Shareholders won’t get an official voice in the bankruptcy of SunEdison Inc. because the company is “hopelessly insolvent,” with debts outweighing assets by at least $1 billion, a bankruptcy judge has ruled, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The decision from Judge Stuart Bernstein followed a court fight aimed at proving the solar-power developer has enough value left to offer hope that shareholders would avoid a wipeout in bankruptcy. Judge Bernstein, who has presided over SunEdison’s chapter 11 case from its start in April, said that it is “substantially unlikely” the company would be able to pay off its debts. Even working with book values on paper and estimates of what asset sales would bring, SunEdison would come up from $1 billion to $2.5 billion short of debts, the judge said. The judge turned down a request for an official committee to represent shareholders in SunEdison’s bankruptcy case, a bid that was driven in part by shock over the rapid decline in value in the company.
