Mercuria is providing $40m towards the litigation proceeds in exchange for 100% equity in the re-organized company that comes out of Bankruptcy.
That $40m plus whatever other money is part of the litigation proceeds will be used as follows:
1st) The unsecured creditors of the parent company will be paid
2nd) The unsecured creditors of the subsidiary companies will be paid
3rd) whatever is left over at that point (the residuals) will go to the pre-petition common shareholders (so whoever owned stock prior to the petition)
There is likely to be little to no $$ left after all the unsecured creditors are paid but I haven't studied the financials to see who is owed what. Maybe owning the stock will give out a big enough cash payout to make up for the equity (stock) being cancelled for the pre-petition shareholders.
People buying now and holding until the plan is approved - would get nothing (not even $$ from the litigation proceeds) based on the information in that press release since the petition was already filed and the shareholder list already submitted.