If you’re a creditor of Tribune Company, don’t worry about submitting your vote on management’s proposed Chapter 11 reorganization plan by August 20th. Federal Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey has put the vote on hold.
Carey signed the order Tuesday, putting off the vote while Tribune Company continues to try to negotiate a settlement with the myriad interested parties. No new date has been set, with the judge’s order stating only that the deadline has been extended until a new date is set by the court.
Meanwhile, the latest party to file an objection to the management reorg plan is Sam Zell, the Chairman of the company’s board of directors and former CEO. Zell’s personal investment vehicle company EGI-TRB LLC says in a filing with the bankruptcy court that it may be entitled to get back some of the $315 million that Zell invested in the ill-fated 2007 leveraged buyout of Tribune.
The filing reasons that since the report of court-appointed examiner Kenneth Klee found no financial wrongdoing by Zell, his EGI-TRB should be entitled to a recovery if the court is to allow any recovery by lower ranking creditors. Zell’s lawyers claim the EGI-TRB notes clearly outrank the so-called “PHONES” notes, whose holders are represented by the Bank of Montreal Trust Company as trustee. No doubt the bank will have something to say about that.
