ABI Bankruptcy Blog Exchange » WSJ.com: Bankruptcy Beat

WSJ.com: Bankruptcy Beat (10)

Law Firms Get $30M For Work On ABFS Case

Posted: November 20th, 2009, 2:37pm PST

Bloomberg News
The lawyers are gobbling away at the $100 million settlement reached in the American Business Financial Services case. Two law firms that sued on behalf of creditors this week won a $30 million contingent fee award for their work.

Now Law Debenture Trust Co. of New York and Wells Fargo Bank are badgering Chapter 7 trustee George Miller for their piece of the action - $27.6 million.

To be fair, Law Debenture and Wells Fargo presumably want to dish out some of the money to holders of $97 million worth of ABFS notes. They are, after all, trustees for that group of bondholders. So far, the faithful servants of the bondholders have received a mere $2.7 million out of the lawsuit settlements, and that all went to the fees and expenses of the trustees, their attorneys and agents.

The indenture trustees ran up some impressive legal bills in American Business Financial’s case, because Miller sued them for allegedly being paid off to stand silent while Greenwich Capital visited a ruinous Chapter 11 loan on the company at a time when it was already gurgling down the drain.
Blixseth Furniture, Antiques Up For Grabs

Posted: November 20th, 2009, 10:04am PST

Associated Press
If your decorating tastes fall somewhere between a giant cowboy-boot armchair and a pair of antique dining-room cabinets that once stood in a French chateau, there should be plenty to choose from at this Saturday’s auction of the furnishings that used to fill the rooms of Tim and Edra Blixseth’s massive private residence at the luxury ski and golf club the couple founded.

The circa-1930 pair of American Oak telephone booths and the Biedermeier-style maple gentlemen’s dressing cabinet from 1910 were acquired in better days: before the Blixseths’ bitter divorce, before their Yellowstone Mountain Club filed for bankruptcy and was sold to the highest bidder, before Edra Blixseth herself filed for bankruptcy and was ordered to sell her assets to pay off her nearly $160 million in debts. That’s why the more-than 800 pieces are going on the block at Kamelot Auction House in Philadelphia on Saturday, giving bidders a chance to raise their paddles for a piece of the Blixseths’ former high life.

You can view photographs of all the goods up for grabs on Kamelot’s website, where it’s evident that although Blixseth wasn’t necessarily bound by a specific style or decorative era, her tastes could certainly be defined as extravagant and unique. The club’s Montana location is evident in the bunk bed frame decked in cowhide, the mounted longhorn steer horns and a life-size figure of an American Indian “in traditional garb.” And the Blixseths’ French chateau no doubt inspired the selection of a Louis XV-style parlor set of chairs and settee and a circa-1890 French giltwood bed.
The Daily Docket: General Growth Inks Mortgage Deal

Posted: November 20th, 2009, 6:35am PST

Mall owner General Growth Properties Inc. has reached a deal to restructure $8.9 billion of mortgages on 77 malls, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Paulson & Co. obtained court permission to pay Idearc Inc.’s creditors cash for shares of the reorganized company after the hedge fund increased its valuation of the directory publisher by $60 million. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review story here.

A labor union wants Station Casinos’ founding Fertitta family and other insiders that profited from the company’s buyout to make “significant equity investments” to help the company emerge from bankruptcy protection, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.

GSI Group Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after reaching a restructuring deal with its noteholders, WSJ reports.

Executives at Freedom Communications Inc. are defending the company’s bankruptcy-exit plan, which has been criticized by a former chief executive as “wicked and immoral,” according to the Orange County Register.

Flying J Inc., which sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year, has agreed to sell its insurance subsidiary, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

More than 100 Chrysler Group LLC U.S. dealerships may be shut down if they can’t reach new financing deals with GMAC Financial Services or another lender, Reuters reports, via ABC News.

SemGroup LP is trying to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by the end of the month, according to the Tulsa World.
Creditors Set Sights on Sun Capital, Salford Capital in MIG Money Hunt

Posted: November 19th, 2009, 2:28pm PST

Edward Spencer-Churchill, second son of the Duke of Marlborough, took the stand in a Delaware bankruptcy court Wednesday for a fast game of “find-the-money” with the Chicago lawyers representing creditors of Metromedia International Group Inc., or MIG.

He lost.

The ponytailed Sun Capital Partners Ltd. director bobbed and weaved under questioning by Baker & McKenzie’s Shima Roy, who asked over and over whether he could tell creditors how much cash is stored up at a Magticom Ltd.

Magticom is the leading mobile phone service in the Republic of Georgia. It’s also where the money in MIG, if there is any, comes from. MIG’s business, you see, is owning 46% of the company that owns 100% of Magticom.

Cash is not really the thing, Spencer-Churchill said. Working capital, surplus cash, that’s the thing a business needs to know. And it’s a tough number to get to, Spencer-Churchill said. Elusive, in fact.

Or not so much. In the end, Judge Kevin Gross noted it would behoove MIG to file the reports it is supposed to file, which will tell creditors where the cash is.

Owed some $220 million, MIG’s creditors are intent on following the money. It’s not easy, creditor attorney Carmen Lonstein told Gross. Even with a magnifying glass, she found no sign of cash in MIG’s Chapter 11 plan.

What Lonstein has spotted, however, is a poison pill that will allow MIG’s owners to wipe out all the value in the company if the equity stakeholders find themselves with no stake. Chapter 11 101, of course, is that when a company is out of money, creditors take all, and they take it first and foremost from the equity stakeholders.

Who are MIG’s equity stakeholders?

Sun Capital, where Spencer-Churchill works, and Salford Capital, which put up money from Badri Patarkatsishvili, who made billions after the collapse of the Soviet Union and died in 2008, the richest man in Georgia.

MIG says the alleged pill is a valuable protective device for the enterprise, not a booby trap. The Chapter 11 offer of debt is a good-faith effort to make nice with creditors from a company that is very busy with business.

Lonstein noted MIG’s U.S. business operates largely out of a “10-foot-by-10-foot office” in North Carolina, “with a maximum occupancy of one.”

Expect the plot to thicken in December, when creditors and MIG are scheduled for a return bout before Gross.
Former Car Salesman Denny Hecker Held In Contempt

Posted: November 19th, 2009, 1:25pm PST

The fallen former car salesman who is undergoing a federal grand jury investigation has recently gotten into even more trouble.

Denny Hecker, whose Advantage Rent A Car chain filed for bankruptcy last December and who himself filed for bankruptcy in June, was held in contempt of court Wednesday for not turning over his financial records in a timely manner.

According to the Star-Tribune, Judge Robert Kressel of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis had given Hecker until Monday to produce documents including bank records, wire transfers and tax records that has been requested by his bankruptcy trustee. Hecker attorney Bill Skolnick said he was doing the best job he could under the circumstances of Hecker’s difficult bankruptcy case, 12 lawsuits and his divorce. The number of documents requested and the costs that come with copying records and thousands of emails also caused the delay, Skolnick said.

But Kressel wasn’t buying it. “The order is the order, and you have to comply with it and should have,” he said. “Standing there now saying it’s complicated is not much of an excuse.”

Hecker, who once owned fake Rolexes and a pair of German shepherds worth $30,000 each, filed for bankruptcy protection in June with $767 million in debt. Last month, the St. Paul Pioneer Press published a two-part series chronicling the rise and fall of the salesman who had acquired more than 200 businesses in his career.
The Daily Docket: GAO Issues Pension Report

Posted: November 19th, 2009, 6:53am PST

The Government Accountability Office says top executives at four companies that jettisoned their employee pension plans received $49.5 million in retirement and severance benefits in the years before the companies filed for bankruptcy, USA Today reports.

Taylor-Wharton International LLC, a manufacturer of bulk and portable cryogenic storage units, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Wednesday after reaching a restructuring deal with its creditors.

Reader’s Digest creditors are lining up against the magazine’s restructuring and say they’re eyeing a possible lawsuit over the $2.4 billion buyout of the company by Ripplewood Holdings in 2007. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review story here.

Greektown Casino’s chief marketing executive left her post this week after deciding to withdraw an application for licensure by the Michigan Gaming Control Board, according to the Detroit News.

A bankruptcy judge has agreed to hear arguments on whether to reject a profit-sharing agreement related to Maryland’s two thoroughbred tracks slated to be auctioned early next year, the Baltimore Sun reports.

If creditors get their way, Solomon Dwek, the government informant behind this summer’s sweeping federal corruption and money laundering sting in New Jersey, will stop getting the $12,800 monthly allowance paid out of the assets of his bankrupt real estate empire, the Star-Ledger reports.
Erickson Resists Call For Patient-Care Ombudsman

Posted: November 18th, 2009, 2:20pm PST

Erickson Retirement Communities touts “on-campus medical centers” and board-certified physicians on its Web site, but the operator of senior-living centers told a bankruptcy court that it doesn’t provide medical care to its residents.

Erickson is resisting calls to appoint a patient-care ombudsman in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, claiming it’s “not a healthcare business.”

The U.S. Trustee, the government’s bankruptcy watchdog, asked a judge to appoint an ombudsman last month. A 2005 law requires courts to appoint a patient representative in health-care bankruptcy cases.

Erickson claims it’s exempt from the law because separate nonprofit organizations operate its campuses and provides medical care to residents.

The nonprofits are the “licensed healthcare operators of the communities,” Erickson said in court papers filed Tuesday.

The company also said it should be exempt because only about 10% of its residents reside in assisted-living or skilled-nursing facilities, and none of its communities offer health-care services to the general public.

Those claims seem to run counter to Erickson’s advertising. Its Web site features testimonial videos that feature residents raving about Erickson’s medical facilities and doctors.

“The medical center is great,” said Erickson resident Joan McGrath. “Say it’s snowing outside, and you’re not feeling well, you just go downstairs to the doctor.”
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em

Posted: November 18th, 2009, 11:16am PST

Arena Football League, which canceled its 2009 season and filed for bankruptcy protection, is now seeking to sell itself to a rival professional indoor football league, which AFL happened to sue just last month for alleged trademark violation.

AFL’s shift to viewing rival league Arena Football One LLC as a friend, not a foe, took place within the span of a month. On Oct. 6, AFL sued Arena Football One in bankruptcy court, seeking to enjoin the rival league from using any of its trademarks or other intellectual property. At the time, Arena Football One had recently announced its formation, as well as the news that several former AFL teams had agreed to join its ranks and that several others were in negotiations to do so. According to AFL, the rival league violated trademark protection by picking a name that was very close to its own and by allowing the defecting teams to keep the names they had as AFL members.

Arena Football One didn’t have nice words for AFL, either. According to the Associated Press, the new league’s commissioner, Jerry Kurz, didn’t hold back from criticizing AFL.

“There has been arena football before,” said Kurz, a former commissioner of AFL offshoot arenafootball2. “It’s been done well but not as good as it’s going to be done this time.”

Yet on Nov. 6, the leagues changed their tunes. AFL notified the Chicago bankruptcy court that it hoped to sell most of its assets to Arena Football One for $2.5 million, subject to higher bids at a Nov. 25 auction. The deal, AFL said, was in the best interests of it and its creditors. And court papers show that a bankruptcy judge Tuesday approved Arena Football One’s bid as the floor price for AFL’s assets.

AFL filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Aug. 26, several weeks after creditors tried to force it into Chapter 7 liquidation. The filing followed AFL’s decision to cancel what would have been its 23rd consecutive season in 2009 amid financial troubles tied to the labor agreements covering its union workers. The league had hoped to resume play in 2010.
The Daily Docket: Trump Backs Down

Posted: November 18th, 2009, 6:36am PST

Donald Trump abandoned his bid to regain control of the New Jersey casinos that bear his name, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Fontainebleau Las Vegas Holdings LLC wants to sell its stalled hotel-and-casino project to an affiliate of Penn National Gaming Inc. for $50 million in cash, plus the assumption of various liabilities, pending higher bids at a bankruptcy court-supervised auction. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review story here.

Shopping-mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. is considering a bid for General Growth Properties Inc., according to Bloomberg.

A Birmingham, Ala., businessman is challenging local political and business leaders to rally around his plan for Jefferson County to avoid bankruptcy, the Birmingham Business Journal reports.

The curators of failed Dutch bank DSB expect the bankruptcy process to last up to 10 years, according to Reuters.

The cost of insuring the debt of Residential Capital LLC, the mortgage-lending arm of GMAC, indicates an acute level of distress, WSJ reports.

A federal appeals court has halted the auction of Philadelphia Newspapers LLC’s assets until Dec. 15, when it will decide if the company’s lenders have the right to credit bid the more than $300 million they’re owed for the newspaper publisher, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Trouble in Paradise

Posted: November 17th, 2009, 2:30pm PST

Waves from last year’s Wall Street collapse have found their way down to a tiny island off the coast of Florida.

Amelia Island Plantation, a luxury resort boasting ocean-view accommodations, a private beach club and an AAA four-diamond rating, filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, blaming the recession for putting a damper on its business. The resort used to turn a profit by luring companies to its 49,000 square feet conference center – and luring vacationers with disposable income to burn. But in court papers, Amelia Island Plantation said it has seen a huge drop off in demand, with annual revenues dropping to an estimated $57 million from $75 million in 2007.

No longer are patrons flocking to its four 18-hole golf courses, holistic spa and 23-court tennis complex – leaving Amelia Island Plantation in the same pinch that luxury getaways like West Virginia’s Greenbrier resort have felt recently.

Still, the resort came to bankruptcy court prepared (perhaps a lesson learned during its first bankruptcy proceeding in the late 1970s.) Prior to entering Chapter 11, it negotiated a deal with a group of investors that will allow it to sustain operations and restructure its debt, according to First Coast News. The investor group is composed of 22 business people who also all happen to be homeowners on the island.