You mean you want to see the signed confirmation order.
BTW, I am not frustrated at all.
As for "give ups", show me where it benefits CTs in this Lehman case? Don't give me examples, because they are useless if the Lehman POR has already been approved for confirmation.
Seniors are still not paid in full.
Lehman Closes a Chapter As $65 Billion Bankruptcy Plan Is Approved, Cheers and Tears Color Courtroom
By JOSEPH CHECKLER
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s $65 billion creditor-payment plan was confirmed, a milestone in the investment bank's record-setting bankruptcy case and a denouement in the saga of the collapse that tipped world economies into chaos in 2008.
Judge James Peck of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan signed off on the proposal, which benefits creditors of Lehman's subsidiaries more than other groups. Tuesday's approval sets the stage for Lehman creditors to start getting their money back sometime early next year, an outcome that seemed unlikely as recently as earlier this year. More
Lehman Names Its Wind-Down Board Topics: Lehman Brothers
The voice of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP's Harvey Miller, Lehman's lead bankruptcy attorney, quivered as he recounted the early days of Lehman's collapse and the looks on employees' faces as they cleaned out their desks in September 2008.
"It seems only like yesterday that we started this journey," Mr. Miller said. He later added, "Order evolved out of chaos." [lehman] Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Lehman's 2008 collapse led to thousands of lost jobs, including that of this London staffer.
In confirming the plan, Judge Peck said that while the Lehman bankruptcy "accelerated the financial crisis," the case represented the most "overwhelming outpouring of creditor consensus in the history of insolvency law. What a difference three years makes." The packed courtroom applauded after Judge Peck's remarks.
Lehman hopes for its plan to be effective by the end of January, and will be able to start paying back the creditors soon after that. The company will continue to exist, however, as it still has pending litigation with some parties, plus billions of dollars in assets—mostly in real estate. Money Lehman recovers from sales of assets would be distributed to the creditors, a process that will probably go on for years.
Lehman's latest plan, filed in June, gives those owed money from Lehman's various subsidiaries larger recoveries than they would have received under an original plan. For example, some creditors of Lehman's Specialty Finance Unit—the heart of the failed investment bank's derivatives business—will receive more than 30 cents on the dollar, but the plan sets limits on how much they can claim. Bondholders of the Lehman parent will get less: about 21.1 cents on the dollar.
Lehman's plan reflects not only a compromise between the creditors of its parent company and those of its nearly two dozen subsidiaries—two groups that themselves had filed competing plans earlier this year before withdrawing them—but also satisfies last-minute concerns of a host of creditors from all over the world. By Tuesday, Mr. Miller said all but one minor objection, from a firm called Dotson Investments Ltd., had been resolved.
A lawyer for the firm, which like other objectors thought Lehman's plan should be one of "substantive consolidation" that pays creditors from one big pot of money, wanted to examine Lehman witnesses. Lehman and a lawyer for its creditors each said Tuesday that such a plan would result in years of litigation and delay distributions to creditors. Judge Peck said the objection could be construed as an attempt at "coercion" toward a deal with Lehman for better recovery.
Since the investment bank's collapse in September 2008, a team of hundreds of bankruptcy professionals under the direction of Alvarez & Marsal Inc. has managed Lehman's assets—which include real-estate holdings, corporate debt and derivatives—for the benefit of creditors. Fees paid to professionals in the case are near $1.5 billion.
Lehman estimated earlier this year that there would likely be $322 billion in allowed claims against its bankruptcy estate, with $272 billion from the parent company and about $50 billion from its various subsidiaries.
"Confirmation of this plan is a testament to the enormous efforts of the many stakeholders who recognized the value of an economic compromise plan and did yeoman's work to achieve it," said Alvarez & Marsal's Bryan Marsal, Lehman's chief executive. [1206lehman] Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 15, 2008.
Despite the confirmation of its Chapter 11 plan, Lehman Brothers Holdings still has billions of dollars in real estate and other assets and will continue to exist as it unloads those investments. As part of its overall plan, Lehman on Monday named a new seven-member board of directors that includes executives and directors of businesses and subsidiaries related to Delphi Automotive PLC, Morgan Stanley, American International Group Inc. and Capmark Financial Group Inc., among others, according to court documents.
Toward the end of the hearing, Mr. Miller, Lehman's attorney, told Judge Peck, "Nobody thought this would be over in three years."
"Well, it's not over yet," Judge Peck responded.
Write to Joseph Checkler at joseph.checkler@dowjones.com
AI
