I'm very familiar with the kmart story, I went long after the restructure exactly how I'm going long with wmih now.
I recommend to you not to bring up a bk situation that you are not familiar with and trying to compare it to wamu/wmih.
I am calling you on your b.s.. Common shares of kmart were cancelled and share holders of the bk company received nada, nothing. Those that made money are those that went long when lampert took over. Common shareholders of the bk kmart were screwed because the stupid judge would not allow a true equity committee at the table to prove that the real estate was under valued by 10x. Also, the judge was a wac job and told the court that he wanted this out of his court in a year and thus the restructure took no time at all. What lampert did was get the real estate fair valued and levered that to buy sears holding and the rest is history.
====================================================================
A: Many individual investors are understandably upset about Kmart.
For those of you who missed the drama, here's what happened: The discount retailer fell on very hard times. Not only were the company's financials eroding due to competition with Wal-Mart and Target, but alleged fraud by the management team also put the company in a bind. As a result, Kmart entered Chapter 11 in 2002. It emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2003.
And it has been a very different company since then. Kmart was able to shed its detrimental loan agreements. It also emerged with a savvy new management team that knew how to extract value from the battered brand.
But as part of the restructuring, Kmart also cancelled its common stock. Shares of the old Kmart under the symbol KM expired with no value on May 6, 2003. This is actually a pretty common event when companies enter bankruptcy protection. Remember, as an owner of common stock, you are last in line for remaining assets in case of a default or other business failure.
But what makes this situation so difficult for owners of the old Kmart stock to handle is that the new Kmart then issued new stock under the name Kmart Holding, trading under the symbol KMRT. Shares of this new stock did extraordinarily well, gaining 26% this year. And get this: The stock gained more than 250% in just one year! Now the stock is under the symbol SHLD after the merger with Sears.
Some investors may feel cheated. But it's important to realize the Kmart stock that's trading so well today isn't the same one that crashed. It's essentially a new company that has retained the old name. Once again, it's an important tale that reminds investors the importance of dumping shares before losses exceed 10% of the purchase price. Doing that with Kmart could have saved investors from a complete loss.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
