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June 26, 2007
SEC
Commissioners to Testify at House Hearing
In the latest sign
Congress is turning a skeptical eye toward Wall Street, the House
Financial Services Committee will hear testimony from all five
commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today
– the first time that has happened in at least 10 years,
the Wall Street
Journal reported today. Among the topics to be
discussed at today's hearing are corporate governance, the SEC's
enforcement policy, shareholder lawsuits, hedge funds and a provision of
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act dealing with reporting corporate earnings.
Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) plans to ask the commissioners
about an abusive kind of short selling, known as naked short selling. In
a regular short sale, an investor borrows stock in hopes that the share
price will drop so the investor can use lower-price shares to replace
the borrowed ones, locking in a profit. In a naked short sale, which is
almost always illegal, the investor never borrows the stock.
href='http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118282007138747889.html?mod=us_business_whats_news'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
href='http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/ht062607.shtml'>Click
here for more information and to watch on today’s hearing via
Webcast at 2 p.m. ET.
Also, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing titled
“Ending Mortgage Abuse: Safeguarding Homebuyers” today
at 2:30 pm.
href='http://banking.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&HearingID=268'>Click
here for more information.
Autos
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>
name='2'>Delphi
size='3'> Workers May Give Up Their Layoff-Pay
Benefit
Unionized workers
at
size='3'>Delphi
supplier, could vote this week to throw out the jobs bank, a longtime
program that lets them continue receiving most of their pay after being
laid off, the New York
Times reported today. If so, the jobs bank,
which critics call the epitome of the American auto industry’s
inefficient labor practices, could be in its last months at the
three
size='3'>Detroit
size='3'>automakers. Elimination of the jobs bank is one provision of a
tentative agreement signed last week by the United Automobile Workers
union, Delphi and
size='3'>Delphi’s former parent,
General Motors, after nearly two years of divisive negotiations. In
place of the jobs bank, which gives the laid-off employees 95 percent of
their base pay, the agreement would provide $1,500 in severance pay for
every month of service, to a maximum of $40,000, according to a 46-page
memorandum detailing the deal.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/business/26auto.html?pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='3'>Creditors’
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Committee
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>Backs
size='3'>Tower
Plan
Tower Automotive Corp.'s
unsecured creditors’ committee urged all the unsecured creditors
in the case to accept the company's chapter 11 plan in a letter on
Friday, Bankruptcy
Law360 reported yesterday. Under the plan,
Tower's assets will be sold to an acquisition company at the end of
July, which will put the assets in trusts set up to liquidate them. The
plan sets out an order of priority for distributing the assets to the
company's creditors. The reorganization plan calls for the assumption of
the company’s pension plan and for secured claims to be paid in
full. The company’s stockholders would receive no distribution
under the proposed plan. A bankruptcy judge approved the plan on June 5.
A final vote on the plan is set for July 6, and a confirmation hearing
for July 11, according to court papers.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=27732'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='4'>Amp'd, Verizon Wireless Reach Network Access
Deal
Verizon Wireless and
Amp’d Mobile Inc. have reached a settlement that will allow
Amp’d to receive the financial backing that will see it through
chapter 11 proceedings,
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.
Under the settlement, Verizon Wireless will rescind the network
termination letter it sent to Amp’d on June 1, and Amp’d and
its lender, Kings Road Investments Ltd., will drop their pending law
suits against Verizon Wireless. Amp’s and Kings Road were seeking
a court order barring Verizon Wireless from kicking Amp’d off its
network. The proposed settlement will allow Amp’d to provide
uninterrupted mobile network access to its customers while under
bankruptcy protection. Additionally, Amp’d will also be able to
gain funding from lenders to help it maintain its business operations
during the chapter 11 proceedings.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/Secure/ViewArticle.aspx?id=27724'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='5'>Goldman Sachs Ordered to Turn over Enron
Docs
Enron Corp.'s creditors
have prevailed in a discovery battle with Goldman Sachs & Co. after
the judge granted them a motion to compel Goldman Sachs to turn over
documents related to over $1 billion worth of transfers that Enron made
under the name 'Project Truman,'
size='3'>Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday.
Project Truman was a financial advisory project undertaken by Enron and
Goldman Sachs between August and December 2001. The Truman Project
materials were being sought to determine if and how the advisory
dealings between Goldman Sachs and Enron might have had an impact on the
commercial paper transactions at issue in the suit. Between Oct. 26 and
November 6, 2001, Enron transferred over $1 billion to Goldman Sachs and
other defendants, according to court documents. The suit names a slew of
defendants, including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.,
Merrill Lynch Investment Managers L.P. and Citibank NA.
href='http://bankruptcy.law360.com/secure/ViewArticle.aspx?Id=27716'>Read
more. (Registration required.)
name='6'>Commentary: Private Equity Investors Hint at Cool
Down
After years of large
private equity deals, investors in the debt that supports these
transactions have begun to push back at several prominent transactions,
the New York
Times reported today. Rising interest rates
and tougher terms from investors may signal that private equity players
will soon be struggling to continue reaping the outsize returns that
have made the buyout business so lucrative. Already a raft of bond
offerings for recently announced deals, including the $7.75 billion
buyout of Thomson Learning and the $7.1 billion deal for U.S.
Foodservice, have been scaled back after facing resistance from
investors. This week, two other buyouts, the $4.7 billion deal for
ServiceMaster and the $6.9 billion sale of Dollar General, are expected
to price their bonds, and they may serve as an important barometer for a
series of even larger deals to sell bonds to investors this
summer.
href='http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/business/26place.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=print'>Read
more.
name='7'>Bankrupt Music Mogul Extradited Back to
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
The creator of the
Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync should return to
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Florida
two weeks to face bank fraud charges, the Associated Press reported
yesterday. Lou Pearlman had been detained in the
size='3'>U.S.
w:st='on'>
size='3'>territory
size='3'>Guam
being expelled by Indonesian authorities earlier this month. He was
charged with one count of bank fraud in a criminal complaint filed in
March and unsealed after his arrest. Pearlman is accused of fraudulently
securing about $20 million in loans for himself and his companies using
bogus financial documents from a fake accounting firm. He also faces a
number of civil complaints, and his assets have been liquidated in two
bankruptcy cases.
Two
Banker Associations to Merge By End of Year
A merger of the American
Bankers Association and
w:st='on'>
size='3'>America
size='3'>'s Community Bankers has been approved by the two groups'
boards, with a goal of completing the deal by the end of the
year,
size='3'>CongressDaily reported today. The new
entity will keep the American Bankers Association's name and
size='3'>ABA
CEO Ed Yingling will remain in that position. The current president and
CEO of America's Community Bankers, Diane Casey-Landry, will be the new
group's executive vice president and chief operating officer. ABA
Chairman Earl McVicker said the merger would combine the best attributes
of the two organizations, which are both more than 100 years old and
represent banks of all sizes and charter types.
International
name='9'>Bank of
w:st='on'>
size='3'>America
size='3'>Loses $450 Million in Parmalat
Collapse
Bank of America Corp.
said Monday it lost about $450 million from the bankruptcy of Parmalat
SpA after relying on 'fraudulent' statements made by the Italian dairy
company that collapsed under euro14 billion ($18 billion) of debts in
2003, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The U.S.-based bank is
charged with failing to have procedures in place that would have
prevented its employees from allegedly misrepresenting the state of
Parmalat's financial affairs, as alleged in a market-rigging case
against former executives in
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Milan
America represented Parmalat in nearly all of the
w:st='on'>
size='3'>U.S.
size='3'>private placements, according to the indictment. Technical
consultants from the bank were in court on Monday testifying about the
relationship between the bank and Parmalat in the market-rigging case.
Bank of America has maintained that it was unaware of Parmalat's
financial condition and that the bank itself was a victim of the
behavior of Parmalat and its management.
href='http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070625/italy_bank_of_america_parmalat.html?.v=2'>Read
more.
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 ABI member discount
rate is only $250 for an annual subscription.
size='3'>Indicate “ABI CODE 27” in your
email.
size='3'>CoActive Marketing Group Inc.
size='3'>of
face='Times New Roman' size='3'>New York
reported a fourth quarter net loss of $710,000, on a
slight revenue decline–to $19.3 million.
size='3'>Electro-Optical Sciences Inc.,
an
size='3'>Irvington,
w:st='on'>
size='3'>N.Y.
provides devices for the early detection of melanoma to the health care
industry, reported a first quarter net loss of nearly $3
million. This compares with a loss of $2.9
million for the same period one year earlier.
size='3'>FMC Corp., a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Philadelphia
size='3'>Pa.
serves the agricultural and industrial sectors, will close its
size='3'>Baltimore
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Md.
plant by 3/31 as part of its efforts to reduce expenses.
FMC will take as much as $135 million in charges as a
result of the closing.
size='3'>General Motors Corp., the
troubled
face='Times New Roman'
size='3'>Detroit
which is trying to reduce expenses, reported it will sell 20,000 fewer
vehicles to rental firms in June, affecting its overall sales for the
month.
size='3'>Limited Brands Inc., the Columbus,
Oh. retailer which is disposing of its Limited and Express clothing
chains, is reducing its workforce by 500 employees (10% of the workers
at its corporate and brand home offices).
size='3'>The move is part of its attempt to not only focus on its
size='3'>Bath and Body Works and
size='3'>Victoria’s
Secret operations but to save $100 million.
size='3'>Limited Brands, which only last month agreed to sell a
two-thirds stake in its Express chain to affiliates of Golden Gate
Capital for $548 million, also reported it would take on more than $1.2
billion in new debt to fund a share-repurchase
program.
size='3'>RF Monolithics Inc., the Dallas, Tx.
firm which makes low power components for wireless transmission
purposes, reported a third quarter net loss of $1.4 million, on a 9%
revenue decline–to $13.4 million. The
loss included charges of nearly $510,000.
size='3'>Xcel Energy Inc., a
w:st='on'>
size='3'>Minneapolis
utility holding company which distributes electricity and natural gas,
said that it reached a tentative agreement with the Internal Revenue
Service to pay about $64 million, or $56 million after taxes, to settle
claims over certain insurance policies going back as far as
1993. Xcel expects to chalk up a loss of
between $35 million and $40 million this year as a result of the
settlement.