Delphi fka DPH

[Thor71]

Judge Grants Delphi Use of $950M Loan
Tuesday October 11, 9:40 pm ET
Judge Grants Delphi Use of $950M Loan; Company Expected to Divest Portion of U.S. Plants


NEW YORK (AP) -- A judge on Tuesday approved the use of $950 million in financing for auto supplier Delphi Corp., which is expected to consolidate or divest a significant portion of its U.S. plants during its stay in bankruptcy court.



That sum is part of a $2 billion debtor-in-possession loan assembled by a consortium of lenders led by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Global Markets Inc., which will help the company operate during its bankruptcy, expected to end in early 2007.

Delphi lawyers said the company would need only $565 million until the next financing hearing on Oct. 27, but that a " cushion" was necessary.

At Tuesday's hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain also said he would extend an order allowing Delphi to continue paying employees' salaries and benefits. A temporary order to do so had been granted on Saturday, when the auto supplier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors.

Earlier, an attorney for Troy, Mich.-based Delphi said the company had filed for bankruptcy " to deal with our legacy liabilities in the U.S." He added that much of Delphi's profit is generated abroad and that " we don't make money on what we produce here in the U.S."

Attorneys for the company also defended the recent extension of a severance package for executives, saying the company had sought " noncompete" agreements from them to protect its business interests.

Delphi beefed up the severance agreements for 21 of its top executives on Friday, the day before it filed for bankruptcy. Under the new agreement, executives will be eligible for 18 months of pay and at least a portion of their bonus if Delphi lays them off or they leave voluntarily. Previously severance packages were capped at 12 months. In exchange, the executives signed agreements promising not to work for competitors for 18 months.

The United Auto Workers, which represents nearly half of Delphi's U.S. employees, recently lambasted the company for sweetening executive packages before filing for bankruptcy.

Delphi has 31 plants in 13 states. The company has 185,000 employees worldwide, 50,600 of which are U.S. employees, including 34,750 hourly workers and 15,850 salaried workers.

Delphi has struggled to turn a profit since General Motors Corp., now its biggest customer, spun it off in 1999. It lost $4.8 billion in 2004 and nearly $750 million in the first half of this year.

GM could be liable for some of Delphi's retirement benefits. GM said this week it may have to assume up to $11 billion in retirement benefits for union-covered employees who transferred from GM to Delphi.

Delphi, No. 63 on the 2005 Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations, listed $17.1 billion in assets and $22.2 billion in debt in Saturday's bankruptcy petition.

Separately on Tuesday, the federal agency that insures pension plans said the bankrupt auto supplier's pension plan is underfunded by $10.8 billion.

The amount takes into account any assets the company already has in the plan, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. spokesman Jeffrey Speicher said.

Delphi could shift some of its pension obligations to the PBGC as part of its restructuring. But Speicher said the PBGC would insure no more than $4.1 billion, or less than half the total necessary to meet Delphi's obligations to retirees.

The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of Delphi shares Tuesday. The shares are now trading on the Pink Sheets, an over-the-counter electronic trading platform.

Delphi Corp., http://www.delphi.com