On June 1, 2009, General Motors Corporation (“GM”) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York (the “Court”). Pursuant to numerous first day motions filed by GM, the Court has entered various orders relating to the administration of this bankruptcy proceeding. Of particular significance to GM’s suppliers are the following:
1. Deadlines Relating to the Assumption of Supplier Contracts.
On April 16, General Growth Properties, Inc. and certain of its affiliates (“GGP”) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. GGP operates a national network of approximately 200 shopping centers. To the surprise of many, most of GGP’s property-specific SPE subsidiaries (“SPE Debtors”) also filed for bankruptcy.
Late Sunday night, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez approved the sale of most of Chrysler's assets to Italian Automaker Fiat S.p.A., as contemplated in the Master Transaction Agreement between the two companies.
General Motors and Affiliates File for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection
In an unpublished summary order applying New York law, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has affirmed a district court's judgment finding that many of the factual allegations asserted in a complaint against the directors and officers of the bankrupt policyholder were excluded by a prior litigation exclusion, even though some of the excluded losses accrued during time periods not at issue in the prior litigation. Pereira v. Gulf Ins. Co., 2009 WL 1262954 (2d Cir. May 6, 2009).
As the federal government and private markets make progress to quell economic recession and stimulate the engines of financial growth, recent headlines from the commercial real estate industry have focused on certain developments, such as the proposed changes in rating agency methodologies and the repeated false starts with the government’s TALF and PPIP programs.
As widely expected, GM and all of its domestic subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on June 1, 2009. Besides General Motors Corporation, the other three associated debtors are: Chevrolet-Saturn of Harlem, Inc., Saturn, LLC and Saturn Distribution Corporation. Please note that GMAC is not included in these bankruptcy filings.
The Chapter 11 filings on April 16, 2009 by General Growth Properties, Inc. (“GGP”), GGP Limited Partnership (“GGP LP”) and 166 of their shopping center subsidiaries, many of which were formed as bankruptcy-remote, special purpose entities (“SPEs”), raised concerns for the commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”) industry.