re: interco claims
existence of intercompany obligations
i don't doubt they exist, the question is how they arose and what should be their treament under BK
whether intercompany obligations should be avoided;
very possibly yes. this is not uncommon as there are often offsetting assets to offset the claims. Howeverm there's not enough information to understand this right now.
whether they should be pari passu with other obligations, subordinated to other obligations, or some other possibility;
BK deals with claims, not obligations and claims are organized into classes with no claim receiving different treatment than other other claims of that class. I think it's not questionable that most of these claims are Class 8 claims. If some are grouped with senior classes, then this is a real isue to examine.
or whether they should be recharacterized to be deemed to be
contributions of equity and not debt.
I'm not sure about this, but i'm not sure you can say that the interco claim is deemed an equity contribution. The interco claim may recover through receipt of new shares (or may contribute "new equity"), but this is different than equating a claim as an equity contribution. Interco claims may contribute to the book value of equity (depending on how accounting entries are booked), but the book value of equity has little bearing in a case like this.
