On January 28, Judge Brendan Shannon of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware confirmed Motor Coach Industries' Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization. The confirmation of the Plan is the culmination of months of effort to restructure Motor Coach's debt obligations and implement a pre-negotiated Chapter 11 plan under which certain existing lenders will invest new capital and convert their debt claims into equity.
The plan was vigorously opposed by the Company's unsecured creditors committee because its constituents' claims receive nothing under the plan. After months of litigation, on the eve of trial the Committee was forced to abandon all but a single legal objection, which was then overruled by the court following argument.
The Company is now working toward closing of the plan transactions and expects to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of February.
Motor Coach, headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois, is the largest assembler of intercity buses for the tour, charter and commuter transit sectors in the U.S. and Canada, and enjoys the largest market share of new coach sales to both private and public sector customers.
The STB team includes: Ken Ziman, Kathy McLendon, Elisha Graff, Terry Sanders and Lauren Gee (Bankruptcy), Tom Rice, Bryce Friedman, Mary Beth Forshaw, Chris Lucht, Ian Dattner, Jeffrey Roether, Josh Kiman, Raina Nortick and Batsheva Eadan (Litigation), Soogy Lee, Nick Feinberg, Jill Kalish, Jeremy Friedman and Sandra Kister (Financing), Gary Horowitz, Mark Brod and Folake Ayoola (Corporate), Steve Todrys, Jonathan Goldstein and Aaron Cohen (Tax) and Eric Sarabia (Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits).
The STB team also received tremendous support from paralegals Sean Weekes, Lis Juterbock and Andrew Laird.