He may be able to get it done! “If you’re not at the table, you don’t get fed,” their lawyer, Martin Bienenstock, told a judge in Manhattan before Friday’s ruling. “These shareholders, 180,000 of them, can’t negotiate effectively without a committee.”
The shareholders represented by Bienenstock argued that Los Angeles-based Breitburn is valuing its assets at less than their real worth so it can overpay creditors and give management stock options in a newly reorganized company at artificially low strike prices. Meanwhile, the shareholders say they needlessly would be forced to absorb losses.
The investors point to the company’s pre-bankruptcy asset valuation and a recent rise in oil prices, saying there could be as much as $1 billion to distribute to shareholders.
