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April 5, 2007
name='1'>Bankruptcy Filings Surged in First Quarter
Data from Jupiter
eSources LLC showed that business bankruptcy filings rose 60 percent and
consumer filings increased by 70 percent in the first three months of
2007 compared to the similar period last year, the Associated Press
reported yesterday. Jupiter’s AACER database reports that overall
daily filing averages have climbed by 26 percent since January. On
average, 3,316 cases were filed each day last month. AACER categorizes
consumer filings differently than the PACER system run by the
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which accounts for slight
number variations. Data shows a steady increase in filings so far in
2007, with about 50,000 cases filed in January, 55,000 in February and
more than 73,000 in March. 'The next boom here is coming, but probably
not until late 2007 at the earliest,' said ABI Executive Director
Samuel Gerdano
size='3'>. The week before the new bankruptcy law took effect in October
2005, an onslaught of 500,000 consumers raced to file a daily average of
70,000 filings, according to ABI. 'That surge exhausted a lot of the
demand for bankruptcy,' said ABI Resident Scholar
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Lois R. Lupica
size='3'>. 'But the exhausted demand is expiring.'
href='http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070404/bankruptcy_filings.html?.v=1&printer=1'>Read
more.
SEC
Votes to Ease Sarbanes-Oxley Rules
The Securities and Exchange
Commission yesterday approved a framework for changes to rules under the
Sarbanes-Oxley anti-fraud law that would ease requirements for companies
and the auditors who pore over their books, the Associated Press
reported yesterday. The vote by the five SEC commissioners was unanimous
in support of building more leeway into the rules, especially those
being written by the independent board that oversees the accounting
industry. The law, enacted in 2002 in response to a number of corporate
and accounting scandals, requires companies to assess the strength of
their internal checks and balances to guard against fraud. The proposed
changes are intended 'to eliminate waste and duplication,' the SEC said.
'These needed improvements in the Sarbanes-Oxley process are especially
urgent for smaller companies,' SEC Chairman Christopher Cox
said.
href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402554.html'>Read
more.
to Fast-Track New Century’s Finance Deal
New Century Financial
Corp. is reportedly set to gain bankruptcy court approval of a
debtor-in-possession finance package that will preserve the value of the
beleaguered subprime lender’s business, Bankruptcy Law360
reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J.
Carey said at a hearing on Tuesday that he
would sign off on an interim order for $150 million in DIP financing
from the CIT Group and Greenwich Capital Financial Products Inc., Dow
Jones reported. New Century has also asked for court approval of the
sale of its servicing assets and of certain loans and interest. A
hearing on the motion is set for April 10.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=21967'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
Additionally, Senate Banking
Committee Chair Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) issued a statement yesterday
regarding New Century Financial Corp.’s bankruptcy filing.
href='http://banking.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Articles.Detail&Article_id=129&Month=4&Year=2007'>Click
here to read the statement.
Autos
name='4'>Shareholders in Dana Bankruptcy Not Likely to Recover
Much
When Dana filed for
chapter 11 protection on March 3, 2006, it listed $7.9 billion in assets
and $6.8 billion in debts, and initially it appeared that shareholders
may get some return, but it is looking less likely that will be the case
as the company readies its reorganization plan, the
w:st='on'>Toledo
(
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Ohio
size='3'>) Blade reported today. By the end
of last year, the company's shareholder equity was negative $834
million. Dana said that the stock's value after the company emerges from
bankruptcy will depend on the company's financial position. Shares
continue to trade, but could be canceled without compensation under
Dana's organization plan that is scheduled to be released in September.
Shareholders are the 'last in line' to receive compensation during a
bankruptcy, and Dana officials apparently think there will not be enough
money to make the required payments in full to other creditors,
said Reggie Jackson, ABI president-elect
and a partner with Vorys,
Sater, Seymour and Pease. Unsecured creditors may get shares in a
reorganized Dana in return for their signing off on the firm's
bankruptcy exit plan, and so may firms that finance the
emergence,
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Jackson
said.
href='http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/BUSINESS03/704050344/-1/BUSINESS'>Read
more .
name='5'>Sale of Tower Automotive’s Assets Wins Preliminary
Approval
Tower Automotive Inc. won
the preliminary approval of a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>bankruptcy judge Wednesday to sell its assets to Cerberus
Capital Management LP, though additional bids are still being accepted,
the Detroit Free
Press reported today. Additional bids for the
maker of vehicle frames and suspension components are due by June 20.
Tower said that an auction would be held on June 25 if more companies
are interested in acquiring the assets.
size='3'>Tower’s unsecured creditors’ committee said that it
supports the Cerberus bid, which is about $100 million more than other
companies have been willing to pay.
href='http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070405/BUSINESS01/704050427'>Read
more.
name='6'>Ford Chief Sticking to His Road Map for
Turnaround
Though Ford Motor
Company’s sales continue to fall, CEO Alan R. Mulally insisted
yesterday that he saw no need for deeper cuts beyond those scheduled in
its recovery plan, the
size='3'>New York Times reported yesterday.
Mulally dismissed speculation by some analysts and industry executives
that Ford would require a third round of cuts on top of the two already
announced as part of the program it calls the Way Forward. That strategy
calls for Ford to close 14 factories and to eliminate as many as 44,000
hourly and salaried jobs — or about a third of its work force by
2008. Ford, which lost $12.7 billion in 2006 including charges for its
revamping, does not expect to earn money in
w:st='on'>North
America
announced in January 2006, was expanded and expedited in
September.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/automobiles/05ford.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='7'>St. Vincent Files Lawsuit Against Caritas over
size='3'>Sale
Hospitals
St. Vincent Catholic Medical
Centers has filed a suit against Caritas Health Care
face='Times New Roman'>Planning Inc., alleging it has
failed to comply with the terms for the sale of two
w:st='on'>St.
Vincent
bankrupt medical center's reorganization in peril, Bankruptcy
Law360 reported yesterday. St. Vincent sold
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Mary
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Immaculate
size='3'>Hospital
John’s
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Queens
size='3'>Hospital
on Jan. 1, but the lawsuit filed Monday said that Caritas has not
satisfied the liabilities and obligations it assumed, and that creditors
are starting to file claims against
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>St. Vincent
size='3'>’s estate. The suit says that Caritas plans to sell two
parking garage properties that adjoin the hospitals, which will satisfy
a significant amount of the liabilities.
w:st='on'>St.
Vincent
affiliate of Wyckoff Heights Medical Centers, to be ordered to apply the
sums from the sale, which it believes will be at least $9 million, to
meet the obligations.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=22000'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='8'>Northwest Attendants Press On with Strike
Fight
The union representing
Northwest Airlines Corp. flight attendants intends to call for a review
of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision that
barred the workers from striking against the bankrupt airline,
Bankruptcy Law360
reported yesterday. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of
the Second Circuit sided with Northwest in the employment dispute,
sparked by the bankrupt carrier’s decision to slash $195 million
in annual pay and benefits for its attendants. If the Association of
Flight Attendants’ petition is granted, a majority of the judges
on the Second Circuit would rehear the case, potentially reversing the
earlier decision.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=21974'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='9'>College Officers Profited by
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Sale
Stock
The directors of
financial aid at
size='3'>Columbia
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>University
size='3'>, the
size='3'>University of
size='3'>Texas
w:st='on'>Austin
and the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>University
California
in a student loan company that each of the universities recommends to
student borrowers, and in at least two cases profited greatly,
the New York
Times reported yesterday. The personal stake
of the three university officials in the company, now known as Student
Loan Xpress, is the latest revelation in an expanding investigation by
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of
w:st='on'>
York into the
relationships between student loan companies and universities.
Government filings show that the three officials sold shares in a stock
offering by the parent company of Student Loan Xpress in 2003 and held
additional stock options in the company, known as Education Lending
Group. One of the officials made more than $100,000, according to
documents and lawyers in Cuomo’s office.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/education/05loans.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='10'>Outside Audit Is Promised for
w:st='on'>
Jersey Pension
Fund
New Jersey Governor Jon
S. Corzine said on Wednesday that he would ask independent auditors to
examine state financial records to determine how severely the pension
fund for state and local workers has been jeopardized by underfunding,
the New York
Times reported today. The governor’s
comments, which came during a news conference at the State House, were
made in response to an article in
size='3'>The New York Times on Wednesday that
described how
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>New
Jersey
hundreds of millions of dollars that should have gone into the pension
fund. Corzine said the state government did not have auditors who were
qualified to conduct a thorough examination of the fund, which, with
reported assets of about $79 billion, is the nation’s
ninth-largest public-sector pension fund.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/nyregion/05pension.html?ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='11'>Trust Sued Over Backing Retiree Plan
A lawsuit filed in
federal court in
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Manhattan
last week contends that a retirement plan offered by the
New York State United Teachers breached its fiduciary duty when it
accepted millions of dollars in payments from an investment firm in
exchange for endorsing the firm’s products to plan members,
the New York
Times reported today. The lawsuit, filed as a
class action on behalf of participants in the New York State United
Teachers Member Benefits Trust, taps into a growing concern among
retirement plan participants that excessive fees are enriching
investment firms while diminishing their savings. According to the court
filing, the teachers’ trust exclusively endorsed a high-fee
annuity investment offered by ING Life Insurance and Annuity Company, a
subsidiary of the ING Groep, a Dutch investment firm. In return, ING
reimbursed the trust for salaries of some employees whose jobs were to
promote the company’s products to plan members. “The
excessive costs of the plan compared to lower cost equivalents resulted
in tens of millions of dollars of lost retirement savings” for the
trust’s members, the filing said.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/05erisa.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
International
name='12'>Eni, Enel Win Auction of Yukos Assets
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Italy
size='3'>’s two biggest energy companies, Eni SpA and Enel SpA,
won a contentious auction for assets of bankrupt Russian oil giant Yukos
on Wednesday, and quickly offered to sell the bulk of their newly gained
goods to Russian gas monopoly Gazprom,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.
EniNeftegaz, a joint venture between Eni and Enel, agreed to pay $5.83
billion for a 20 percent stake in gas-producing companies ArcticGaz and
Urengoil as well as other smaller assets. Eni owns 60 percent of the
joint venture, while
size='3'>Enel holds 40 percent. Gazprom was offered the option of buying
a 51 percent interest in Arcticgaz, Urengoil and other Yukos assets
acquired in the auction, Eni said. It also holds an option to buy
EniNeftegaz’s 20 percent holding in Gazprom Neft within the next
two years for $3.7 billion.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/ViewArticle.aspx?Id=21949'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='13'>Asian Finance Officials Look to Possible Capital-Control
Regulations
Asian finance officials
plan to meet in Thailand Thursday, and high on the agenda is looking
into potential controls for the large amounts of capital pouring into
and out of their countries from foreign investors, the
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Wall Street Journal
size='3'>reported today. Capital-control regulations can be
controversial; shares in Thailand fell a record 15 percent in one day
last year after the country slapped controls on moving foreign
investments out of the country. However, analysts say limited
restrictions help prevent high-flying markets from collapsing if
foreigners decide to suddenly pull up stakes, potentially causing
economic damage. Many countries are 'vulnerable to speculators looking
for a fast profit, and that can stoke inflation and inflate bubbles,'
says Gary Kleiman of
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Washington
w:st='on'>
size='3'>D.C.
emerging-markets consulting firm Kleiman International. 'Controls to
prevent that are a legitimate policy tool.'
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117573089510660319.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='14'>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.
Tax Time Special! Now
through April 15, you can receive an annual subscription to the U.S.
Business Journal¹s weekly summary of troubled
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>companies for only $99! Indicate “ABI CODE 27” in
your email.
size='3'>Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc., a
Purchase, N.Y. air-cargo company, agreed to an administrative
cease-and-desist order to settle an investigation by the Securities and
Exchange Commission into its accounting for the period 1999 through
2002. The company, which emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004,
restated results for 2000 and 2001. The firm neither admitted nor denied
any wrongdoing in the matter and the SEC didn’t impose any civil
penalties or fines on Atlas.
size='3'>Bell Industries Inc., an El Segundo,
Ca. provider of computer systems-integration services, reported a fiscal
net loss of $2.9 million. Revenue declined 2%–to $120
million.
size='3'>CIT Group Inc., a seller of
telecommunications software and services, reported a 2006 net loss of
$1.1 million, compared to a profit of $532,000 in the year earlier. The
company cited cutbacks by customers of its data-processing services.
Revenue for 2006 was $12.8 million, down from $15.3 million. CIT Group
added that it anticipates higher software sales this year as a result of
its acquisition over the winter of Ryder Systems.
size='3'>Marvell Technology Group Ltd.,
size='3'>Santa Clara
received a warning from Nasdaq that its stock could be delisted as a
result of failing to file its annual report on time. Marvell has been
looking into its stock-option practices and related accounting
matters.
size='3'>Pinnacle Airlines Corp. announced
that it missed a deadline of 3/31 for reaching a new labor contract with
its pilots, although it hopes to continue negotiations. In a related
matter, Pinnacle said that it could lose as many as seventeen aircraft
that it received from Northwest Airlines Corp. because its aircraft
arrangement with Northwest specifies that Pinnacle reach an agreement
with its pilots by the end of March.
size='3'>SouthStar Funding, a
privately-held
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Atlanta
size='3'>,
size='3'>Ga.
subprime mortgage loans, shut down its operations amid the current
bruising environment in the subprime sector. The company had failed in
its efforts to find a buyer.
size='3'>Transmeta Corp.’s stock price
tumbled 19% after its auditors expressed worries about the
company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The
size='3'>Santa Clara
firm is in the process of restructuring, having trimmed its payroll by
130 employees and eliminating some management positions. Transmeta has
also dropped its engineering services as a separate business line, among
other operations that it has gotten out of. The restructuring, which
will cost the firm up to $14 million, will hopefully reduce costs by as
much as $23 million annually.