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September 27,
2005
id='1'>Court
OKs Entergy Financing
Entergy New
Orleans, which
filed for bankruptcy protection last week due to severe hurricane
damage in
its service area, yesterday received approval for $100 million in
interim financing
from parent company Entergy Corp., Reuters reported yesterday. The
company had
originally requested $150 million in interim financing. It has asked
the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana to approve a
$200 million
in debtor-in-possession financing from the parent corporation.
href='http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=273361%2B26-Sep-2005%2BRTRS&srch=bankruptcy'>Read
the full story.
id='2'>More
Restrictions on Companies Under BAPCPA
Whether they are
small retail
stores or major publicly traded corporations, businesses will face
more restrictions
when the new bankruptcy law goes into effect Oct. 17, the Associated
Press said
today. The tougher law was one factor that, according to analysts,
Delta Air
Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. considered before filing for
chapter
11 protection from their creditors a month before the law’s
effective date.
Business bankruptcies have actually been falling in recent years amid
an improving
economy, and dropped in 2004 to their lowest level in more than two
decades.
And while they were up 6 percent in the second quarter of 2005 from
the same
period a year earlier, corporate filings are on track to decline again
for the
year as a whole, according to figures from the American Bankruptcy
Institute.
Still, the companies that do seek protection as of Oct. 17 will have a
rougher
time in reorganization, something many still hope to avoid. "I
think there
will be an increase in bankruptcy filings in advance of the
deadline,"
said Samuel Gerdano, executive director of the ABI. "Some
might
be advised that it’s better to deal with the devil they know
than risk the uncertainty
that comes with the new law."
href='http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/business/12739903.htm'>Read
more.
id='3'>Heating
Oil Partners LP Files for Court Protection
Blaming higher fuel
prices,
Heating Oil Partners Income Fund says that operating subsidiary
Heating Oil
Partners LP has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States,
the Canadian
Press reported yesterday. The company also said that the subsidiary
will seek
similar shelter in Canada under the Companies’ Creditors
Arrangement Act, while
operations continue as usual. HOP is one of the largest residential
heating
oil distributors in the United States, serving customers in
Connecticut, Delaware,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York,
Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, Virginia and the District of Columbia. The filings
include HOP
Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of the fund and an 88.1 per cent owner. To
fund
its operations during the restructuring process, the company has
negotiated
a commitment of up to $115 DIP revolving credit from a group of
lenders led
by Bank of America.
id='4'>Tower
Automotive Gets More Time for Chapter 11 Plan
Tower Automotive
Inc. has
been given more time to propose a chapter 11 plan of reorganization
and lobby
creditors for support, according to court papers, the Associated Press
reported
yesterday. An order last week from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
Manhattan extended
to Jan. 27 the auto supplier’s sole right to file a plan, and
its exclusive
solicitation period to March 29. The company said that it needed the
additional
time because of the size and complexity of its case. Tower
Automotive’s exclusive
periods originally were scheduled to end Sept. 30 and Nov. 29.
href='http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw121796_20050926.htm'>Read
more.
id='5'>ThermoView
Files for Chapter 11
Stifled by
declining sales
and mounting debt, ThermoView Industries Inc. has filed for protection
under
chapter 11, the Louisville Business Journal reported yesterday.
According
to the case, which was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western
District
of Kentucky in Louisville, ThermoView has total assets of $3 million
and total
debts of $34 million. About 1,500 people hold the company’s 8.6
million shares
of common stock, which closed yesterday at 25 cents a share, down 3
cents. Eleven
holders have about 1.2 million shares of preferred stock.
href='http://louisville.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2005/09/26/daily11.html?jst=b_ln_hl'>Read
the full story.
id='6'>INTERMET
Readies to Emerge from Chapter 11
INTERMET Corp., a
manufacturer
of cast-metal components, has announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court
for the
Eastern District of Michigan has confirmed its reorganization plan,
the U.K.
Auto Industry reported today. Under the confirmed plan, there are
a number
of conditions that must be satisfied in order for it to become
effective, including
the closing and initial funding of a post-bankruptcy credit facility.
INTERMET
has received a commitment letter from Goldman, Sachs & Co. with
respect
to this facility, and is in the process of negotiating a definitive
credit facility.
INTERMET expects that it will enter into the post-bankruptcy credit
facility,
satisfy the other plan conditions and emerge from chapter 11 next
month.
id='7'>Durango
Georgia Paper Bankruptcy Estate Auction Held
Bridge Associates,
LLC, through
Anthony Schnelling, a principal of the firm acting as the Trustee for
the Durango
Georgia Paper bankruptcy estate, yesterday announced that the auction
to acquire
the assets held by the Bankruptcy Estate of Durango Georgia Paper
Company will
be conducted on December 6, 2005, at 10:00 a.m. at the Amelia Island
Plantation,
6800 First Coast Hwy., Amelia Island, Fla., PRNewswire reported
yesterday.
href='http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-26-2005/0004131685&EDATE'>Read
the full story.
Airlines
id='8'>Aloha
Airlines Parent Seeks Way Out of Bankruptcy
The parent company
of Aloha
Airlines is looking to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of the year,
the Associated
Press reported Friday. Aloha Airgroup Inc. says that it has signed a
letter
of intent with two Los Angeles-based private equity firms looking to
make “a
substantial equity investment.” David Banmiller would continue
as president
and CEO of the reorganized company. He says that under the agreement,
Yucaipa
Companies and Aloha Aviation Investment Group would invest more than
$100 million.
Banmiller says that the long-time owners of Aloha would continue to
have ownership
interest. Aloha filed for chapter 11 last December.
id='9'>Delta
Retirees Seek Official Committee Status
About 28,000 Delta
Air Lines
Inc. retirees asked a judge for permission to participate in the
company’s bankruptcy
in a bid to protect their pensions and health benefits as the No. 3
U.S. carrier
reorganizes, Bloomberg News reported Sunday. The Delta Air Lines
Retirement
Committee, a group that doesn’t include pilots, asked U.S.
Bankruptcy Judge
Prudence Carter Beatty to authorize the formation of an
official panel
to represent members’ interests. Official committees are usually
involved in
restructuring negotiations and day-to-day matters of a bankruptcy
case. Beatty
will consider the request next month. Delta informed the retiree group
that
it won’t make a $135 million contribution to its defined benefit
plan in October,
the committee said in papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
New York.
The airline also said that it will cut medical benefits to the
retirees, the
group said in court documents.
href='http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zdelta24sep24,0,6335357.story?coll=sfla-business-front'>Read
more.
id='10'>NWA
Officials Seek to Keep Bonuses
Northwest Airlines
is asking
the bankruptcy court to approve millions of dollars in bonuses to a
handful
of executives, KARE 11 News in Minneapolis reported today. This
request comes
as the airline is laying off workers and asking the rest for deep pay
cuts.
The airline wants executives to be allowed to retain their incentive
plans,
which are worth $20 million. According to papers filed in bankruptcy
court,
Northwest says that continuation of the incentive plans is
"critical to
Northwest’s ability to remain a competitive employer and to
avoid a potential
loss of employees." A Northwest spokesman said that the executive
incentives
are "previously existing obligations" that managers have
come to expect,
and taking them away means that some managers might quit their jobs.
href='http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=108062'>Read
more.