Thursday January 15, 7:07 pm Eastern Time
Marvel trustee says at least 6 parties interested
By Rita Farrell
WILMINGTON, Del., Jan 15 (Reuters) - The trustee appointed last month in the Marvel Entertainment Group Inc (NYSE:MRV - news) bankruptcy case has been approached by at least six possible bidders for the company, according to a statement made in a court hearing on Thursday.
An attorney for trustee John Gibbons told Judge Roderick McKelvie of the U.S. District Court in Delaware that Gibbons had been ''contacted by no fewer than six interested parties that might be interested in proposing a (reorganization) plan or getting in on'' any plan to auction the comic book publisher.
Two reorganization plans have already been filed with the court. One, by investor Carl Icahn's High River LP and Westgate International LP, was submitted before Icahn and the Marvel board he controlled were displaced by the trustee in December.
The second, a plan by Toy Biz Inc (NYSE:TBZ - news), apparently has the support, for now, of Chase Manhattan Bank (NYSE:CMB - news), the agent for a consortium of banks with about $617 million in secured loans.
McKelvie indicated his inclination to keep this case on as fast a track as possible by limiting to two weeks a request for an eight-week postponement of an upcoming hearing.
The trustee, through his lawyers, said he needed the time to become familiar with the complex bankruptcy case as well as with related lawsuits, including one by Marvel against financier Ronald Perelman.
Perelman lost control of Marvel in June to Icahn, a major bondholder of the Marvel parent company. Perelman took Marvel into bankruptcy in December 1996.
The trustee's request for a 60-day postponement was opposed by Toy Biz. McKelvie's decision to postpone by just two weeks -- from Jan. 30 to Feb. 13 -- a hearing on the financial disclosure statement of the Toy Biz reorganization plan was seen as a victory for Toy Biz.
Icahn attorney Edward Weisfelner vigorously opposed any disclosure hearing for Toy Biz, then urged that it be postponed by at least 60 days as requested by the trustee. He told the judge his client intended to prove that the Toy Biz plan was not confirmable.
McKelvie urged Marvel and the creditors to reach a consensual agreement on a plan of reorganization before the February hearing if possible to put an end to the self- described ''animosity'' among the parties.
Toy Biz President Joseph Ahearn told Reuters: ''There have been substantive discussions (with unsecured creditors and equity creditors), and I'm glad to see the Judge is keeping up the pressure on all parties. The reason we haven't come to an agreement yet is disagreement over value.''
August Liguori, Marvel executive vice president and chief financial officer, told Reuters: ''Things are going well. We are trying to bring the trustee up to speed on the operations of the company and the bankruptcy case. The business itself is going forward.''
Currently pending in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals is Icahn's appeal of McKelvie's decision to replace the Icahn Marvel board with a trustee.
A request that the ruling be stayed while the appeal was pending has been rejected. But Weisfelner told Reuters the case is proceeding on an expedited basis and could be decided in a month. |
