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May 10, 2007
Backs New Reins on Student Lenders
The House voted
overwhelmingly yesterday to bar student loan companies from offering
perks and financial incentives to universities to drum up business, the
first federal legislative response this year to mounting criticism of
the $85 billion-a-year industry, the
size='3'>Washington Post reported today. H.R.
890, the 'Student Loan Sunshine Act of 2007,” was approved by a
413 to 3 vote. The student industry has come under scrutiny from federal
and state investigators over its financial ties with schools and
government officials. The Senate is likely to approve a similar measure
soon, and the Bush administration is 'generally supportive' of the
legislation, said spokesman Scott Stanzel.
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Passage of the bill, the Student Loan
Sunshine Act, came as Education Secretary Margaret Spellings prepared to
face questions today from Miller's committee over the student loan
controversy and other matters. Critics say the administration has been
lax in its oversight of the industry, a charge Spellings
rejects.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050901871_pf.html'>Read
more.
New
Century Opposes Ouster of Top Executives
Subprime lender New
Century Financial Corp. has asked a federal bankruptcy judge to reject a
government request to appoint a trustee to replace its management and
take control of asset sales, Reuters reported yesterday. In a filing
late on Tuesday with the
face='Times New
Roman'
size='3'>U.S.
Court in
size='3'>Wilmington
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Del.
request by the U.S. Department of Justice ignores executives' efforts to
sell assets fast and wind down the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Irvine,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Calif.,
business. U.S. Trustee Kelly Beaudin Stapleton argued
in an April 17 court filing that management's failure ``to ensure
accurate financial accounting and to institute adequate internal
controls'' mandated the appointment of a trustee.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-newcentury.html?pagewanted=print'>Rea
d more.
Fed
Gives No Signal of Rate Shift
The Federal Reserve
acknowledged Wednesday that the economy was slowing, but offered little
hint that it was ready to lower interest rates anytime soon, the
New York Times
size='3'>reported today. As widely expected, the central bank kept the
benchmark interest rate on overnight loans at 5.25 percent — the
same level it has been since the Fed began its “pause”
almost one year ago. It also reiterated its stance of the past year that
inflation was still the “predominant policy concern” and
gave short shrift to recent data suggesting that price pressures have
ebbed. Fed officials have openly admitted
that economic indicators are flashing a bewildering mix of green and
red. Economic growth slowed sharply in the first quarter of this year to
an annual pace of 1.3 percent, the slowest pace in four years, and job
creation in April totaled only 88,000 — the smallest increase in
two years. However, unemployment remains well below 5 percent, a level
that many economists consider full employment, and the Fed’s
favorite measure of inflation is climbing slightly faster than its
unofficial target of 1 to 2 percent a year.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/10fed.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='4'>Calpine Looks to Emerge from Chapter 11 in
June
Bankrupt energy provider
Calpine Corp. said that it expects to emerge from chapter 11 protection
by the end of June,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.
Calpine overcame a major obstacle in its chapter 11 proceedings when, at
the end of April, the company reached an agreement with a bondholder
committee that will eliminate more than $8 billion in claims. If
approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Manhattan
Canadian court, the settlement would replace more than $12 billion of
claims with a single nominal claim of $3.5 billion. Additionally, the ad
hoc bondholders’ committee agreed that its actual recovery would
be no greater than the principal, accrued pre-petition and post-petition
interest, and up to $8 million in fees.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/ViewArticle.aspx?Id=24320'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Dana
Looks to Buy Plants from Credit Subsidiary
Auto parts maker Dana
Corp. filed a motion Tuesday with the bankruptcy court requesting
permission to buy two plants from a Dana Commercial Credit Corp. (DCCC),
a Dana subsidiary that is not part of the bankruptcy proceedings,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.
Dana said that the price for the plants was finally within market range,
so buying now would be a good deal. Dana currently pays DCCC over
$45,000 a month in rent for the
face='Times New
Roman'
size='3'>Kentucky
month for the plant in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>California
has proposed a purchase price for the plants of about $1.3 million and
$6.1, respectively. In addition to asking for approval of the purchase,
Dana has asked the court to waive any stay that would postpone the
effectiveness of its proposed order.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=24393'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='6'>Northwest Creditors Said to Approve Reorganization
Plan
Northwest Airlines said
that its creditors overwhelmingly approved its bankruptcy reorganization
plan, another key step on its way toward emerging from bankruptcy
protection next month, the Associated Press reported yesterday. An
unofficial vote tally shows that almost 97 percent of creditors who
voted approved the plan, the airline said on Wednesday. Final results
will be filed in bankruptcy court in
w:st='on'>
York later this
week. A confirmation
hearing on Northwest's reorganization plan is set to begin May 16, and
Northwest has said it expects to emerge from bankruptcy in June. It has
been operating under bankruptcy protection since Sept. 14, 2005.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Northwest-Bankruptcy.html?pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
In related news, a group
of Northwest Airlines Corp. shareholders has asked a bankruptcy court to
stop the airline’s plans to emerge from chapter 11, saying it
failed to maximize the value of the airline’s stock, and would
overpay management and unsecured creditors, Bankruptcy Law360 reported
yesterday. Members of the shareholder committee, which comprises several
hedge funds that own 19 million shares in Northwest, say the plan is an
“orchestrated effort to enrich creditors and management” and
does not satisfy confirmation standards under the Bankruptcy Code. The
committee argued that the airline’s plan fails to include a
“waterfall” provision that would allow for the
distribution of excess assets in the event that claims by general
unsecured creditors fall below the carrier’s own estimated value
of its reorganized equity—currently as high as $7.5 billion. The
committee contends that unsecured claims total no more than $6.2
billion, while Northwest has valued the claims at up to $8.8
billion.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=24343'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
SEC
Is Urged to Pursue Banks in Enron Fraud
A coalition of consumer
groups and union leaders yesterday urged securities regulators to throw
their weight behind investors suing major banks for their role in the
devastating Enron fraud, the
size='3'>Washington Post reported today.
Activists and former shareholders in the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Houston
trading company implored the Securities and Exchange Commission to file
court briefs supporting their legal position in an effort to revive a
case against such banks as Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston and
Barclays. William S. Lerach, a plaintiffs lawyer in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>California
collected more than $7.3 billion from financial institutions and others
on behalf of investors whose life savings and retirement funds were
depleted. However, his effort to proceed against nearly a half-dozen
remaining banks was thwarted on the eve of trial by a federal appeals
court. The panel ruled in March that the banks could not be held liable
for standing by silently as Enron executives reported phony profit and
concealed mounting debts.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902306_pf.html'>Read
more.
name='8'>Motorola, SEC Settle for $25 Million in Adelphia
Scandal
Motorola Inc. will pay
$25 million to settle accusations that it knew or should have known that
Adelphia Communications Corp. was misusing a marketing agreement between
the two companies to falsify its earnings, the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Wall Street Journal
size='3'>reported today.
size='3'>The Securities and Exchange Commission said that the payment
includes the return of $18 million in improperly earned funds plus $7
million in interest. Motorola,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Schaumburg
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Ill.
without admitting or denying wrongdoing. Under the 2001 agreement,
Adelphia paid money to Motorola that was immediately returned to
Adelphia in the form of marketing support payments. No marketing was
done under the agreement, and Adelphia used the payments to falsify its
earnings in 2000 and 2001, according to the SEC.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117872334587697300.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Re
ad more. (Registration required.)
International
name='9'>Borrowing Binge Fuels
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.K.
size='3'>Economic Worries
As Treasury officials
continue to consider instituting a nationwide financial education
program, personal insolvencies in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>England
size='3'>Wales
size='3'>last year hit a record 107,288, up almost 60 percent from 2005,
the
size='3'>Wall Street Journal reported today.
Insolvencies in the first quarter of 2007 totaled a seasonally adjusted
30,075, up 24 percent from a year ago as the consumer squeeze is
particularly troubling for the British economy. 'We see the potential
for a significant slowdown, primarily via the housing market and the
consumer,' says Danny Gabay, a director at London-based Fathom Financial
Consulting. British banks lost a record $13.6 billion to bad consumer
debt last year and are tightening their lending standards. Market leader
Barclays PLC says it now declines half of all credit card applicants.
Such forced belt-tightening may be working: For the first time since the
early 1990s, credit card spending last year fell by 2.2 percent from the
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117876308206498031.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone'>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
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your email.
size='3'>Akorn Inc., a
w:st='on'>Buffalo
Grove
firm, reported a first quarter net loss of $4.8 million. Revenue
declined 61%–to $11.7 million.
size='3'>Electronic Arts Inc., a
size='3'>Redwood City
maker of videogames, reported a fourth quarter net loss of $25 million,
compared to a $16 million loss a year ago. Revenue declined 4%–to
$613 million. For the year, its net income sank 68%–to $76
million, while revenue rose 5%–to $3.1 billion. The quarter
and year included restructuring charges of $3 million and $15 million
respectively, while the year included another $3 million nonrecurring
charge. Results also included expenses of $24 million for employee stock
options.
size='3'>Gateway Inc., the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Irvine
of personal computers, reported a first quarter net loss of $8.6
million, down from a $12 million loss in the year-earlier period.
Sales fell 6%–to $1 billion. The company added that
personal-computer sales were down 9% in the recent quarter from the
year-earlier period and that results were impacted by lower profit
margins.
size='3'>John B. Sanfilippo & Son Inc.
size='3'>’s stock price sank 12% after the company, reporting a
third quarter loss, revealed that it has violated covenants regarding
its outstanding debt. Sanfilippo is now out of compliance with
certain earnings requirements and with other covenants that cover
certain minimum working capital. In response to its situation, the Elk
Grove, Village, Il. processor of nuts and candies has asked its
creditors for waivers on the noncompliance items. For its third quarter,
Sanfilippo reported a net loss of $6.2 million, up from a $5.9 million
loss a year ago. Sales fell 10%–to $107 million, prompted by the
loss of a big customer.
size='3'>VeriSign Inc., a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Mountain View
Internet security firm, warned that it will incur a $40 million charge
in its first quarter for restructuring. VeriSign explained in a filing
with the Securities and Exchange Commission that half of the charge will
be for workforce changes and the rest for lease-acceleration and charges
for hardware, software and other items. For its first quarter, the
company earlier reported revenue was up 2%–to $379 million, but
the firm failed to provide a completed balance sheet because it is still
going over past financial statements.
size='3'>Warner Music Group Inc., the
Manhattan, N.Y. recorded music company, said that it will trim its
payroll by about 400 positions in a cost-cutting move as it shifts its
business focus to the sale and distribution of digital music. By
the end of this year, Warner Music expects charges will be between $65
million and $85 million related to the restructuring. Also, the company
reported a second quarter net loss of $27 million, compared to a $7
million loss a year ago. The recent results included restructuring
charges of $12 million. Revenue slipped 1.5%–to $784 million,
although sales of digital music jumped 23% in the
quarter.
size='3'>WCI Communities Inc., a
size='3'>Bonita
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>Springs
builder of condominiums and single-family homes, reported a first
quarter net loss of $15.8 million. Revenue declined 40%–to $341
million.