Motors Liquidation Company

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 5

Motors Liquidation Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

Motors Liquidation Company logo Motors Liquidation Company (Pink Sheets: MTLQQ) is the company left to settle past liability claims from General Motors Chapter 11 reorganization. Motors Liquidation Company is continuing court proceedings which will ultimately lead to settling liability claims. [1] [2] Motors Liquidation Company announced on July 10, 2009, in relation to its equity and debt investors:[3] Management continues to remind investors of its strong belief that there will be no value for the common stockholders in the bankruptcy liquidation process, even under the most optimistic of scenarios. Stockholders of a company in chapter 11 generally receive value only if all claims of the company's secured and unsecured creditors are fully satisfied. In this case, management strongly believes all such claims will not be fully satisfied, leading to its conclusion that the common stock will have no value. None of the publicly owned stocks or bonds issued by the former General Motors Corporation (now renamed "Motors Liquidation Company"), including its common stock formerly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "GM", are or will become securities of General Motors Company (the "new GM"), which is an independent separate company. All of these securities relate to Motors Liquidation Company, and will be treated in accordance with the provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and the rulings of the Bankruptcy court. Motors Liquidation Company's stock symbol was changed from GMGMQ to MTLQQ, effective July 15, 2009.

Contents
[hide]

1 History o 1.1 Bankruptcy filing o 1.2 Obligation to privately-owned individual franchise dealerships o 1.3 Court schedule and motions o 1.4 Sale of good assets to New GM o 1.5 Hummer collapse o 1.6 Failed sale of Saturn

1.7 Sale of Saab to Spyker Cars 1.8 Sale of most assets to New GM 2 Successful units transferred from MLC to GM 3 References 4 External links

o o

[edit] History
[edit] Bankruptcy filing
Wikinews has coverage of the speech and press conference:

Barack Obama presents rescue plan after GM declaration of bankruptcy Fritz Henderson outlines plan for "New GM" after GM declaration of bankruptcy

On the morning of 1 June 2009, Chevrolet-Saturn of Harlem, a dealership in Manhattan that is owned by GM itself, filed for bankruptcy protection there, followed in the same court by General Motors Corporation (the main GM in Detroit), GM's subsidiary Saturn LLC, and Saturn LLC's subsidiary Saturn Distribution Corporation. All cases were assigned to Judge Robert Gerber.[4] The filing by the dealership declared General Motors to be a debtor in possession.[5] The dealership's filing allowed General Motors to file its own bankruptcy petition in the Southern District court of Manhattan, New York, its preferred court. Normally for such cases, the company would have filed in the courts located in the state(s) where the company is incorporated, or where it conducts operations, which for Detroit-headquartered General Motors would have been the courts in Michigan or Delaware, where it is incorporated. General Motors' attorneys, however, preferred to file in the federal courts in New York, because those courts have a reputation for expertise in bankruptcy.[6] In a press conference that began four hours and eighteen minutes after the filing, the GM Chief Executive Officer, Fritz Henderson, stressed that he intended for the bankruptcy process to move quickly.[7] In addition to Mr Henderson's press conference, President of the United States Barack Obama made a speech from the White House four hours three minutes after the court filing.[8]

[edit] Obligation to privately-owned individual franchise dealerships


Prior to General Motors bankruptcy filing, US state law governed the minimum required distance between same-franchise dealers; known as the six-mile rule. The six-mile rule prohibits samefranchise dealers from locating within six miles of each other. In 2001 General Motors formally declared Project 2000 would be implemented as part of a brand-channeling strategy designed to consolidate its network of privately owned individual franchise dealerships and reduce the number of locations from 7,300 to 3,800. Project 2000 served as the primary mechanism for combining single-point Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealer locations together forming a single corporate brand division (BPG). Project 2000 also targeted single-point Cadillac-Hummer-Saab dealer

locations and allowed single-point Chevrolet and Saturn dealer locations to stand on their own. Project 2000 calculated the fair market value for each individually owned dealer franchise to be $3,000 per vehicle based on total volume from any one of the previous three years. Upon agreement of a fair market value, dealers with interest in selling their franchise rights were free to negotiate with each other, and ultimately execute a buy-sell agreement which contained mutually agreed upon terms and conditions required to legally sell and transfer franchise property and ownership rights. Section 363 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code expedited General Motors Project 2000 efforts to reduce its dealer network and circumvent state and federal criminal laws prohibiting the illegal sale of property, or transfer of ownership by an unauthorized party. Thousands of family-owned, [profitable], well-capitalized dealerships were forced to forfeit their franchise rights to a neighboring dealer-competitor selected by General Motors. Compensation has not yet[when?] been awarded in cases where individual dealer franchise property and ownership rights were transferred for the purpose of granting such rights to a nearby dealer selected by General Motors. In addition to reports of fraud and theft filed with the police, GM dealers joined to from the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights [1]. The committee to restore dealer rights is responsible for helping draft HR 2743, which asserts the action taken by General Motors to consolidate its dealer network by transferring individual dealer franchise ownership and property without compensation was illegal. As of February 22, 2010, HR 2743 remains in committee.

[edit] Court schedule and motions


The General Motors bankruptcy case is formally entitled In re General Motors Corp., and is case number 09-50026 in the Southern District, Manhattan, New York.[9] General Motors is represented by the New York specialist law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. The United States Treasury and an ad hoc group of the bondholders of General Motors Corporation are also represented in court.[10] One of the first motions filed in court was one to void the leases on the seven corporate jets, and corporate aircraft hangar at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, for being no longer valuable to the company's business a lease that the company had, according to its spokesman, found itself unable to escape in 2008 when it had tried to.[9] On June 1, 2009, the court gave interim approval to GM's request to borrow US$ 15 billion as debtor-in-possession funding, the company only having US$ 2 billion cash in hand. The United States Treasury argued in court that it was the only source of such debtor in possession funding, and that without the money from the loan General Motors would have no option but liquidation. Other motions in the first-day hearing included motions to approve payments to key suppliers and to employees and distributors who are in possession of goods manufactured for General Motors. All motions passed in court without substantial objection.[10][11] The case schedule laid out by the court is as follows:

2009-06-19: Deadline for filing all objections to the sale of General Motors.[11] 2009-06-22: Deadline for making competing bids in the auction of General Motors' assets.[11]

2009-06-25: Final hearing on the bankruptcy loan.[11] 2009-07-10: Deadline for completion of the sale, requested by the U.S. Treasury and General Motors.[10][11]

[edit] Sale of good assets to New GM


The plan for General Motors' bankruptcy is to auction off the company's assets in a section 363 sale.[10][12] [13][14][15] Because the price that these assets are expected to sell for is very high, there is expected to be only one bidder in the auction, a new company NGMCO Inc[16]. This company is formed by the United States government with a 60% stake, the federal government of Canada and provincial government of Ontario with a 12% stake, the United and Canadian Auto Workers unions[17] with a 17.5% stake, and the unsecured bondholders of General Motors with a 10% stake.[10] The selling company is called Motors Liquidation Company.[18] A creditor meeting, at the New York Hilton, held by the United States Trustee Program, was scheduled for June 3, 2009.[11]

[edit] Hummer collapse


On June 1, 2009, GM announced that the Hummer brand would be discontinued. The following day GM announced that it had reached a deal to sell the brand to an undisclosed buyer.[19] Later, on June 2, 2009 the buyer was disclosed to be China-based Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd.[20][21][22] Sichuan Tengzhong itself confirmed the deal on their website the same day.[23] The proposed transaction was scheduled to close in the third quarter of 2009, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals; financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.[23] Credit Suisse was acting as exclusive financial advisor and Shearman & Sterling was acting as international legal counsel to Tengzhong on this transaction. Citi acted as financial advisor to GM.[23] Chinese regulators refused to allow for the purchase of the brand and GM decided on February 24, 2010 to retire the brand. Despite the failed sale, GM discussed entertaining interest in part of the Hummer brand, subsequently made no effort in that direction, leaving Hummer to close.

[edit] Failed sale of Saturn


On June 5, 2009, GM announced that the Saturn brand would be sold to the Penske Automotive Group.[24] Penske is a Fortune 500 American company operated by Indy 500 racing legend Roger Penske. GM would continue building the Aura, Outlook and Vue for Penske for two years. However, the Penske deal failed and now the Saturn division is defunct.

[edit] Sale of Saab to Spyker Cars


On June 16, 2009, it was announced that Koenigsegg and a group of Norwegian investors plan to acquire the Saab brand from General Motors. GM will continue to supply architecture and powertrain technology for an unspecified amount of time.[25] It also becomes the last brand/subsidiary from GM to be sold (Hummer was first, followed by Saturn). The deal failed on

November 24, 2009.[26] GM, however, requested Spyker Cars to acquire Saab from MLC a few weeks later. But however, MLC announced it would close Saab on December 19, 2009, although this plan was later reversed. Motors Liquidation Company had until January 7, 2010 for the deadline of the revised bid. The sale of Saab to Spyker was approved on January 26, 2010,[27] and completed on February 23, 2010.[28]

[edit] Sale of most assets to New GM


On July 10, 2009, the purchase of the ongoing operational assets and trade name of "old GM" was completed and the purchasing entity, "NGMCO Inc"[16], changed its name to "General Motors Company LLC" after the purchase,[18] [29].The new GM aims for an IPO in 2010.[30]

[edit] Successful units transferred from MLC to GM


Buick Cadillac Chevrolet GMC Holden o Holden Special Vehicles GM Daewoo Adam Opel GmbH SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile - Chinese joint venture with GM Vauxhall Motors

Pontiac remained with GM into the new GM, but it will be phased out at the end of 2010 (2011 in Canada).

[edit]

You might also like