S4 Liquidations

Want a memento from downtown LAs Wilshire Grand Hotel?

The Los Angeles Times reports that the now-closed Wilshire Grands reopening its doors for a liquidation sale before its demolished this summer.

For sale: Beds, desks, coat hangers, air-conditioning units, artwork, fixtures, plates, silverware, towels, sheets and TV sets from the hotels 936 rooms, the story says.

TWITTER:  Follow USA TODAYs Barb DeLollis
MORE ONLINE:  Handy link for USA TODAYs hotels blog

For hotel and history buffs, the sale will be a treasure chest. The hotels silverware, for instance, is stamped with the various names it has had over the years – the Hotel Statler, the Statler Hilton, the Omni and the Wilshire Grand, the story says.

A photograph that appeared with the story shows a mannequin on sale for $15. Even the kitchen sinks must go – for $350, the Times says.

Our kitchen sinks are a little bigger than most, Frank Long, president of Ohio-based International Content Liquidations told the Times.

The 60-year-old hotel closed in December. The buildings owner – Korean Airlines – expects to build a skyscraper with as many as 70 stories.

Long lines are expected. See the LA Times article for hours, if you plan to shop. Expect to pay a $5 entrance charge, designed to make sure only serious buyers enter, the article says.

Readers: Have you ever gone to a hotel liquidation sale? Did you get something interesting?

Lawskys plan won approval by Nassau County Supreme Court Justice John Galasso, over the objection of a variety of Executive Life payees.

Galasso said it would allow for about 85 percent of the roughly 10,000 payees to receive full payouts on the present value of their annuity benefits.

The court cannot apologize for applying the law as it pertains to everyone involved, Galasso wrote. Their individual, understandable frustrations cannot be resolved in this proceeding.

Lawskys office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Beneficiaries whose claims are larger than maximum recovery rates in certain states may still be under water.

Those people will be able to apply for additional reimbursement from a $100 million hardship fund paid for by members of the life insurance industry, James Wrynn, who had been New Yorks insurance superintendent at the time, said in September.

Simply put, Executive Life does not have enough assets to meet all its obligations, Wrynn said at the time. We have devised a plan that will maximize payments and ensure the fairest possible outcome for everyone.

New Yorks insurance and banking departments merged in October into the Department of Financial Services, which Lawsky oversees.

Executive Life was seized by New York insurance regulators in 1991, a casualty of the recent junk bond market crash. Its California-based parent filed for bankruptcy protection the same year.

The insurer initially was to be rehabilitated, with policyholders receiving full payouts over time.

But the recent economic downturn led regulators to scrap the rehabilitation plan.

Galasso said the liquidation plan that replaced it was the best possible outcome for policyholders, but acknowledged some of them will still have to cope with a diminished financial future.

The case is In re: Rehabilitation of Executive Life Insurance Co of New York, New York State Supreme Court, Nassau County, No. 8023/1991.

(Editing by Dale Hudson)

By Kevin Rector, krector@tribune.com

April 23, 2012 | 1:29 pm

After Nabi announced earlier this week its intent to merge with Biota for $54 million plus new stock, analysts are suggesting that Nabi shareholders might get more value by liquidating the company, according to the Gazette newspaper. Nabis liquidation value is about $80 million, CEO Raafat Fahim told the analysts.

The company said it will return to its stockholders any cash in excess of the $54 million, after paying off debts and other expenses. Fahim told analysts that excess cash would total between $25 million and $30 million.

Announcement of the merger comes five months after Nabi retained Piper Jaffray amp; Co. to explore strategic alternatives. Last summer its antismoking vaccine failed two Phase III trials.

The newly combined company, to be named Biota Pharmaceuticals, will be headquartered in the US and will be listed on NASDAQ, with the current Biota de-listed from the Australian Stock Exchange. Nabi would acquire all outstanding shares in the current Biota, in exchange for new shares of the new Biota. Current-Biota shareholders will own 74% of the new companys outstanding common stock, with Nabis current common stockholders holding the remainder.

Following the merger, assets of Biota Pharmaceuticals will include three royalty-producing products: The flu inhalation treatment Relenza marketed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Inavir co-owned by Biota and Daiichi Sankyo, and potentially PhosLyra, which reduces phosphate levels in late-stage kidney failure.

The combined company will also have a $231 million BARDA contract for advanced development of the neuraminidase inhibitor laninamivir in influenza; it is already marketed in Japan. It will also $100 million in cash to advance its pipeline of preclinical and clinical programs comprising Phase III vapendavir in human rhinovirus program and candidates for respiratory syncytial virus, hepatitis C, and a broad-spectrum antibiotic targeting gyrase. Additionally, the new entity will have interest in NicVAX, a nicotine conjugate vaccine.

NicVAX, developed in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline, was designed to aid in smoke cessation by triggering production of antibodies that would attach to nicotine, preventing it from reaching the brain. But in a Phase III trial involving 1,000 patients, the same percentage of people (11%) quit smoking after NicVAX treatment or placebo. During Q1 2010, Nabi granted GSK an option to exclusively license NicVAX worldwide and a license to develop follow-on next-generation nicotine vaccines using Nabi intellectual property combined with GSK technology including GSKs adjuvants.

Because NicVAX is Nabis sole remaining product currently in development, according to its 2011 annual report issued last month, speculation among analysts, reported in The Australian and elsewhere, is that the SEC may declare Nabi a shell company and not approve the merger. Nabi has denied operating as a shell company, though even if it were, it could still combine with Biota through a formal registration process.

NicVAX was developed using $10 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, of which $7.9 million was awarded through the American recovery and Reinvestment Act, President Barack Obamas $814 billion stimulus measure enacted in 2009.

–
To read the story from The Australian, click here.
To read the story from Gazette, click here.

The Senate Committee on Privatisation on Tuesday, rejected plans to liquidate the Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (NITEL) and its mobile arm, Mobile Telecommunications Ltd (MTEL).

The Chairman of the committee, Sen. Gbenga Obadara (ACN-Ogun), made the announcement at an interactive session with officials of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) and the National Council on Privatisation (NCP).

The committee chairman frowned at the attitude of some Federal Government agencies whom he observed, had contributed to the collapse of the companies by refusing to settle their indebtedness to the companies.

He promised that the committee would ensure that all government agencies, indebted to NITEL settled their debts, without further delay.

Obadara said the committee would also tour all NITEL offices in the country to determine the exact value of the companies, which the BPE had put at between N80 billion and N90 billion as at 2009.

He expressed displeasure at governments plans to liquidate the companies without making effort to find out their values.

Nobody is telling us the worth of NITEL; we are only told how much NITEL owes. We should understand that it is all about protecting governments enterprises.

The condition of NITEL is not as bad as people portray. We have the option of making MTEL work; we could get credible people to run it.

We are not impressed about the term guided liquidation because the same executive has masterminded the liquidation of most of the privatised companies since its inception in 2001, he said.

The Chairman, Technical Committee on Privatisation, Mr Atedo Peterside, put NITEL/MTELs liabilities at N351. 21 billion.

Peterside was summoned by the committee alongside the Director General of the BPE, Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa, over the planned liquidation

The N35 billion debt owed NITEL he said, would be difficult to recover because the last bill paid to NITEL was paid about five years ago, adding that most of the companies indebted to the company had folded up.

Peterside also told the committee that the only way the enterprises could attract investors was to liquidate them.

It is only through liquidation that investors can show interest. In that case, liquidators would take responsibilities for the debt owed creditors.

No potential investor will indicate interest in a business that will put creditors on their necks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the House of Representatives on Wednesday advanced a proposal to repeal a major section of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law as part of a broader deficit reduction effort, a move Democrats derided as a misguided budget gimmick.

The House Financial Services Committee voted along party lines to repeal the section of the law that allows the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp to liquidate large, failing financial institutions seized by the government.

This authority was included in the law in an attempt to avoid the type of market chaos and government bailouts that followed the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 by giving the government a mechanism for better controlling the breakup of a financial giant.

Republicans have questioned whether the new authority will work and with budget deficits serving as a potent election-year issue they are proposing to eliminate it as a way to save $22 billion over 10 years.

Democrats accused Republicans of rolling back a reform intended to keep markets stable in order to get credit for phantom budget savings that will likely not materialize and are achieved only through gaming arcane congressional budget rules.

What the Republican motion here does today is return us to 2008 where there is no capacity to deal, in a reasonable way, with a failed institution, said Barney Frank, the lead Democrat on the committee and an author of the law.

In place of the new liquidation regime, Republicans want large failing, financial firms to go through the bankruptcy process, which they want to tweak to better accommodate Wall Street giants. They are not, however, offering this proposal as part of their deficit reduction legislation.

On Wednesday Republicans argued the liquidation authority puts taxpayer funding on the line, a claim Democrats said misrepresents the law.

Under Dodd-Frank, the FDIC can borrow money from the US Treasury to cover the cost of a liquidation. The regulator is then required, however, to charge large banks and other financial giants a fee to recoup these costs.

Democrats offered an amendment to collect the money up front so the FDIC would have less need to borrow in the future if a liquidation occurs. It was rejected.

Whether you prefund it, post fund it, refund it, its still a bailout fund, said Republican Jeb Hensarling.

Analysts joined Democrats in questioning the legitimacy of the budget savings that could be achieved by eliminating the liquidation powers.

The Congressional Budget Office, which measures the fiscal impact of policies for Congress, projects the liquidation repeal would save $22 billion over the next 10 years.

The CBO arrived at this figure because it assumes it may take longer than the 10-year period covered by the budget to collect the fees from banks used to offset the cost of a possible liquidation.

Its tough to understand where the $22 billion comes from – its a wild assumption since there are currently no cash flows involved with this part of Dodd-Frank, Brian Gardner, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette Woods Inc, said in a research note.

The proposal has little chance of becoming law this year, even if it is passed by the full House, due to opposition from Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama.

It plays, however, into the election-year debate over record-high budget deficits.

The bill approved by the Financial Services Committee is part of a larger plan by House Republicans to find budget savings that is being assembled this month.

In addition to repealing the liquidation authority, the committee voted to save an additional $13 billion by subjecting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus budget to annual congressional approval, ending a foreclosure prevention program funded by the 2008 bank bailout law and by making changes to flood insurance programs.

(Reporting By Dave Clarke; editing by Carol Bishopric)

NAPLES, Fla., Apr 26, 2012 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) –
Investors holding Lehman 100 percent principal protected notes or other Lehman structured products are now receiving word that their share of the initial Lehman bankruptcy distribution on April 17 amounts to 6 cents on the dollar.

“We’ve been informed by a representative of Wilmington Trust, the bankruptcy trustee that is handling Lehman notes distributions, that Lehman note holders may receive up to 21 cents on the dollar with that amount dribbled out over the next 3 to 5 years through the bankruptcy liquidation process,” said investor rights attorney Chris Vernon, of the Vernon Healy law firm. “In our ongoing efforts to assist investors, we are aggressively pursuing UBS in arbitrations before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for fraudulent misrepresentations to investors that their Lehman notes were safe and 100 percent principal protected.”

Vernon Healy has aggressively represented investors with more than $13 million in FINRA arbitration claims against UBS on behalf of Lehman note holders.

“We believe that this updated information from the bankruptcy trustee will shock those defrauded investors who have not obtained legal counsel yet and have held out hope that the bankruptcy process would provide them with some meaningful recovery,” Vernon said.

Vernon Healy’s advocacy on behalf of Lehman notes investors was featured in an AARP magazine article about the dangers of investing in structured products, which continue to be pitched by brokerage firms to retirees as safe investments. Vernon Healy’s ongoing investigation continues to reveal numerous concerns in relation to the sales of Lehman notes by UBS that have not been addressed by FINRA or federal regulators.

Vernon Healy claims have alleged that UBS fraudulently misrepresented Lehman principal protected notes not only to its brokerage firm clients but also to some of its own financial advisors, who continued to sell Lehman principal protected notes as safe investments to investors well after UBS knew Lehman was in financial trouble.

A second distribution in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy is scheduled for Sept. 30, 2012 and a third distribution is scheduled for March 30, 2013 with semi-annual distribution thereafter. The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September 2008 is the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history, and it touched off the world financial crisis and most significant economic recession since the Great Depression.

Former CEO Bryan Marsal, who ran Lehman during the bankruptcy, painted a bleak picture for creditors when he told Bloomberg Businessweek that the firm will continue selling assets through 2014 as it tries to raise a total of $65 billion to pay estimated claims of $370 billion.

Bloomberg Businessweek also noted that Enron investors were paid 53 cents on the dollar while average Lehman creditors will receive only an estimated 18 cents on the dollar.

Release link:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-11/lehman-creditors-to-get-22-dot-5b-payment

This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire,
www.globenewswire.com

SOURCE: Vernon Healy Attorneys at Law

CONTACT: Chris Vernon
Vernon Healy, attorneys at law
(239) 649-5390

www.vernonhealy.com
www.lehmannotes.com

(C) Copyright 2010 GlobeNewswire, Inc. All rights reserved.

Financial Glossary

Words used in this article:

Frank Long, president of International Content Liquidations, stops in the hallway near a mannequin on sale for $15 at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The closed hotel, which is scheduled for demolition, is reopening its doors temporarily for a liquidation sale of its contents, including televisions, linens, silver serving sets, artwork, furniture and fixtures.
(Mark Boster, Los Angeles Times / April 26, 2012)

English Football League chairman Greg Clarke says Portsmouth is facing the distinct possibility of liquidation.

Portsmouth have had several owners in recent years but have been in administration twice in three seasons and have now been relegated from the second-tier Championship to League One after a 10-point deduction in February for entering administration.

Only four years ago Pompey won the FA Cup but Clarke now believes the south coast side face the very real prospect of going out of business completely.

I think it (liquidation) is a distinct possibility because the debts of that club are immense, tens of millions of pounds, and they have relatively few assets, Clarke said.

Unless someone comes along with significant capital to invest in that club, that club will be liquidated by the administrators.

Clarke was speaking as the Football League launched financial fair play regulations designed to prevent member clubs bidding to get into the lucrative Premier League suffering the kind of crisis currently engulfing Fratton Park.

The regulations, which need Premier League approval, are due be brought in next term, but fines and transfer embargoes for non-compliance will not be introduced until the 2014/15 season.

Administrators want to stem the rising tide of debt in the Football League, responsible for the three divisions below the Premier League, which Clarke said could hit STG2 billion ($A3.14 billion) if left unchecked.

Concerns have been raised that placing limits on how much money owners can invest in clubs will mean already well-off teams will remain wealthy and so lead to a less competitive league, particularly in the Championship.

But Clarke said: The Championship is spending more and more and more money on players chasing the dream.

We do not want to kill the dream. What we want to do is make sure it affordable and make sure that the price of the dream is not the destruction of football clubs.

Under the new rules, Championship club owners will be limited in what they can invest in their team every season.

Next term their total investment will be capped at STG6 million. The following year they will be limited to STG5 million and in the 2014/15 season they will only be allowed to spend STG3 million per year.

Such rules would represent a massive change in the way English football does business. For example QPR, who were promoted to the Premier League last season, recorded a loss of over STG25 million last term.

The Wilshire Grand Hotel closed Dec. 23 to make way for a new development but is now open as its owner attempts to sell as many appliances and accessories as possible in the coming weeks before the wrecking ball arrives.

The sale is open to the public, and Frank Long, president of the company orchestrating the liquidation, is prepared.

“Will there be clashes?” he asked, referring to buyers who might want the same item. “All day long.

Admission costs $5 and there will be security guards throughout the building.

We are prepared, Long added. We know what to expect.

During the sale, visitors can wander through the lobby, the ballrooms and three of the hotel’s 16 floors.

Most everything not bolted down is up for grabs: 2,000-pound ice machines, sinks, coffee pots, coat hangers, floor polishers, beds, paintings, silverware, lamps, furniture, televisions, and marble, brass, wood or bronze building fixtures and three baby grand pianos.

Located on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and South Figueroa Street, the 60-year-old Wilshire Grand hosted such notables as Pope John Paul II and Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy.

Its owner, Korean Airlines, had planned on building two towers on the site but has revised the design as a single tower between 65 and 70 stories tall. Details have yet to be announced. The project is slated to be completed in three to five years.

The sale will continue seven days a week from 9 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 pm Sunday until everything is sold.

ALSO:

Los Angeles riots: Remember the 63 people who died

LAPD adds 30 officers to USC area after student slayings

Marine wifes blood found in car of Marine charged with murder

–Thomas Curwen and Hugo Martin