why no committee request is puzzling - a EC not only protects the shares of its members - it carries a fiduciary responsibility to protect all shares - so having one is a big deal. First step to get one is to informally go to the US Trustee's office and request. I've only ever seen the US Trustee say yes once - its just kneejerk reaction of 'no' which means you have to go and ask the judge. In order to ask the judge and not be tossed out, you have to be able to present a credible argument about why the company is not 'hopelessly insolvent' and why mgmt is not already adequately representing shareholders. The latter one is not a big deal, the former one is - and you can't really go in there with a back of envelope calculation. Obviously the creditor committee doesn't want this to happen and usually the debtor as well, even if they care about equity, because the EC has to be at the table, which means more lawyer bills and more people to sign off on any decision - its already tough and an EC makes it tougher - so most don't want to see it happen - but if a case can be made then you get it. So why haven't they? My only guess is that they lack enough hard data to make a credible trip in front of the judge. You can always have an ad hoc committee - but these committees don't have an official seat at the table, and they have to pay their own way - and these atty's charge 400 to 700 an hour. Ad hoc committees are usually formed just to motion for official status - they disband if they fail just due to cost. I remember Allied Holdings had an ad hoc that stayed in tact for a while - but at the end they gave up when the fees got out of control and the main creditor who was stealing the company offered to reimb the cost of half the members - they took the deal and disappeared leaving the other half looking stupid. An ad hoc committee, btw, only has to repesent its own members best interest - which is usually aligned with the rest but not always. I think Enesco also had an ad hoc committee that basically manuevered to buy out assets on the cheap for itself - the rest of got the old empty bag.
