The firm recently emerged from
Chapter 11.
size='3'>Freightliner LLC announced that 800
layoffs took effect, leaving the firm with 1,800 workers at its base
in
size='3'>Portland, Or. The
firm has expected a slowdown in production this year because of new
federal regulations on diesel emissions that raised the price of trucks
by thousands of dollars.
size='3'>Imperial Industries Inc., a
size='3'>Pompano Beach
maker and distributor of building materials, reported its fourth quarter
net income fell 72%–to $210,000. Revenue declined 15%–to
$17.1 million. For the year, its net income fell 15%–to $2.9
million, on a nearly 5% revenue increase–to $75.5
million.
size='3'>Louisville Stoneware in
size='3'>Louisville
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ky.
reduced its payroll by thirty-eight positions as part of an effort to
reposition itself.
size='3'>MDI Inc., a
w:st='on'>
Antonio
security software and related products, reported a fiscal net loss of $7
million. Revenue fell 1%–to $8.7 million.
size='3'>Spire Corp., a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Bedford
provider of solar-cell manufacturing equipment, reported a fourth
quarter net loss of $2.1 million. Revenue declined 21%–to more
than $5 million.
size='3'>Toll Brothers Inc., the
Horsham,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Pa.
size='3'>homebuilder, is selling tens of thousands of home lots amid the
housing slump. At its peak in the homebuilding boom about a year
ago, Toll controlled more than 91,000 lots but since then has sold off
about 26% of its holdings. In its first quarter, Toll Brothers incurred
a related $106 million writedown.
size='3'>Tribune Co., the 160-year-old
size='3'>Chicago
purchased by
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Chicago
real-estate tycoon, Sam Zell, in a transaction valued at
more than $8 billion. Mr. Zell, who will become chairman of the
newspaper and television company, invested more than $300 million of his
own money in the transaction. The purchase is still subject to
both shareholder and FCC approval.