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COMPETING
PLAN SOLICITATIONS Prescriptive strategies, flawless execution, an ability to think clearly on our feet, and outstanding communication abilities enable us to thrive in tense situations and consistently exceed client expectations. Simply put, we know how to develop and implement winning strategies. Below are some examples of our work in contested plan situations: MONTGOMERY WARD LLC The Altman Group was retained by the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors for Montgomery Ward to oppose the plan of reorganization put forward by GE Capital Corporation (the 100% owner of Montgomery Ward since it emerged from its prior bankruptcy filing) and promoted by Georgeson Shareholder Communications as GECC's solicitation firm. The Altman Group provided pre-solicitation strategic consulting, wrote and edited Committee solicitation materials and provided counsel for the Committee's responses to GECC's materials. For the solicitation, The Altman Group trained a large team of phone agents to contact a universe of tens of thousands of mostly unsophisticated creditors and in plain English advocate support for the Committee's plan and against the GECC plan. Result: The Committee plan was approved by the Court after receiving an overwhelming endorsement by creditors in terms of both numerosity and dollar amounts, while GECC's was voted down by the creditors.
Originally invited by PG&E to submit a proposal for the role of solicitation agent against several proxy solicitors, The Altman Group put forward a plan of action so comprehensive and unique that PG&E decided to retain The Altman Group as the strategic consultant for its competing plan solicitation. In addition to providing strategic counsel and developing the full solicitation strategy, The Altman Group wrote and edited solicitation materials and trained a solicitation team consisting of almost fifty PG&E executives. Result: PG&E received approval from nine of ten voting classes. Confirmation is pending.
DOW CORNING TORT CLAIMANTS' COMMITTEE Originally retained by the Committee for silicon implant recipients as communications and balloting consultant to defeat the plan being proposed by Dow Corning, The Altman Group wrote or edited materials provided to claimants by the Tort Claimants Committee and Dow Corning once a joint/consensual plan was agreed to. Among other activities, we arranged numerous separate conference calls for claimants and their attorneys to speak with members of the Tort Claimants Committee and their counsel. The Altman Group established a court-mandated telephone center to receive and respond to calls from claimants with questions related to the plan of reorganization which, as holders, each had received by a joint mailing from Dow Corning and the Tort Committee. A team of 40 people staffed the telephone center from 8:00 a.m. until midnight, Monday through Saturday, over the nine weeks that the balloting period was open. Result: Claimants overwhelmingly approved the plan of reorganization.
The Altman Group was originally retained by a dissident shareholder group seeking bankruptcy court approval to compel the debtor to call a scheduled annual meeting, due to be but not held before the Chapter 11 filing. When several of the dissident shareholders were appointed to the Equity Committee, we provided counsel to that group. Although the Equity Committee sought court approval to retain us nunc pro tunc as agent to solicit votes against the debtor's plan of reorganization, the court did not approve the application. Four days after the court decision, we were contacted by debtor's counsel, who asked to retain The Altman Group as ballot agent for the debtor. We informed counsel that The Altman Group's previous relationship precluded our representing the debtor. The latter's counsel confirmed that we were contacted at the request of the Equity Committee, who wanted to ensure a fair vote and honest tabulation Result: Though bondholders voted to accept the plan and the plan was approved by the Court, equity holders voted to reject the plan. |
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