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July 2, 2007
Shows No Link between Tithing and Bankruptcy Filing
A new study by two
recent
size='3'>Harvard
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Law
size='3'>School
indicates that there is no link between
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Utah
bankruptcy rate and the large number of Mormons paying 10 percent of
their incomes in tithing, the
size='3'>Salt Lake Tribune reported on Friday.
Ezekial Johnson, who wrote the study 'Are Mormons Bankrupting Utah?
Evidence from the Bankruptcy Courts' with co-researcher James Wright,
said the authors found that non-Mormons were slightly more likely
than
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>LDS
size='3'>Church
size='3'>(Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) members to go
bankrupt. The study was based on 281 surveys Johnson and Wright
collected in
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Utah
in August 2004, when the state led the nation in
bankruptcies per household. Utahns filing for bankruptcy were asked to
fill out voluntary questionnaires after their mandatory first meeting of
creditors. The survey included questions about debtors' religious
affiliations and charitable donations.
href='http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6257216?source=rss'>Read
more.
Diocese
id='2'>Judge Sets Bankruptcy Settlement Deadline for
size='3'>San Diego
size='3'>Diocese
Bankruptcy Judge
Louise DeCarl Adler
set an Aug. 13 deadline for a mediation settlement
between the San Diego Roman Catholic Diocese and nearly 150 sexual abuse
victims, the San Diego
Union Tribune reported on Saturday. Should
talks fail, Judge Adler will decide on Aug. 23 whether to set trial
dates in state court for an initial batch of abuse lawsuits. The two
sides began mediation talks about three weeks ago. In its reorganization
plan filed early in its bankruptcy, the
w:st='on'>
Diego
settle the roughly 150 cases for $95 million, an average of about
$630,000 per case. The amount would be in line with church settlements
nationally, according to the diocese, and half would be paid by
insurance policies. But plaintiffs' attorneys say settlements and jury
verdicts in some 400
w:st='on'>
size='3'>California
cases so far have ranged from $1.3 million to $1.6 million each. They
insist that the diocese and its insurers can afford payouts totaling
$200 million or more without having to sell any church, school or other
asset connected to its core mission.
href='http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070630-9999-1n30diocese.html'>Read
more.
w:st='on'>
id='3'>Davenport
face='Times New Roman' size='3'> Diocese Seeks Review of Insurance
Policies
The Roman Catholic Diocese of
Davenport has filed a joint motion with a creditors' committee asking a
bankruptcy court to approve the review of the church's insurance back to
1950, the Associated Press reported on Friday. The motion filed said
that Travelers Companies Inc. was providing a defense to some of the
claims before the diocese filed for bankruptcy in October. It asks the
court to subpoena all Travelers' documents regarding the diocese's
insurance coverage from 1950 to 2007. Representatives of the diocese and
the creditors' committee have said that one of the biggest obstacles to
settling bankruptcy claims could be disputes with insurance companies
regarding coverage.
href='http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6732570&nav=menu115_2_9'>Read
more.
Bank
Regulators Issue Guidance for Subprime Mortgages
Federal bank regulators
issued final guidance on Friday for subprime mortgage lenders to make
loans based on fully indexed rates and not teaser rates that offer a low
interest rate during the first few years of a loan, but can double
later,
size='3'>CongressDaily reported on Friday. The
guidance additionally would permit lenders to offer loans to borrowers
without verifying income only in cases where there are 'documented
mitigating factors' that ensure borrowers can repay the loans. It also
would give borrowers a 60-day grace period to refinance before incurring
prepayment penalties. The Federal Reserve, FDIC, Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Thrift Supervision and the
National Credit Union Administration jointly published the guidance.
FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair noted that it would apply to only federally
regulated banks, but not non-bank lenders that drove much of the
increase in the subprime market. Non-bank lenders are regulated by state
banking agencies. 'Ultimately, however, I think it is essential for
Congress or the Federal Reserve to establish comparable principles that
would apply to all lenders,' Bair said. 'Uniform national standards will
relieve competitive pressure on banks and ensure that responsible
lenders aren't left at a competitive disadvantage.'
id='5'>Hedge Fund to
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Help
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Lift
size='3'>Kara
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Homes
from Chapter 11
Bankrupt homebuilder Kara Homes
Inc. filed an amended reorganization plan on Wednesday, paving the way for the company to
emerge from chapter 11 protection with a cash infusion from hedge fund
Plainfield Specialty Holdings II Inc., Bankruptcy
Law360 reported on Friday. The plan, filed in
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New
face='Times New Roman'>Jersey, revealed that
size='3'>Plainfield
pay $10 million through a development company it owns, Maplewood Home
Builders LLC. In exchange for the cash infusion,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Maplewood
receive 100 percent of reorganized Kara stock and 90 percent indirect
ownership of a number of Kara developments. Part of
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Plainfield’s
payment will be reserved to pay off creditors and administrative fees,
Kara said. Meanwhile, the remaining housing developments not sold
to
size='3'>Maplewood will be
liquidated.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=28298'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Automotive
id='6'>UAW Workers Ratify
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Delphi
size='3'>Labor Agreement
Workers represented by
the United Auto Workers union at Delphi Corp. ratified a new labor
agreement with the auto supplier, clearing a hurdle in the company's
effort to exit from chapter 11, the Wall Street Journal
reported today. The union said Friday that members approved the measure
by a 68 to 32 percent vote. The agreement calls for
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Delphi
$14.50 to $16.23 an hour for all current workers. New hires would make
$14 an hour. The agreement also calls for four UAW-represented plants to
remain open. The rest will be sold, closed or taken over by GM. Delphi
now needs to complete a capital investment plan that would shape its
emergence from chapter 11.
finalize agreements with other unions that represent about 3,000
workers.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118312615815353072.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
id='7'>Tower Strikes Deal with Unions
A bankruptcy court
approved a settlement on Thursday between bankrupt auto parts
size='3'>maker
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Tower
Automotive and a group of labor unions, after an earlier
version of the settlement met with objections from the company's
creditors last year,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported on Friday.
The Milwaukee Unions, a group that includes seven labor unions
representing workers in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Milwaukee
originally held a total of $147 million in claims in the bankruptcy. The
factories they represented were all shut down in 2006.
Under the agreement, the unions
will retain a reduced, general unsecured claim of $133,265,000.
According to Tower's disclosure statement, general unsecured claimants
will receive only .4 percent of their claims. Tower will pay the unions
a cash settlement of over $3 million, to be distributed among the
unions, in compliance with an order from the National Labor Relations
Board. The agreement guarantees the unions and retirees a continued
pension plan, life insurance and health insurance through 2008.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=28299'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
id='8'>Judge Refuses Unsecured Creditors’ Disclosure
Request
Bankruptcy Judge
Kevin Carey
size='3'>refused to require Dura Automotive Systems to file some of its
business plan publicly even though the company's unsecured creditors
allege the information may have already been leaked and may have caused
a spike in trading,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported on
Friday. Dura had fought the efforts of the
committee to force it to publicly file portions of its business plan,
specifically its Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and
Amortization contained in its business plan for projected for 2007
– 2011. The leak, the unsecured creditors argued, put them at risk
and likely prompted a spike in trading. The unsecured creditors' motion
said that the leak may have occurred after Dura met with the creditors
and second-lien committees. In court documents filed Thursday, the
second-lien committee denied leaking information and said it was blamed
unfairly. Dura said that it was investigating the potential breach of
confidentiality and misuse of its business plan.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=28288'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
id='9'>Shareholders Object to Solutia's Disclosure
Statement
Solutia Inc.’s
equityholders have objected its disclosure statement, saying it
“repeats the theme that propelled the debtors into bankruptcy in
the first place,”
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported on Friday.
Solutia was spun off from Monsanto in 1997, and Monsanto changed its
name to Pharmacia following a merger in 2000. In 2002, a new version of
Monsanto, referred to in court documents as the “New
Monsanto,” was spun off from Pharmacia. That company was
responsible for Solutia’s liabilities in the event of
bankruptcy. Under
the terms of the disclosure statement, Solutia will allocate shares in
the reorganized company’s common stock to certain creditors and
equity interestholders, with Monsanto receiving one-fifth of the new
stock. Retired employees will receive 1.7 percent of new stock,
representing a recovery of 59.5 cents on the dollar. Eligible
noteholders and unsecured creditors will recover almost 85 percent of
their claims, according to Solutia’s disclosure statement. Their
claims totaled more than $800 million.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=28280'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
id='10'>Trustee Looks for Liquidation of
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Liberty
size='3'>Cigarettes
U.S. Trustee
Kelly Beaudin
Stapleton moved to convert the company's
bankruptcy case to chapter 7 after the company's lawyer said in court
that Liberty didn't have enough cash to continue its reorganization
efforts and would discontinue operations, the Associated Press reported
on Friday. In papers filed Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
size='3'>Wilmington
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Del.
size='3'>Liberty
enough funds on hand to pay its bills for the 'next several weeks.' The
company intends to shutter its business and sell off its remaining
inventory and equipment. 'It makes little sense to keep this case in
chapter 11 where there is no likelihood of rehabilitation and the only
remaining objective is to liquidate assets for the benefit of
creditors,' Stapleton said. A hearing on the conversion request is
scheduled for July 18.
href='http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/06/29/ap3872487.html'>Read
more.
id='11'>Court Approves $140 Million Settlement with Bank in Refco
Case
District Judge Gerard
Lynch signed off on a $140 million settlement with the Austrian bank
that allegedly helped bankrupt Refco Inc., Bankruptcy Law360 reported on
Friday. The
settlement resolves all claims by the shareholders against BAWAG P.S.K.
Group—the bank that loaned former Refco CEO Phillip Bennett $430
million and was said to have aided the accounting fraud scheme that led
to the company's bankruptcy in 2005. In seeking final approval of the
settlement, lead plaintiffs RH Capital Associates LLC and Pacific
Investment Management Company LLC had told Lynch the deal constituted an
“exceptional recovery” for the class after hard-fought
negotiations with the bank. Under the terms of the settlement, which was
granted preliminary approval by the court in March, BAWAG will cooperate
with investors in their class action against the remaining defendants,
which include Refco insiders and the company's bankers, lawyers and
auditors. The bank has already provided a “large cache of
documents” detailing the role of other defendants, the plaintiffs
said.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/ViewArticle.aspx?Id=28346'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
id='12'>Tweeter Seeks Bonuses for Top Execs
Tweeter Home
Entertainment Group wants bankruptcy court permission to pay bonuses to
a group of managers, arguing that the payments are crucial to increasing
the sale price of the consumer-electronics retailer, the Associated
Press reported on Friday. Tweeter, which filed for chapter 11 protection
earlier this month, is moving ahead with plans to sell itself, having
secured a lead bid of $38 million. An auction is set for July. The
company didn't identify the managers who would be eligible for the
bonuses, saying only that five members of senior management would be
paid along with 'other critical executives' who provide 'significant
benefit' to the restructuring. The initial pool of bonus money would be
$350,000, as long as the value of a sale or 'alternative transaction' is
worth at least $35 million. The
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Canton
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Mass.
planning to hold a three-stage auction on July 10 that would consider
bids for a store-closing liquidation sale as well as offers to continue
operating its retail stores.
href='http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/06/29/ap3872796.html'>Read
more.
Airlines
size='3'>Commentary: U.S. Airline Unions
Showing Signs Of Revival
Airline unions, still
nursing wounds after a bruising six-year clash with cash-strapped
carriers, are getting ready to reclaim lost wages and benefits for
workers, Reuters reported yesterday. The past few years have been
painful for airline unions as they battled – often unsuccessfully
– to preserve jobs, wages and pensions. Delta used bankruptcy
protection to cut 6,000 jobs and restructure contracts. United cut
wages, shrank its work force 25 percent and dumped underfunded pensions.
Northwest slashed labor costs by $1.4 billion and took the unusual step
of using court permission to void a contract with its flight attendants
and impose new terms. The workers eventually ratified a new contract,
but only by a slim margin. Some experts believe the labor cost cuts were
too steep and cannot be permanent. 'All the reductions they're making
(in operating costs) are on the backs of labor. I don't see it as
sustainable,' said Jody Hoffer Gittell, a professor of management
at
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Brandeis
size='3'>University
who researches the airline industry.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-airlines-labor.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
id='14'>Northwest Moves to Reduce Flights, Hire More
Pilots
Northwest Airlines Corp.,
facing a string of more than 1,000 flight cancellations because of bad
weather and a pilot shortage, said it plans to try to rectify the
problem by cutting its summer capacity, redoubling efforts to increase
its pilot ranks and modifying the way it schedules trips to minimize the
effects of storms and air-traffic congestion on the rest of its network,
the Wall Street
Journal reported today. Northwest CEO Doug
Steenland said on Friday that the cumulative effect of the pilot
shortage, storms and air-traffic congestion 'left us no choice' but to
cancel flights. Pilot absenteeism was up 40 percent in June compared
with May and up 80 percent from a year earlier, with the increases
primarily involving a minority of the airline's narrowbody aircraft
pilots, Steenland said.
size='3'>The
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Eagan
size='3'>,
size='3'>Minn.
stepped out of bankruptcy court protection a month ago with new, more
productive labor contracts.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118333445157254761.html?mod=home_whats_news_us'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
id='15'>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 excerpts taken from the most recent Weekly Summary of Troubled
U.S. Companies and Other Business News published by Bastien Financial
Publications.
To begin receiving this
news, each morning, through Bastien Financial
Publication’s DAILY e-Summary, that
emails you information on over 70 such companies each morning, email
steve@creditnews.com your name, company name, address, phone and
fax. We’ll set you up within 24
hours.
The
size='3'>ABI
is only $250 for an annual subscription.
size='3'>Indicate “
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>ABI
size='3'>CODE 27” in your email.
size='3'>Americas Car-Mart Inc., a
Bentonville, Ar. seller of used cars, reported its fourth quarter net
income declined 55%–to $2.1 million. Sales fell 5%–to $59.3
million. For the year, its net income fell 75%–to $4.2 million,
while sales edged up nearly 3%–to $240 million.
size='3'>BearingPoint Inc., the McLean,
size='3'>Va.
firm, reported a first quarter net loss of $213 million, on 2% revenue
increase–to $3.4 billion. The loss, which includes a $38
million gain from a settlement, compares with a loss of $721 million for
the same period one year earlier.
size='3'>Blockbuster Inc. announced plans to
shutter 282 of its underperforming stores in the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>this year in an effort to bolster its operating margins.
The
Tx.-based chain of video-rental stores has been investing heavily to
improve its online rental business as it competes with rival Netflix
Inc. Last year, Blockbuster shuttered 290 stores but was able to move
about one-fourth of the revenue that had been generated in the closed
stores to other locations.
size='3'>Constellation Brands Inc., the
big
size='3'>N.Y.
spirits and beer seller, reported its first quarter net income tumbled
65%–to $29.8 million. The results included charges of $2.4
million. Sales sank 22%–to $901 million, as a result of a change
in the way Constellation accounts for some of its joint-venture
business. The firm also suffered from a decline in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>wine shipments and increased competition from Australian wines
in the British market.
size='3'>Electroglas Inc., a
w:st='on'>
Jose
semiconductor wafer probes, reported a fourth quarter net loss of $6.1
million. Revenue declined 35%–to $8.7 million. For the year, it
lost $18.3 million while revenue edged up nearly 1%–to $44.6
million.
size='3'>Handleman Co., a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Troy
distributor, reported a fourth quarter net loss of $37.5 million, on a
6% revenue decline–to $268 million. For the year, the
company reported a fiscal net loss of $53.4 million on flat revenue of
$1.3 billion. The annual loss compares with income of $14.8 million
reported for fiscal 2006.
size='3'>KB Home, which reported a surprise
second quarter loss, doesn’t see an imminent end to weakness in
the housing market. The
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Los Angeles
size='3'>, Ca. homebuilder’s CEO, Jeffrey Mezger, warned that a
home glut is hampering any possibility of an imminent bounceback in
the
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>housing sector. For its second quarter KB reported a net loss
of more than $148 million, including an operating loss of $174 million.
The loss amounted to $1.93 a share, while analysts had been anticipating
earnings of 7 cents a share. The results, which compare with net
income of $205 million in the year-earlier period, included $308 million
in pretax charges related mostly to impairment. Revenue sank nearly
36%–to $1.4 billion. Also, the firm faced a 34% cancellation rate
in the quarter while new orders fell 3%, with the average selling price
of a house down 8%.