Bankruptcy blog

August 27, 2008

Bush Industries

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Bush Industries, based in Jamestown, New York, United States, is one of the leading ready-to-assemble furniture companies in the U.S., with sales of around US$300 Million/yr. It went on Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000, and emerged as a private company in 2001.


External links

  • Bush Industries Official Website

Jongro Seojuk

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Jongro Seojuk, or less known as Jongro Book Center, was the mecca of book shopping in Seoul, Korea for many book fanatics over the decades. It opened its door in 1907, with a 95 year old history, it was the place for university students, highschool students, anyone, looking for an opening of the mind came to Jongro Seojuk for solace. Jongro Seojuk became a famous rendezvous place for many people, where by the term “meet in front of Jongro Seojuk” became as commonplace as “meet in front of Seoul Station” It became the center of the literate and intellectually minded young people. It was even a famous meeting point among the non-literate.


History

It was started by the Church of the Message of Christ, in 1907, who bought a timber-built tile-roof house, first started off by selling books relating to Christianity, over the years it changed its name from Kyomoon Seogwan, Jongro Seogwan and in 1963, by adopting the name “Jongro Seojuk Center”, it became the leading bookstore of Seoul. Slowly over the 90s, the 300 strong employee base dwindled to a meager 50, and finally in 2002, not being able to reverse its $11.5 million deficit, it declared bankruptcy. It apparently looked for a third party buyer, but no one came to their rescue.

It declared bankruptcy in 2002, June, right in the middle of the Soccer World Cup 2002. The reasons for its bankruptcy were rumored being for its lack of parking space, introduction of internet book stores (this has little credence as other major book stores like Kyobo or Youngpoong has grown bigger every year), and general lack of customer service, the fact that one had climb through five different floors to look for a book, and its inadequate size. There was also voices criticising its flippant position of being so sure of its future, relying on old customers, being ran by people who believed that Jongro Seojuk would survive. It cared nothing for the growing expansion of the new Kyobo Moongo which opened its doors in 1981, it did not try to improve or change its image or store to match changing times. In essence, marketing failed, and customer-company relationship had become literally non-existent by the 1990s. It still managed to rake in a few loyal customers till the mid 90s, but after 2000, Jongro Seojuk was overshadowed by the new, and more modern book stores in Jongro.


Centenary Loss

The bankruptcy was quietly forgotten by many because of the World Cup, but millions of people remember the only book store that did not fail them if they looked for a book. After its bankruptcy, numerous people regretted the loss of the only cultural literary tradition in Korea that would’ve neared its centenary celebrations.


See also

  • List of bookstore chains

Sun Television and Appliances

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Sun Television and Appliances was a speciality retailer of consumer electronics and home appliances. The company primarily operated stores in rural areas, where there was no other competition, in Ohio, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.

In late 1996, Indiana-based H.H. Gregg Appliances and Electronics had arranged to purchase Sun in an $87.5 million deal that would have paid $5 per share to the owners of Sun’s 17.5 million outstanding shares. However, H.H. Gregg withdrew from the deal over concerns regarding Sun’s financial condition.

The company ceased operations in 1998 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September of that year, and after attempts to sell the company as a going concern failed. Some locations were purchased by H.H. Gregg Appliances and Electronics, and were reopened as H.H. Gregg locations.


References


External links

  • Company profile (business.com)

Reaffirmation agreement

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A reaffirmation agreement in United States bankruptcy law refers to an agreement made between a creditor and the debtor that waives discharge of a debt that would otherwise be discharged in the pending bankruptcy proceeding. A properly executed, timely filed reaffirmation agreement modifies the discharge such that it is rendered inoperable against the subject debt. Most statutory authority for reaffirmation agreements is codified in section 524(c) of the Bankruptcy Code.

August 26, 2008

Bankruptcy alternatives

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Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their creditors. In most cases personal bankruptcy is initiated by the bankrupt individual. Bankruptcy is a legal process that discharges most debts, but has the disadvantage of making it more difficult for an individual to borrow in the future. To avoid the negative impacts of personal bankruptcy, individuals in debt have a number of bankruptcy alternatives.

Contents


Take No Action

Bankruptcy prevents a person’s creditors from obtaining a judgment against them. With a judgment a creditor can attempt to garnish wages or seize certain types of property. However, if a debtor has no wages (because they are unemployed or retired) and has no property, they are “judgment proof”, meaning a judgment would have no impact on their financial situation. Creditors typically do not initiate legal action against a debtor with no assets, because it’s unlikely they could collect the judgment.

If enough time passes, seven years in most jurisdictions, the debt is removed from the debtor’s credit history.

A debtor with no assets or income cannot be garnished by a creditor, and therefore the “Take No Action” approach may be the correct option, particularly if the debtor does not expect to have a steady income or property a creditor could attempt to seize.


Self Money Management

Debt is a result of spending more than one’s income in a given period. To reduce debt, the most obvious solution is to reduce monthly spending to allow extra cash flow to service debt. This can be done by creating a personal budget and analyzing expenses to find areas to reduce expenses.

Most people, when reviewing a written list of their monthly expenses, can find ways to reduce expenses. Common areas for expense reduction would include reducing food expenses by eating out less often, taking public transportation instead of driving a car, and eliminating enhanced telephone and cable television services.


Negotiate With Creditors

Creditors understand that bankruptcy is an option for debtors with excessive debt, so most creditors are willing to negotiate a settlement so that they receive a portion of their money, instead of risking losing everything in a bankruptcy.

Negotiation is a viable alternative if the debtor has sufficient income, or has assets that can be liquidated so that the proceeds can be applied against the debt.

Negotiation may also buy the debtor some time to rebuild their finances.


Debt Consolidation

Debt is a problem if the interest payments are greater than the debtor can afford. Debt consolidation typically involves borrowing from one lender (typically a bank), at a low rate of interest, sufficient funds to repay a number of higher interest rate debts (such as credit cards). By consolidating debts, the debtor replaces many payments to many different creditors with one monthly payment to one creditor, thereby simplifying their monthly budget. In addition, the lower interest rate means that more of the debtor’s monthly payment is applied against the principal of the loan, resulting in faster debt repayment. It may be necessary to have a co-signor or other security, such as a car, if the borrow’s credit is not sufficient on their own.


Formal Proposal to Creditors

If the debtor cannot deal with their debt problems through personal budgeting, negotiation with creditors, or debt consolidation, the final bankruptcy alternative is a formal proposal or deal with the creditors.

Different countries have different legal procedures for compromising debts. In the United States, a debtor can file a Chapter 13 Wager Earner Plan. The plan will typically last for up to five years, during which time the debtor makes payments that are distributed to their creditors.

In Canada, a Consumer Proposal can be filed with the assistance of a government-licensed proposal administrator. Forty-five days after filing the proposal the creditors vote on the proposal, which is considered accepted if more than half of the creditors, by dollar value, vote to approve the proposal.


Individual Voluntary Arrangement

In the UK the Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) represents the main formal alternative to a debtors bankruptcy petition. The IVA is part of the Insolvency Act 1986 and essentially allows a debtor to reach a formal repayment arrangement with their creditors usually over a 5 year period. In most cases the debtor does not repay their debts in full to their creditors however the IVA proposal essentially allows for any remaining debt to be written off by the creditors at the end of the 5 year repayment period. As with bankruptcy petitions the number of IVA proposals has been increasing rapidly in the UK in recent years.

Edward Lodge

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Edward Lodge is a US District Judge centred in Boise, Idaho.


Lon Horiuchi

In 1998 Lodge acted as the presiding Judge in the case of Idaho vs Lon T. Horiuchi, which involved the indictment of the FBI sniper who shot three people during the Ruby Ridge Standoff. Lodge cited the Supremacy Clause and dismissed the charges against Horiuchi, which angered many who felt the leniency was unmerited.


Investigation into Banking Practices

Lodge was investigated by the 9th Circuit Court over his relationship to the US Bank (Then WestOne Bank) during the 1980s, which drew criticism when he presided over his inlaws’ bankruptcy proceedings, while the bank overlooked the non-disclosure of over $1 million in assets which then became the property of the judge’s wife, Patty Lodge. On June 28, 1995, he was subsequently forbidden from presiding over any cases that involved the bank, though he continued to preside over such cases when the bank was officially renamed.

The Oregon Observer would later lay out what it claimed were 16 examples of bankruptcy fraud that Lodge had knowingly been involved in, and Republican Representative Helen Chenoweth-Hage drew flak for receiving earlier reports of Lodge’s dealings and failing to act on them.


Sami Al-Hussayen

In 2004, Lodge presided over the trial of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen - accused of recruiting Islamic fanaticals into participating in Jihad against the United States. On May 13th he ruled to disallow a defence witness to refer to a blood drive that Hussayen had run after September 11th to help the victims, nor that he had widely condemned the attacks.

August 25, 2008

Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the state of Washington in the United States. It is led by a prelate bishop which serves as pastor to the motherchurch in the Spokane Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Canonically erected on December 17, 1913, the territories of the diocese were taken from the former Diocese of Seattle.

Approximately 90,000 Catholics in Washington state are served by the Diocese.US Church offers abuse settlement, 2007-1-5, BBC News, Retrieved 2007-6-30 There are 82 parishes in the diocese. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695216117,00.html

The current bishop of the Diocese of Spokane is William S. Skylstad. Bishop Skylstad was elected to a three-year term as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on 15 November 2004.

Contents


Sex abuse settlement and bankruptcy

Under Bishop Skylstad the diocese declared bankruptcy to protect it from claims of people molested by priests.

The Diocese of Spokane as part of its bankruptcy has agreed to pay at least US$48 million as compensation to people abused by priests. This payout has to be agreed with by the victims and a Judge before it will be made.

According to Federal Bankruptcy Judge Gregg W. Zive, money for the settlement would come from insurance companies, the sale of church property, contributions from Catholic groups and from the diocese’s parishes.


High schools

  • Desales Catholic High School, Walla Walla
  • Gonzaga Preparatory School, Spokane
  • Tri-Cities Prep, Pasco


Colleges

  • Gonzaga University, Spokane
  • Bishop White Semminary, Spokane


See also

  • Roman Catholic sex abuse cases
  • Cases of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church


External links

  • Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane
  • Catholic Hierarchy Profile of the Diocese of Spokane


References

Chapter 13, Title 11, United States Code

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Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing is a way for individuals in the United States to undergo a financial reorganization supervised by a federal bankruptcy court. The Bankruptcy Code anticipates the goal of Chapter 13 as enabling income-receiving debtors a debtor rehabilitation provided they fulfill a court-approved plan. Compare the goal of Chapter 13 with the relief contemplated in Chapter 7 that offers immediate, complete relief of many oppressive debt(s).

Contents


Choosing Chapter 13

An individual who is badly in debt can file for bankruptcy either under Chapter 7 ( liquidation, or straight bankruptcy), under Chapter 13 (reorganization) or Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code.

Debtors may also be forced into bankruptcy by creditors in the case of an involuntary bankruptcy, but only under Chapters 7 or 11. However, in most instances the debtor may choose under which chapter to file.

The debtor’s financial characteristics and the type of relief sought plays a tremendous role in the choice of chapters. In some cases the debtor simply cannot file under Chapter 13, as he or she lacks the disposable income necessary to fund a viable Chapter 13 plan (see below). Furthermore, Section 109(e) of Title 11, United States Code sets forth debt limits for individuals to be eligable to file under Chapter 13 the debt limits for filing Chapter 13 of unsecured debts of less than $336,900.00 and secured debts of less than $1,010,650.00. These debt limits are subject to annual cost of living increases and represent values updated through April 1, 2007.

Under Chapter 13, the debtor proposes a plan to pay his creditors over a 3 to 5 year period. During this period, his creditors cannot attempt to collect on the individual’s previously incurred debt except through the bankruptcy court. In general, the individual gets to keep his property, and his creditors end up with less money than they are owed.


Disadvantages of Chapter 13

The disadvantage of filing for personal bankruptcy is that a record of this stays on the individual’s credit report for 10 years. During the pendency of a Chapter 13 case the debtor is not permitted to obtain additional credit without the permission of the bankruptcy court. Moreover, creditors may not be willing to risk lending money to such an individual. However, this disadvantage is not unique to Chapter 13; it may also apply to individuals currently in a Chapter 11 case or those who are in or have recently been in a Chapter 7 case.


Advantages of Chapter 13

The advantages of Chapter 13 over Chapter 7 include: the ability to stop foreclosures and to have a mortgage that has been accelerated declared reinstated upon bankruptcy plan completion; to achieve a super discharge of debts of kinds not dischargeable under Chapter 7; to value collateral; to bifurcate the security interest of creditors in certain property that creditors are either charging too much interest for, or are over-secured, or both, and in some cases; to prevent collection activities against non-filing co-signers (co-debtors) during the life of the case.


The Chapter 13 Plan

A Chapter 13 plan is a document filed with or shortly after a debtor’s Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition.

The plan details the treatment of debts, liens, and the secured status of assets and liabilities owned or owed by the debtor in regard to his bankruptcy petition. In order for plans to take effect, it must meet a number of requirements. These are specified in § 1325 and include:

  • providing that unsecured creditors will receive at least as much through the chapter 13 plan as they would in a chapter 7 liquidation
  • either not be objected to, repay all creditors in full, or commit all of the debtor’s disposable income to the Chapter 13 plan for at least three years (or five years for a debtor who makes an above median income)


Statistics


2003 Statistics

Bankruptcy filings by individuals:

  • Chapter 7 filings: 1,156,284
  • Chapter 11 filings: 959
  • Chapter 13 filings: 468,562

Bankruptcy filings by businesses:

  • Chapter 7 filings: 21,008
  • Chapter 11 filings: 9,185
  • Chapter 12 filings: 698
  • Chapter 13 filings: 5,201

The total number of bankruptcies rose 7.4 percent over the previous twelve months. These totals were for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2003.

Source: November 14 2003 News Release, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (External link to PDF file: [1])


2004 Statistics

TOTAL bankruptcies:

  • Chapter 7 filings: 1,153,865
  • Chapter 11 filings: 10,368
  • Chapter 12 filings: 238
  • Chapter 13 filings: 454,412

Bankruptcy cases filed in federal courts fell 2.6 percent in fiscal year 2004 according to the
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. During the 12-month period ending September 30, 2004, 1,618,987 bankruptcies were filed, down from the 1,661,996 bankruptcy cases filed in fiscal year 2003.

Source: November 14 2003 News Release, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (External link to PDF file: [2])


See also

  • Chapter 7
  • Chapter 11
  • Chapter 12


External Links

  • Graphical view of the procedure under the Bankruptcy Code post BAPCPA
  • National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys


References

Indian Springs State Bank

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 8:55 pm

Indian Springs State Bank was an American Savings and Loan in Kansas City, Kansas. It was notable as the bank of choice for a number of mobsters. After extending hundreds of thousands of dollars in unsecured loans and tie-in arrangements (to, among other things, Global International Airways), Indian Springs filed for bankruptcy in 1984.

Timeline of airline bankruptcies

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This is a timeline of bankruptcies affecting airlines which are still currently operating. See the list of defunct airlines for those which have gone bankrupt and stopped operating.

  • August 11, 2002 - US Airways enters protection
  • December 9, 2002 - United Airlines under protection
  • April 1, 2003 - Air Canada files
  • September 30, 2004 - Air Canada emerges
  • September 14, 2005 - Northwest Airlines files
  • September 14, 2005 - Delta Air Lines files, putting 4 of the top 7 carriers in the United States under bankruptcy protection
  • September 27, 2005 - US Airways emerges, in conjunction with its acquisition by America West
  • February 1, 2006 - United Airlines emerges
  • April 30, 2007-Delta Airlines emerges
  • May 31,2007-Northwest Airlines emerges


See also

  • Airline (discussion of financial aspects)
  • List of defunct airlines
  • List of airlines


External links

  • Air Transport Association compilation of bankruptcies
 

Shareholder

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A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or company (including a corporation) that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock company. A company’s shareholders collectively own that company. Thus, such companies strive to enhance shareholder value.

Stockholders are granted special privileges depending on the class of stock, including the right to vote (usually one vote per share owned, but sometimes this is not the case) on matters such as elections to the board of directors, the right to propose shareholder resolutions, the right to share in distributions of the company’s income, the right to purchase new shares issued by the company, and the right to a company’s assets during a liquidation of the company. However, stockholder’s rights to a company’s assets are subordinate to the rights of the company’s creditors. This means that stockholders typically receive nothing if a company is liquidated after bankruptcy (if the company had had enough to pay its creditors, it would not have entered bankruptcy), although a stock may have value after a bankruptcy if there is the possibility that the debts of the company will be restructured.

Stockholders or shareholders are considered by some to be a partial subset of stakeholders, which may include anyone who has a direct or indirect equity interest in the business entity or someone with even a non-pecuniary interest in a non-profit organization. Thus it might be common to call volunteer contributors to an association stakeholders, even though they are not shareholders.

Although directors and officers of a company are bound by fiduciary duties to act in the best interest of the shareholders, the shareholders themselves normally do not have such duties towards each other.

However, in a few unusual cases, some courts have been willing to imply such a duty between shareholders. For example, in California, majority shareholders of closely held corporations have a duty to not destroy the value of the shares held by minority shareholders.

The largest shareholders (in terms of percentages of companies owned) are often mutual funds, especially passively managed exchange-traded funds.


See also

  • Stakeholder
  • Corporate governance
  • Shareholders’ meeting
  • Stock
  • Stock trader
  • [[Investor relations]


References

Bennett Funding Group

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The Bennett Funding Group were the perpetrators of the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. The company was based in Syracuse, New York.

From the SEC website: [1]:

On March 28, 1996, the SEC filed a civil action against The Bennett Funding Group, Inc., its chief financial officer, Patrick R. Bennett, and other companies Bennett controlled, in connection with a massive Ponzi scheme. The SEC alleged that the defendants fraudulently raised more than several hundred million dollars, purportedly to purchase assignments of equipment leases and promissory notes.

On March 29, 1996, the four corporate defendants filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. On April 18, 1996, the Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of New York appointed Richard C. Breeden as Trustee. The Trustee has distributed approximately $353 million to general unsecured creditors and anticipates making another distribution.

August 24, 2008

Insolvency Practitioners Association

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The Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA) is a professional body whose purpose is to inform and regulate insolvency practitioners (IPs) within the UK and Ireland. There is a similar organization in Australia.


History

Formed in 1961 as a discussion group of accountants specialising in insolvency, it became incorporated under its current name in 1973. It became a Recognised Professional Body under the UK Insolvency Act 1986, empowered to grant and renew insolvency licences. It is the only such body whose membership is comprised solely of IPs. Its members act as trustees in bankruptcy, nominees and supervisors of individual voluntary arrangements, liquidators, administrators and administrative receivers of companies.


Objectives

The IPA’s main objectives are to encourage recruitment of IPs; to promote their training and education; to maintain and improve standards of performance and conduct, and to regulate and monitor its members’ practices, and, where appropriate, discipline them.

Every individual wishing to qualify for an insolvency licence needs to satisfy the IPA that he is a fit and proper person have passed the examination set by the Joint Insolvency Examination Board.


External links

  • Insolvency Practitioners Association website
  • IPAA (Australia)

December 2001

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December 2001 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December



Events

  • December 2 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five days after Dynegy canceled a US$8.4 billion buyout bid (as of 2003 this was the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States).
  • December 4 - Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Al-Haj, Sultan of Selangor and 11th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia dies in office.
  • December 4 - The Second Child Asuka Langley Soryu was born
  • December 13 - Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, Raja of Perlis becomes the 12th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
  • December 14 - Annular solar eclipse
  • December 18 - Two men, Ahmed Agiza and Muhammad al-Zery, are secretly deported to Egypt from Sweden after a request from the United States in what is believed to be a CIA-led operation. (Washington Post)
  • December 20 - The Argentine government of President Fernando De la Rúa collapses amidst rioting and violence throughout the country. See December 2001 riots (Argentina)
  • December 27 - The People’s Republic of China is granted permanent normal trade status with the United States.

August 23, 2008

Protective trust

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The Protective Trust is a form of settlement found in England and Wales and several Commonwealth countries. It has marked similarities to asset-protection trusts found in several offshore jurisdictions and US Spendthrift trusts.

In such a trust assets are ordinarily held to pay an income to the beneficiary. The beneficiary may also have access to capital of the trust with the trustee’s permission. The right to receive income from a trust would ordinarily be an asset in the hands of the beneficiary and could be sold, thwarting the intention of the donor to spread the gift over the recipient’s lifetime. Additionally on a bankruptcy the right to the income would be sold by the beneficiary’s trustee in bankruptcy.

To give protection to beneficiaries, a protective trust automatically converts into a discretionary trust, under which the beneficiary has no right to the income, if he or she does anything which breaches a condition specified in the document creating the trust.

The establishment of this discretionary trust is ordinarily exempt from the charge to UK inheritance tax on the establishment of discretionary trusts.

Such protective trusts have a longstanding history. To reduce the verbose definitions that had previously to be recited in the establishing documents of a protective trust, in England and Wales s33 of the Trustee Act 1925 (and equivalent legislation in other jurisdictions) provides that this protection will arise in any trust described as a “protective trust” in its trust deed.

Protective trusts are subject to challenge under creditor protection legislation as are any other forms of asset-protection. However many jurisdictions do not permit a trust to be broken where a debtor who remains a discretionary beneficiary only under a trust and cannot access the fund without the exercise of the trustees’ discretion in his favour.


See also

  • Asset protection

Shareholder

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 5:00 pm

A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or company (including a corporation) that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock company. A company’s shareholders collectively own that company. Thus, such companies strive to enhance shareholder value.

Stockholders are granted special privileges depending on the class of stock, including the right to vote (usually one vote per share owned, but sometimes this is not the case) on matters such as elections to the board of directors, the right to propose shareholder resolutions, the right to share in distributions of the company’s income, the right to purchase new shares issued by the company, and the right to a company’s assets during a liquidation of the company. However, stockholder’s rights to a company’s assets are subordinate to the rights of the company’s creditors. This means that stockholders typically receive nothing if a company is liquidated after bankruptcy (if the company had had enough to pay its creditors, it would not have entered bankruptcy), although a stock may have value after a bankruptcy if there is the possibility that the debts of the company will be restructured.

Stockholders or shareholders are considered by some to be a partial subset of stakeholders, which may include anyone who has a direct or indirect equity interest in the business entity or someone with even a non-pecuniary interest in a non-profit organization. Thus it might be common to call volunteer contributors to an association stakeholders, even though they are not shareholders.

Although directors and officers of a company are bound by fiduciary duties to act in the best interest of the shareholders, the shareholders themselves normally do not have such duties towards each other.

However, in a few unusual cases, some courts have been willing to imply such a duty between shareholders. For example, in California, majority shareholders of closely held corporations have a duty to not destroy the value of the shares held by minority shareholders.

The largest shareholders (in terms of percentages of companies owned) are often mutual funds, especially passively managed exchange-traded funds.


See also

  • Stakeholder
  • Corporate governance
  • Shareholders’ meeting
  • Stock
  • Stock trader
  • [[Investor relations]


References

Chapter 12, Title 11, United States Code

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Chapter 12 refers to Chapter 12 of Title 11 of the United States Code, a chapter of the Bankruptcy Code. This chapter of the Bankruptcy Code is available only to family farmers and fishermen in certain situations. It is similar to Chapter 13 in some ways, but in other ways benefits farmers and fishermen in ways other than that which is available to ordinary U.S. wage earners.

As recently as mid-2004, Chapter 12 was scheduled to expire, but in late 2004 it was renewed and made permanent.

Criticism exists due to the fact that Chapter 12’s relatively advantageous provisions are only available to a limited number of filers.


2003 Statistics

Bankruptcy filings by individuals:

  • Chapter 7 filings: 1,156,284
  • Chapter 11 filings: 959
  • Chapter 13 filings: 468,562

Bankruptcy filings by businesses:

  • Chapter 7 filings: 21,008
  • Chapter 11 filings: 9,185
  • Chapter 12 filings: 698
  • Chapter 13 filings: 5,201

The total number of bankruptcies rose 7.4 percent over the previous twelve months. These totals were for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2003.

Source: November 14 2003 News Release, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (External link to PDF file: [1])


2004 Statistics

TOTAL bankruptcies:

  • Chapter 7 filings: 1,153,865
  • Chapter 11 filings: 10,368
  • Chapter 12 filings: 238
  • Chapter 13 filings: 454,412

Bankruptcy cases filed in federal courts fell 2.6 percent in fiscal year 2004 according to the
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. During the 12-month period ending September 30, 2004, 1,618,987 bankruptcies were filed, down from the 1,661,996 bankruptcy cases filed in fiscal year 2003.

Source: November 14 2003 News Release, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (External link to PDF file: [2])

Scientific Audio Electronics

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Scientific Audio Electronics (SAE) was an audio electronics maker founded in 1968. In 1985 it was taken over by DAK Industries but folded in 1992 when the parent company went into bankruptcy. The company was based in Los Angeles, California and had a huge cult-following of audiophiles.

August 22, 2008

Debtor in possession

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A debtor in possession, in United States bankruptcy law, is a person or corporation who has filed a bankruptcy petition, but remains in possession of property upon which a creditor has a lien or similar security interest. A corporation which continues to operate its business under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings is a debtor in possession.

Under certain circumstances, the debtor in possession may be able to keep the property by paying the creditor the fair market value, as opposed to the contract price. This is often the case where the property is a personal vehicle which has depreciated in value since the time of the purchase, and which the debtor needs in order to be able to find or continue employment to pay off his debts.

August 21, 2008

Alleghany Corp.

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Alleghany Corporation was incorporated by the railroad entrepreneurs Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen as a holding company for their interests.

After their bankruptcy in the Great Depression, control of the company fell into the hands of Robert Ralph Young and Allan Price Kirby. Young used the company as a vehicle for his vendetta against the J.P. Morgan banking interests, who had financed the Van Sweringens, and managed to defeat them and the Vanderbilt interests in a 1954 proxy fight for the New York Central Railroad. The failing New York Central was in worse shape than Young had bargained for, and he committed suicide shortly after being forced to suspend the dividend in January 1958. After Young’s death, his role in NYC management was assumed by his protégé Alfred E. Perlman. Although much had been accomplished to streamline NYC operations, in those tough economic times, mergers with other railroads were seen as the only possible road to financial stability. The most likely suitor became the NYC’s former arch-rival Pennsylvania Railroad. During the early 1960s, New York Central negotiated a merger with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which was led by Stuart T. Saunders after 1963. Saunders had most recently led the Norfolk and Western Railway through a successful expansion through acquisition and mergers, including the Virginian Railway, Nickel Plate Road and Wabash Railway. There was great hope that success would result from the NYC-PRR combination. Penn Central Transportation Company was formed by the merger on February 1, 1968. However, the underlying financial weakness of both former railroads, combined with the fact that the ICC forced the chronically weak New Haven Railroad into the system, doomed the Penn Central, and bankruptcy was declared shortly a little over 2 years later, on June 21, 1970. Many of the Penn Central railroad assets ended up in Conrail, formed in 1976. The bankruptcy of the Penn Central railroad mostly ended Alleghany’s involvement in the railroad business.

The company’s residual railroad investments led to president and CEO John J. Burns serving on the board of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation from 1995 to 2004.

Today, Alleghany Corporation focuses on the insurance business (property, casualty, surety and fidelity insurance). Allan Kirby’s son, Fred M. Kirby 2nd, is chairman of the board and a sometime member of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.

Outboard Marine

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 7:40 pm

The Outboard Marine Corporation was a maker of boat motors and maintenance supplies, they also owned several lines of boats such as Chris Craft. They are now owned by Bombardier.

These engines are also known to be very reliable in most applications, and have been favorites of fisherman and boaters for many years. They dominated the race scene in the 70’s and even held many records. Mercury and OMC competed fiercely. Since then, Mercury has stood alone in the race scene. OMC was innovative and even raced an experimental rotary engine built in a joint effort with Wankel. Business and quality issues took its toll on the company and they were forced to file for bankruptcy”OMC Bankruptcy Sets Consumers Adrift”,Boat US, March2001. After the company was sold several times and broken up, Bombardier bought the floundering company and is working to restore the company.

OMC outboard engines (Johnson and Evinrude) are engines designed for the fishing and the military market.


Factories

  • Peterborough, Ontario


See also

  • Johnson Outboards
  • Evinrude Outboard Motors


References

Netting

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — admin @ 7:15 pm
This page is about the finance term. For the fabric called netting see Net (textile).

In general, netting means to allow a positive value and a negative value to set-off and partially or entirely cancel each other out.

In the context of credit risk, there are at least three specific types of netting:

  • Close-out netting: In the event of counterparty bankruptcy, all transactions or all of a given type are netted at market value. The alternative would allow the liquidator to choose which contracts to enforce and which not to (and thus potentially “cherry pick”). There are international jurisdictions where the enforceability of netting in bankruptcy has not been legally tested.
  • Netting by novation: The legal obligations of the parties to make required payments under one or more series of related transactions are canceled and a new obligation to make only the net payments is created.
  • Settlement or payment netting: For cash settled trades, this can be applied either bilaterally or multilaterally and on related or unrelated transactions.

Netting decreases credit exposure, increases business with existing counterparties, and reduces both operational and settlement risk and operational costs.

In the context of pollution control, netting refers to a procedure whereby a company can create a new pollution source only if it makes equal reductions in pollution elsewhere in the company, i.e. it cannot acquire new permits from the outside.

Drug Emporium

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — admin @ 6:40 pm

Drug Emporium is the name of a discount drug store corporation, founded in 1977 in Columbus, Ohio, that was sold to several different buyers during 2000 to 2001. Although several store locations continue to use the Drug Emporium name, these locations are no longer affiliated with the now-defunct Columbus-based corporation. At the company’s high water mark in the 1990s, there were almost 300 locations scattered throughout the United States, including stores that operated under the F&M and VIX banners.

The company declared bankruptcy in April of 2001 as a condition of its sale to Snyder Drug of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Various causes have been attributed, with most citing the company’s failure to effectively compete with Walgreens, CVS Corporation and other drug store chains. Additionally, much time, effort and money was spent attempting to leverage the power of the brick and mortar Drug Emporium locations into the failed DrugEmporium.com website that was seen as the company’s future. This “click and mortar” approach, typical of the pre-Dot-com bubble mentality of the late 1990s never fully materialized and only served to deepen the company’s economic troubles.

The large base of franchised Texas and West Virginia locations, along with company-owned California locations were sold off to independent owners and Big A Drug, respectively. Then, on September 12, 2003, Snyder Drug closed all of the remaining corporately-owned stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Wisconsin due to significant capital infusions and to escape bankruptcy. Although the chain was founded in Columbus, Ohio, it no longer has stores in its home state. Snyder Drug continues to operate and is owned by the Katz Group of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

The North Hollywood, California store was regularly used in the TV series “Malcolm in the Middle” as the “Lucky Aide” store where Lois worked.


External links

  • Snyder Drug
  • Big A Drug (California Locations)[[Category:2003 disestablishments]

Reaffirmation agreement

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — admin @ 6:25 pm

A reaffirmation agreement in United States bankruptcy law refers to an agreement made between a creditor and the debtor that waives discharge of a debt that would otherwise be discharged in the pending bankruptcy proceeding. A properly executed, timely filed reaffirmation agreement modifies the discharge such that it is rendered inoperable against the subject debt. Most statutory authority for reaffirmation agreements is codified in section 524(c) of the Bankruptcy Code.

Drug Emporium

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 10:45 am

Drug Emporium is the name of a discount drug store corporation, founded in 1977 in Columbus, Ohio, that was sold to several different buyers during 2000 to 2001. Although several store locations continue to use the Drug Emporium name, these locations are no longer affiliated with the now-defunct Columbus-based corporation. At the company’s high water mark in the 1990s, there were almost 300 locations scattered throughout the United States, including stores that operated under the F&M and VIX banners.

The company declared bankruptcy in April of 2001 as a condition of its sale to Snyder Drug of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Various causes have been attributed, with most citing the company’s failure to effectively compete with Walgreens, CVS Corporation and other drug store chains. Additionally, much time, effort and money was spent attempting to leverage the power of the brick and mortar Drug Emporium locations into the failed DrugEmporium.com website that was seen as the company’s future. This “click and mortar” approach, typical of the pre-Dot-com bubble mentality of the late 1990s never fully materialized and only served to deepen the company’s economic troubles.

The large base of franchised Texas and West Virginia locations, along with company-owned California locations were sold off to independent owners and Big A Drug, respectively. Then, on September 12, 2003, Snyder Drug closed all of the remaining corporately-owned stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Wisconsin due to significant capital infusions and to escape bankruptcy. Although the chain was founded in Columbus, Ohio, it no longer has stores in its home state. Snyder Drug continues to operate and is owned by the Katz Group of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

The North Hollywood, California store was regularly used in the TV series “Malcolm in the Middle” as the “Lucky Aide” store where Lois worked.


External links

  • Snyder Drug
  • Big A Drug (California Locations)[[Category:2003 disestablishments]
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