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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (10183)	3/30/2009 4:22:45 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 103300

"Faster would be better..." I agree. And, that is one of the few problems I see with a 'standard' chapter 11 bankruptcy --- the companies are so complicated, have so many complex contracts and business affairs that will be to be adjudicated, that a 'normal' bankruptcy could EASILY take two, three, years or even more. By which time there would be no sales left... no value to distribute other then 'scrap'. A 'pre-planned' bankruptcy --- (like a "debtor-in possession" bankruptcy filing, where some major investor agrees, in advance, to put enough funds in to help the company EMERGE from bankruptcy reorganization, so long as they get what they want out of the deal) is the least bad option that I yet heard. (And... I think --- and I said so some months ago --- that seems to be where they are headed.)

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (10183)	3/30/2009 4:36:41 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 103300

GM Bondholders Back Obama’s Demand for Deeper Cuts (Update1) By Caroline Salas bloomberg.com March 30 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama may be winning over General Motors Corp. bondholders by calling for deeper cost reductions at the automaker. A more aggressive survival plan would boost the value of equity and new bonds that noteholders would receive in an exchange aimed at cutting $27.5 billion in GM debt, advisers to the bondholder committee said today in a statement. Bondholder representatives met with Obama’s auto task force on March 5, and expressed concern that the restructuring plan didn’t go far enough to ensure GM would stay out of bankruptcy. The Obama administration forced GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner to resign after concluding the Detroit-based automaker hadn’t done enough to prove it can survive amid the worst U.S. auto market in 27 years. Obama said today that company creditors, shareholders, workers, dealers and suppliers will be expected to make more sacrifices. The bondholder committee includes San Mateo, California-based Franklin Resources Inc. and Fidelity Investments of Boston. “After the cram-down happens and bondholders go from $27.5 billion to $9 billion or whatever the number ends up being, their fate is tied to the future success of GM,” Pete Hastings, a fixed-income analyst at Morgan Keegan Inc. in Memphis, Tennessee, said in a telephone interview. “They’re going to need some assurance that is going to be worth something someday. The way to do that is to reduce their cost structure as much as possible.” Not Far Enough The plan that GM put forward last month didn’t go far enough to ensure profitability at the automaker and unions in particular should be forced to make greater concessions, Hastings said. GM also needs the United Auto Workers to agree to cut a cash contribution to a so-called Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association union retiree health-care fund from $20.4 billion to about $10.2 billion in exchange for equity, according to the terms of the original government loan. Carmakers “must produce plans that would give the American people confidence in their long-term prospects for success,” Obama said at the White House, announcing new and final deadlines for GM and Chrysler LLC to remake themselves. “We cannot make the survival of our auto industry dependent on an unending flow of taxpayer dollars.” GM’s $3 billion of 8.375 percent bonds due in 2033 fell 2 cents to 16 cents on the dollar as of 12:12 p.m. in New York, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The debt yields 52 percent. GM shares declined 97 cents, or 27 percent, to $2.65 as of 2:52 p.m. in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Sacrifices What the administration is asking for “will require creditors to recognize that they can’t hold out for the prospect of endless government bailouts,” Obama said. Unions and companies must also make sacrifices, he said. The committee of GM bondholders didn’t seek Wagoner’s removal, and hasn’t had contact with the task force since the meeting earlier this month, according to a person familiar with the committee representing creditors who declined to be identified because the discussions are private. “We have been very disappointed that the government and company have had virtually no real dialogue with bondholders while designing the proposed restructuring plan,” according to the statement from the advisers. “Bondholders have been and remain willing to reduce GM’s future debt burden by exchanging a substantial part of their debt for equity.” ‘Adequate Working Capital’ GM will get “adequate working capital” over the next 60 days, while the auto task force works with the company to assess whether it has consolidated enough brands and its debt loan, according to the administration. GM has received $13.4 billion of government loans since December. The original loan terms called for the carmaker to get bondholders to give up two-thirds of their debt for new equity, starting a debt exchange by tomorrow. The GM restructuring now requires “substantially greater balance sheet concessions” than those initially demanded because the auto market deteriorated, according to administration documents. GM’s best chance at success may include a “quick and surgical” bankruptcy, according to a summary given to reporters by the administration. Unlike a liquidation or conventional bankruptcy, a structured process would make it easier for the companies to clear away liabilities. The bankruptcy process could be as short as 30 days, and the government would provide debtor-in-possession financing if needed, according to the summary. Prepackaged Bankruptcy A so-called prepackaged bankruptcy may be the easiest way to achieve a debt exchange, according to the person familiar with the bondholder committee’s thinking. GM’s biggest bondholders also include Capital Research & Management Co. of Los Angeles, Boston-based Loomis Sayles & Co. and Newport Beach, California-based Pacific Investment Management Co., regulatory filings show. Bondholders had asked the government for improvements to the original offer, such as a government guarantee of the new notes they’d receive in the debt exchange, and they were balking at a proposal from GM last week that called for them to swap more than three-quarters of their stake for equity, said the person familiar with the talks. The latest offer would have given bondholders 90 percent of the equity in the reorganized company and a combination of cash and new unsecured notes without a government guarantee, the person said. Credit-default swaps protecting against a default by GM rose 4.5 percentage points to 81.5 percent upfront, according to broker Phoenix Partners Group. That’s in addition to 5 percent a year, meaning it would cost $8.15 million initially and $500,000 annually to protect $10 million of debt for five years. The derivatives, which are privately negotiated contracts used to hedge against losses or speculate on a company’s creditworthiness, pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying bonds or the cash equivalent set by the auction. To contact the reporter on this story: Caroline Salas in New York at csalas1@bloomberg.net Last Updated: March 30, 2009 15:19 EDT