A major hurdle facing Hawker Beechcraft in its effort to restructure and emerge from chapter 11 protection is the sale of the company's inventory of the Hawker 4000 series plane, AINonline.com reported yesterday. The hearing date for the company's request for court approval of the sale is now set for December 11, following a decision last week by Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein to deny the company's request for an expedited hearing and sale. Hawker Beechcraft said that it expects the sale of approximately 20 Hawker 4000s "will be at a substantial discount."
Hostess Brands Inc. said that it has received a "flood" of interest for its brands and assets since announcing its liquidation last week, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported yesterday. At a Nov. 21 hearing, Hostess attorney Heather Lennox of Jones Day said that Hostess may seek court permission within the next several weeks to sell specific assets, with plans to test any offers at auctions "a few weeks after" filing such motions.
Consulting company Monitor Co. Group LP received bankruptcy court approval of rules to govern an auction of its assets but delayed the auction date until January at the request of the unsecured creditors' committee, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. Monitor Co. filed for chapter 11 protection on Nov. 7 with an offer from a subsidiary of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. for $116.2 million plus some assumed liabilities. That offer will kick off an auction now scheduled for Jan. 9.
Ally Financial's international operations are about to find a new home -- with the lender's former parent, General Motors, the New York Times DealBook reported on Wednesday. Ally agreed to sell its European and Latin American businesses, as well as a share of a joint venture in China, to GM's financial arm for about $4.2 billion. The sale is the latest effort by Ally to raise money to help pay back its government bailouts, made to help prop up a company struggling under the weight of souring mortgages. The Obama administration pumped money into the firm as part of its bailout of the auto industry in 2009.
A bankruptcy judge has cleared HMX Group to sell Coppley Corp., its men's clothing brand in Canada, to Tennessee-based suit maker Tom James Co., Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Allan L. Gropper on Friday signed off on the $3.5 million sale to Tom James, which is buying the Canadian unit through an entity called Very Best Apparel Corp.
Residential Capital LLC won bankruptcy court approval to sell its mortgage servicing unit to Ocwen Financial Corp. for $3 billion after putting off a fight with loan investors and resolving other objections, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn said that he will sign an order as early as today approving the sale after the company works out the final wording with creditors. The ruling comes after ResCap resolved the main objections from the servicing unit's biggest customers, including mortgage- owners Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ResCap will continue negotiating with Fannie Mae and other mortgage holders over their demands for cure payments, cash payments that compensate creditors for actual and potential losses caused by a bankruptcy filing.
The union that brought the 85-year-old baker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread to its knees is holding out hope that a buyer will salvage chunks of the company and send the union's members back to work, even as Hostess Brands Inc. gears up for a fire sale, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Hostess, the company behind treats snacked on for generations, is poised today to present to a federal bankruptcy judge a plan to shut down 36 plants and sell off the company's business. The liquidation was sparked by a nationwide strike orchestrated by the snack maker's second-largest union, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers. While Hostess has said that the shutdown would result in the loss of more than 18,000 jobs and place the fate of more than 30 American brands in jeopardy, union President Frank Hurt said he believed there was "more than a good chance" that a buyer quickly would swoop in to buy the profitable parts of the company and give his union's members their jobs back. Read more. (Subscription required.) http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB100014241278873236229045781272812…
In related news, Hostess Brands Inc. may attract bids for its brands from rival Flowers Foods Inc. and private equity firm C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. in a liquidation the company estimates will take about a year, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. The 82-year-old maker of Hostess CupCakes, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos said on Friday that it would fire more than 18,000 employees and go out of business after a weeklong strike by its bakers’ union. Metropoulos, owner of Pabst Brewing Co., said that it may bid for Hostess's "iconic brands." Flowers, maker of Nature’s Own bread and Tastykake snacks, could pursue some of its rival's assets to expand its geographic reach and fill existing territory, wrote William Chappell, an analyst with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-11-17/hostess-seen-attracting-…
The Solyndra solar panel factory will be sold for $90.2 million to Seagate Technology, following a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge's approval yesterday of the sale of the cavernous plant, the Oakland (Calif.) Tribune reported. Seagate intends to use the cavernous plant for some of its Bay Area operations. The purchase price is 70 percent below the $300 million cost of construction of the building, as detailed in bankruptcy court records.
Hedge fund manager Man Group has sold claims to the estate of defunct U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in a $456 million deal, Reuters reported today. Hutchinson Investors, managed by hedge fund firm Baupost Group, is buying the portfolio at a 32 percent premium to its June 30 valuation, Man Group said today. Man Group acquired the claims for $355 million in July 2011 from funds managed by its GLG Partners subsidiary. It has never disclosed the size of the original claims. GLG was one of hundreds of hedge fund and asset managers which had outstanding trades with Lehman that collapsed along with the bank in 2008.
New Energy Corp. laid out plans to auction off its struggling 70-acre ethanol plant in South Bend, Ind., to pay off its biggest debt: a $33 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. Executives at New Energy, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 9, proposed to hold an auction on Jan. 29 for the plant, which can produce 100 million gallons of ethanol a year from corn.
