Tuesday, November 3, 2009

CIT, BACK TO REAL BANKRUPTCIES


It is good to see that troubled companies are back to following the rules. CIT has actually filed for bankruptcy and the matter is following the time honored rules of Chapter 11 and not the Treasury dictated rules of auto bankruptcies past.

In the absence of a government bailout, the various stakeholders are acting in their own best interests and trying to maximize the value of the company. How novel. The appropriate debtholders and third-party lenders extended more loans on commercially reasonable terms.

CIT essentially filed a pre-packaged plan of reorganization. This means that over 50% of the number of claimants representing over 67% of the dollars in each class already agreed to the plan of reorganization. These are the required levels of support for a plan to pass in bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was necessary because CIT couldn't get 100% of the debtholders to agree to the plan.

By the way, business bankruptcies increased in October from September. Look for more filings to occur in commercial real estate and retail. As banks continue to increase profits by getting funding for free, they will be less inclined to extend and pretend such loans are good.

Cheers, Mike

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