The bankruptcy saga of REDGroup Retail appears to be in its closing stages thanks to a number of developments over the weekend. Administrators Ferrier Hodgson failed to reach an agreement with creditors on a reorganization plan, laid off an additional 34 employees at REDGroup’s Melbourne headquarters, and on Monday informed suppliers that the company’s remaining stores in Australia would not accept stock after June 1, with any orders made on books not yet delivered should be cancelled. In a letter to landlords and suppliers, REDGroup’s administrators said they had hoped to find a way to keep the remaining 9 Borders […]
Legal
Creditors Oppose Borders Bid For More Time, and Seattle’s Best Objects to Contract Cancellation
Borders’ unsecured creditors committee objected to the bookseller’s bid for more time to come up with a plan to exit Chapter 11 in a court filing Thursday afternoon on several grounds. They are “gravely concerned” that extending the exclusivity period up to 120 days “could be detrimental to the interests of the debtors’ general unsecured creditors” and would only work if the committee itself could have the right to “file and solicit a plan at any time” (the unstated purpose of which would likely be to ask for liquidation, though they cite cases in which creditors did draft their own […]
Borders Wants Extension on Filing and Soliciting Chapter 11 Exit Strategy
Yesterday in bankruptcy court Borders filed a motion asking for an extension on their exclusive period to file (and receive approval) for a reorganization or sale. The current deadline to file a plan is June 16, but Borders wants another four months (also extending the deadline for approval to December 13). In the motion, Borders acknowledges what the creditors have been underscoring since the original court skirmish over the booksellers’ debtor-in-possession financing plan: “if the Debtors are not granted the requested extension of their Exclusive Periods and exclusivity is terminated, they will be in default under their DIP Credit Agreement.” […]
Mamut Gets Waterstone’s for £53 Million, with Daunt to Run Company
The long, drawn-out process of selling Waterstone’s to minority investor Alexander Mamut is over, with his A&NN Capital Fund Management buying the bookseller for an increased price of £53 million. Parent company HMV didn’t get the £75 million it wanted (and theoretically need to help keep its lenders at bay), but the Russian billionaire paid considerably more than his reported original offer of £35 million. And Tim Waterstone, long speculated by an unimaginative UK press to be Mamut’s partner in the potential deal, will not be involved. Current managing director Dominic Myers won’t be moving with Waterstone’s, and will stay with […]
Mortenson Sued for Fraud and Racketeering; Class-Action Status Is Sought
While Montana’s Attorney General looks into Greg Mortenson’s dealings with his charity CAI, two state lawmakers–Rep. Michele Reinhart of Missoula to buy the book and Rep. Jean Price of Great Falls–filed suit in a Missoula Federal Court against Mortenson, alleging fraud. They claim they “purchased the book because of his heart-wrenching story which he said was true,” says their attorney Alexander Blewett. “If people had known all of this was fabricated, they would not have given the money.” The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status and have asked the judge to creative a “constructive trust” to be “administered by a court-appointed […]
Briefs: Borders HQ Asking Price Slashed; ‘Mirkwood’ Lawsuit Settled; Publisher Acquisitions; And More
Agree Realty, hit particularly hard by Borders’ bankruptcy as a result of owning 14 properties where the retailer held long-term listings, has slashed the asking price for the company’s Ann Arbor headquarters from $18.349 million to $10 million. Earlier this year Borders indicated it was seeking cheaper and smaller space in the suburban Detroit area, as the 330,000 square-foot headquarters used to house as many as 1800 employees, but that number is down to 500 or less. AnnArbor.com The Tolkien Estate settled its lawsuit against author Stephen Hilliard, whose novel Mirkwood features JRR Tolkien as a character. The estate argued […]