href='mailto:Headlines@abiworld.org?subject=Subscribe me to the ABI
Headlines Direct'>
src='http://www.abiworld.org/AM/Images/headlines/headline.gif'>
December 15,
2006
In
Memoriam: Harry D. Dixon Jr., 62, ABI Founder
Harry D.
w:st='on'>Dixon
Jr. ABI Founder and Chairman of the Board from 1982-95,
passed away last evening in his native
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Omaha,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Neb.
short bout with cancer. Harry turned 62 on Monday.
size='3'>He was honored as an ABI Founder at last April's Annual Spring
Meeting in
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Washington
size='3'>,
size='3'>D.C.
survived by his wife Joyce and son Dale, both with the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Omaha
Blackwell Sanders.
Details of the wake and funeral as follows:
Sunday, 12/17-
Wake to be held at Roeder Mortuary from 4-6 pm.
2227
No
Street
Monday,
12/18- Funeral service to be held at
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Westside
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>Church
pm.
15050 West Dodge, Omaha,
Neb.
Tuesday, 12/19-
Burial to take place at
w:st='on'>
size='3'>English
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Grove
size='3'>Cemetery
11 am.
Fairfax,
Mo.
Hearings Begin on Refco
Chapter 11 Plan
The end of a stay in chapter 11
protection may be near for embattled futures broker Refco
face='Times New Roman'>Inc., with hearings on the
company’s reorganization plan scheduled to start this
morning, Bankruptcy
Law360 reported yesterday. Judge
Robert Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the
Southern District of New York will hear arguments for the confirmation
of Refco’s chapter 11 plan, which will distribute nearly $3.65
billion to the company’s creditors. The company’s
reorganization plan stipulates that customers of
RefcoCapital
Markets, who lost $2.7 billion when Refco filed for bankruptcy last
fall, will get back about 70 percent of their funds. Refco owes various
creditor groups a total of $16 billion.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=14810'>Read
more . (Registration required.)
Million Verdict Overturned in Trade Secrets Case
An appellate court
overturned the $38.6 million trade secrets misappropriation ruling that
sent model-train maker Lionel LLC into bankruptcy, and ordered a new
trial of the case,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.
The original ruling came by way of a jury in a case brought by
Mike’s Train House Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Michigan in 2000. The rival toy train manufacturer alleged
that Lionel’s Korean supplier—Korea Brass—stole design
drawings and other confidential information from Samhongsa, Mike’s
Train House’s Korean supplier. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Sixth Circuit overturned a ruling by the district court, which ordered
Lionel to pay the hefty sum and enjoined Lionel from using the
infringing designs.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=15127'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='4'>Adelphia Looks to Avoid Disney Payments
Adelphia Communications
Corp. is looking to avoid payment on copyright license agreements worth
more than $200 million, according to the Walt Disney Co., which will
argue its case today in a bankruptcy court hearing,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360
size='3'>reported yesterday. Disney claims its agreements with Adelphia
are nonexclusive copyright licenses rather than so-called requirements
contracts, as Adelphia is claiming, according to Disney’s response
to Adelphia’s most recent chapter 11 plan confirmation brief. If
Adelphia convinces the court that its copyright deals with ESPN and
other Disney affiliates are requirements contracts, the agreements will
likely be swept away as part of Adelphia’s sale of its assets to
Time Warner Inc. and Comcast Corp.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=15071'>Read
more . (Registration required.)
name='5'>GM:
size='3'>Delphi Deal Possible by End
of First Quarter 2007
General Motors Corp. CFO
Fritz Henderson said that it is 'feasible' but 'would be tight' for the
auto maker to hammer out a deal with Delphi Corp. by the end of the
first quarter of 2007, the
size='3'>Wall Street Journal reported today.
GM and Delphi are negotiating over how much the auto maker must pay to
cover the costs of pensions and other benefits for Delphi union workers
who spent part of their careers as GM employees. They also have to agree
on how many active
size='3'>Delphi
back' to GM. The next few weeks including the beginning of January will
be consumed by the holidays and then the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Detroit
talks on hold for the first part of the first quarter,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Henderson
size='3'>said.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116613842370150754.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Co-Founder Admits Conspiracy
Prosecutors said that a
co-founder of the collapsed Bayou hedge funds admitted in federal court
that he conspired to defraud investors of more than $10 million, the
Associated Press reported yesterday. U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said
that James C. Marquez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and could
be sentenced to up to five years in prison. Last year, two top officers
of the funds, Samuel Israel III and Daniel Marino, pleaded guilty to
conspiracy and various fraud charges in connection with the Bayou
scandal, which the government claims cost investors as much as $450
million. Marquez admitted that between 1996-2001 the three men lured
investors into the Stamford, Conn.-based Bayou funds by creating fake
financial statements that claimed the funds were making big profits when
they were actually losing money, Garcia said.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Hedge-Fund-Probe.html?pagewanted=print'>Read
more .
name='7'>Skipper's Restaurant Chain Files for
Bankruptcy
Skipper's Inc., which
operates 59 seafood restaurants in five Western states, filed for
chapter 11 bankruptcy, mostly because of unpaid federal taxes, the
Associated Press reported yesterday. Based in suburban
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Edmonds
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Wash.
filed for reorganization Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, listing the
Internal Revenue Service as its biggest creditor with $2 million in
unpaid federal employment taxes and penalties out of $6.7 million in
debt. The company, which employs more than 500 people, most of them
part-time, also plans to close five of its Skipper's Seafood 'n Chowder
House restaurants, one each in Seattle, Tacoma, Ellensburg, Wash.,
Anchorage, Alaska, and Medford, Ore.
href='http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061214/apfn_skipper_s_bankruptcy.html?.v=1'>Read
more.
International
name='8'>Eurotunnel Bondholders Back Debt Plan, Set Bankruptcy Exit
Path
Eurotunnel SA, operator
of the tunnel linking the United Kingdom and France, may exit
bankruptcy protection after bondholders, including Deutsche Bank AG,
approved the company's plan to cut the company's £6.2 billion
($12.2 billion) of debt, Bloomberg News reported
yesterday. Eighty-eight holders representing 69 percent of the
£858 million of bonds voted to approve the plan Eurotunnel
presented to the
w:st='on'>Paris Commercial
Court
Holders of 82 percent of the 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) of French
bonds also approved the plan. Following
votes to support the plan from more senior creditors and suppliers on
Nov. 27, Eurotunnel is now set to receive the court's backing for the
plan and may begin a public share swap offer for shareholders as soon as
February, said a company spokeswoman.
href='http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=azwM6ljjF9d0&refer=europe'>Read
more.
name='9'>Commentary:
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Japan
size='3'>’s Crack Down on Predatory Lending Could Have Harmful
Effects
While
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Tokyo
efforts to crack down on predatory lending are well-meaning, they may
stifle credit expansion at a time when consumption remains weak,
according to an editorial in today’s
size='3'>Wall Street Journal. On Wednesday,
the Diet passed a bill that set an interest rate cap of 20 percent on
consumer-finance loans. It's the second time in a decade that
size='3'>Tokyo has tried to
crack down on indebtedness as the rate was reduced in 2000 to the
current 29.2 percent from 40 percent. One of the results of the last
rate reductions were a steep increase in bankruptcy filings, peaking at
240,000 cases in 2003. Setting caps on lending isn't unheard of;
both
size='3'>France and
size='3'>Germany
size='3'>do it. However, those countries also adjust the capped rates as
funding costs, or market rates, move. In
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Japan
not only has the rate been set, but at 20 percent, it's arguably well
below market rates.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116613892891250769-search.html?KEYWORDS=bankruptcy&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='10'>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.
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.
size='3'>BP PLC
size='3'>could face civil charges by
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>federal regulators related to trading activity in the
gasoline-futures market four years ago. This is the latest of the big
London, England-based oil company's headaches as its business has been
under a microscope in the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
two years now regarding 'aggressive' trading maneuvers.
The firm is also undergoing a probe related to an oil
spill this year in
size='3'>Alaska and an explosion at
a
size='3'>Texas facility
last year that killed fifteen workers.
size='3'>Collis Inc.,
w:st='on'>Fort
Smith
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ark.
operations in
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>Evansville
next spring. The move, which affects 150
workers, stems from the loss of a contract to supply refrigerator
shelves for Whirlpool Corp.
size='3'>DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group
size='3'>unit in the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>is suspending production at a number of its
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>auto-assembly factories as a result of a buildup in inventory
over the past year. Chrysler wants to put production on hold at the
plants for as long as four weeks over the holiday season in an effort to
whittle down its bloated inventory.
size='3'>Ford Motor Co.,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Dearborn
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Mich.
out one of its vice president positions and realigning other sales and
marketing managers in an effort to streamline decisionmaking amid its
Way Forward restructuring of its North American
operations.
size='3'>Navistar International Corp., a
Warrenville,
size='3'>Ill.
announced plans to lay off 179 of its 609 manufacturing staff next month
at its plant in
size='3'>Melrose Park, Il., where it
manufactures truck engines. Navistar, facing a slowdown in truck orders,
is also planning layoffs at assembly plants in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Springfield
and
size='3'>Chatham,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ontario
size='3'>.
size='3'>Sun-Times Media Group Inc.,
the
size='3'>Chicago,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ill.
publisher, suspended a quarterly dividend in response to its recent
weakness in advertising. The company recently reported a third quarter
loss of $34.9 million on a 13% revenue decline--to $99.1
million.