After reading a report drafted by court-appointed bankruptcy manager, Eduard Rebgun, Yukos' creditors voted overwhelmingly to ask a bankruptcy court to put the maimed company out of its misery.
Detroit bankruptcy manager Kevyn Orr says there is no such plan, but we won't really know until Christie's auction house completes a requested DIA appraisal, expected by October.
Oakland County's move was sparked by renewed fears over the potential sale of art, after it emerged last week that bankruptcy managers had invited Christie's, the auction house, to value some of the collection.
Officials from suburban counties have warned that if the city's bankruptcy managers sell any assets in the Detroit Institute of Art DIAA) – whose collection includes a self-portrait by Van Gogh, a 27-panel fresco by Diego Rivera and works by Rembrandt and Matisse – they will cut their contributions to its funding.
Besides usual worries about rising interest rates and bankruptcies, managers investing in emerging-market bonds face risks from government policies, liquidity crises and currency fluctuations.
The deal, which creates an advisory board to oversee financial decisions, spared the city from fates that many viewed as far worse: a complete takeover by a state-appointed manager, bankruptcy or default.
The Local Financial Stability and Choice Act gives financially struggling cities and schools a choice between an emergency manager, bankruptcy, mediation and a consent agreement.
By 1959 the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, and its managers were planning to sell the firm to Daimler-Benz.
Then, in September of 2008, after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, hedge-fund managers targeted Morgan Stanley's stock in a devastating short-selling run, betting on its collapse.
In the 1980s, says Edward Morrison of Columbia law school, bankruptcy let entrenched managers at troubled firms avoid restructuring: for an example, he points to Eastern Airlines, which kept flying and wasting capital at cut-throat rates while in bankruptcy.
When it filed for bankruptcy, the current managers said that park attendance had held up over the last couple of years, but that revenue was not adequate to cover its debt.
