Monday, October 31, 2011

Tribune Judge Says He’s Ready to Issue Bankruptcy Decision, May Act Today

By Steven Church

The judge overseeing Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy said he may issue his opinion about two competing proposals for reorganizing the newspaper publisher this afternoon.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey in Wilmington, Delaware, told Tribune’s chief restructuring officer, Donald J. Liebentritt, at a hearing that the opinion the company and its creditors have waited months to see should be available today.

“I am hopeful something will be on the docket before you get to Washington,” Carey told Liebentritt, who said he would be taking a 4:30 p.m. train to the U.S. capital from Wilmington today. Carey didn’t say how he would rule.

Carey, who has presided over the case since it was filed in December 2008, has been asked to choose between plans to reorganize Tribune, which owes creditors about $13 billion and is now worth $6.75 billion, according to court records.

The judge made his comments at the end of a hearing in which he gave creditors permission to get the names of former Tribune shareholders that may be sued for collecting money related to the company’s 2007 leveraged buyout. Unsecured creditors say they plan to sue some of the company’s biggest former shareholders, arguing that the buyout harmed creditors by piling too much debt on the company.

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