Embattled rare-earths company Molycorp Inc. wants to keep elements of its chapter 11 plan secret, including financial projections and valuation analyses prepared by its advisers, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The request to seal information “temporarily” covers voting materials prepared for creditors entitled to cast ballots on Molycorp’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy. Molycorp filed for chapter 11 protection in June, its prospects diminished by a change in Chinese trade policy that sent rare-earths prices plunging. Rare earths are elements used in small amounts in consumer electronics. On Dec. 8, Molycorp is scheduled to ask a bankruptcy judge to approve voting materials on a chapter 11 plan that provides for a variety of possible outcomes of its restructuring. However, Molycorp says that it can’t disclose fundamental financial information until after the judge signs off on the voting materials.
The U.S. Trustee Program (USTP) on Nov. 10 published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) seeking public comment on the proposed rules requiring uniform periodic reports by debtors-in-possession or trustees in non-small business cases under chapter 11 and the proposed periodic report forms. After analyzing the comments to the NPRM and proposed forms, and because certain public commenters asked to meet with representatives of the USTP to discuss the NPRM and proposed forms, the USTP decided to hold a public hearing on Feb. 17, 2016, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET in the Executive Conference Center in the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees in Washington, DC. The hearing on the NPRM will provide an opportunity for interested parties to express their views directly to USTP officials. The USTP has also reopened the comment period and will accept new and supplemental comments from the public on or before Feb. 22, 2016, via www.regulations.gov. But those who register to attend and make a presentation at the public hearing must have either a written comment or statement on file by the registration deadline of Jan. 6, 2016. For more information, please click here.
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Litigation funding firm Bentham IMF's announcement on Monday that it will throw its money behind the launching of new practice groups and attorney recruiting at law firms represents another breakdown in the traditional wall between third-party investors and firms, Law360 reported. Along with portfolio investments in related cases and closer partnerships with plaintiffs firms, the New York-based Bentham said the assembled investments and business model “could signal a new model for litigation risk-sharing.” Following the recent partnership between Burford Capital LLC and antitrust plaintiffs firm Hausfeld LLP in a Germany venture, Washington and Lee University assistant law professor Victoria Sahani said the litigation finance industry is moving in the “inevitable” direction of investing in entire law firms in return for a cut of verdicts or settlements. “This looks like one step closer to one of these groups being a full investor,” said Sahani, an adviser to the Alliance for Responsible Consumer Legal Funding, an advocacy group promoting “sensible” regulation for the emerging litigation funding industry.
Most of the official bankruptcy forms are being replaced with revised, reformatted, and renumbered forms, effective Dec. 1, Bloomberg BNA’s Bankruptcy Law Reporter reported yesterday. The new forms are part of a modernization project that began in 2008, to improve the official bankruptcy forms and the interface between the forms and available technology. Due to its scope, the process took seven years, rather than the typical two-year cycle, Prof. Elizabeth Gibson of the University of North Carolina School of Law, Chapel Hill, N.C., said Nov. 16 at a webinar sponsored by ABI. According to Gibson, the process involved bankruptcy and district court judges, bankruptcy clerks, a bankruptcy administrator, and representatives of the U.S. Trustee Program. The Bankruptcy Rules Committee also retained a professional forms consultant to assist in the project. Read more.
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Oaktree Capital Management LP is close to hiring AlixPartners LLP to advise on its efforts to take over Quiksilver Inc., Bloomberg News reported yesterday. As Quiksilver’s primary lender, Oaktree has the inside track on buying the company. However, the surf-wear retailer, which filed for bankruptcy in September, also contacted potential private-equity buyers. Authentic Brands Group is actively looking at the assets. Sycamore Partners, which controls Jones Group Inc., is among firms that spoke to the company, but it passed on a bid.