Lehman Bros 6.5% Pref''d Series "F" (fka LEHFQ)

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HUGE NEWS:

Lehman Might Put All Creditors in Same Payment Pool (Update2)
By Linda Sandler

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which filed an initial plan of reorganization today, said it might resort to a pooling of assets that would diminish returns for lenders with strong claims and benefit those with weaker ones, if creditors don’t agree to its proposals.

More than $830 billion in claims have been filed against Lehman, which has said many are duplicates. Under its proposed reorganization plan, creditors of Lehman units guaranteed by the parent won’t be able to seek more money than they are owed by putting in duplicate claims against the parent, said John Suckow, Lehman’s president, in a phone interview today.

“We have tried to come up with a construct to deal fairly with all of the different administrations around the globe and the different type of claims being filed at the subsidiaries and at the parent company,” Suckow said. “If we’re unsuccessful in getting creditors’ agreement, we’re not giving up on substantive consolidation,” he said, referring to the pooling of assets.

In today’s filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Lehman said it would treat creditors and equity holders of the parent company, as well as creditors of its units, according to bankruptcy law. The amounts they would receive weren’t given, as the New York-based firm is still calculating assets available to pay creditors and trying to resolve claims filed against it, according to court papers.

Lehman’s filing estimated the real debt of its affiliates at about $115 billion, including its European companies. Claims against the parent company for guarantees of those affiliates’ debt “significantly” exceed that amount, Suckow said.

Enron, Owens Corning

Substantive consolidation was used by Enron Corp. and proposed by Owens Corning to pay all creditors the same percentage of their claims. For Lehman, such a plan would eliminate the time and expense of figuring out what creditors of different units are owed, while also preventing some creditors, who hold the parent company’s guarantees of a subsidiary’s debt, from seeking to get paid by both the parent and the unit.

If Lehman creates a single asset pool for repayments, it will likely draw opposition from creditors anticipating a larger-than-average payout, said William Widen, a University of Miami law professor who has published articles on substantive consolidation.

“I would expect there to be quite a fight,” Widen said today in a phone interview. “If I have priority claims against assets through a guarantee and someone eliminates my priority, I’m going to fight tooth and nail.”

Suckow said today’s plan was an effort to avoid “costly and excessive litigation.”

Dennis Dunne, a lawyer for Lehman’s committee of unsecured creditors, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment today.

Real Estate, Uranium

While it’s mostly liquidating assets to pay creditors, Lehman is holding on to some units and properties including real estate, uranium stockpiles and private equity. Those units will continue to operate until sale prices of their assets recover, under Lehman’s plan.

A new unit called Lamco will be set up to manage those assets, which will remain within the subsidiaries, according to Lehman’s plan.

Lamco will use skills developed for running Lehman’s businesses and help to “provide long-term employment opportunities for the debtors’ employees,” Lehman said in a separate filing.

Lehman, which sought court protection in September 2008 with assets of $639 billion, had 18 months under bankruptcy rules to file a reorganization plan. It has asked a judge to give it more time to file a disclosure document with details of its plan.

The case is In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 08-13555, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in New York at [e-mail].

Last Updated: March 15, 2010 21:02 EDT

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