Interstate Bakeries says no suitors came forward
Jennifer Mann
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Interstate Bakeries Corp. said today that it had not received any “qualified” offers for the company by the deadline of midnight Tuesday.
The company, which has been reorganizing under Chapter 11 since September 2004, said Yucaipa Cos. and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters did not submit a plan of reorganization, contrary to what they told Interstate Bakeries and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Kansas City on Dec. 13 when they submitted a preliminary indication of interest.
Interstate Bakeries said that because it had received no qualified offers, it planned to proceed with its own plan of reorganization, filed in early November. The company also plans to file an amended disclosure statement before a Jan. 29 court hearing seeking approval of its disclosure statement and permission to distribute it to its thousands of creditors.
The disclosure statement is supposed to give the creditors, to whom Interstate owes hundreds of millions of dollars, the information they need to decide whether to vote for the plan.
On Tuesday, Yucaipa filed an objection to Interstate’s disclosure statement saying it was flawed and unconfirmable, primarily because it depended on the baking company’s reaching agreements with the Teamsters union, which has told Interstate and the court that it was working only with Yucaipa. Further, the Teamsters have told all parties, including the court, that they would rather see Interstate liquidate than work with current management.
Although Interstate has laid out procedures for its plan to move forward there is nothing prohibiting other parties from now filing their own plan of reorganization after IBC’s exclusive right to file a plan expired last week.