The Shareholder Deal
We tend to identify Rosen as the personification of the 'Debtors' but Rosen is just a lawyer hired by the debtors. Who are the 'debtors?' The debtors are a corporate entity in bankruptcy responsible first and foremost to their unsecured creditors and second to their equity owners (i.e. us). When Rosen is speaking for the 'debtors' he is speaking for those unsecured creditors. Who are the unsecured creditors? Anyone that has a valid claim for money owed them against the debtor's estate. Primarily, those unsecured creditors are the big hedge funds who purchased the WMI senior debt. The debtor's (and Rosen's) duty to those creditors is to work to the best of their abilities to see that they get paid. Once those creditors are paid, they have no further interest in the estates and the debtors have no further duty towards them...which leaves equity. The EC has reached an agreement with the hedge funds by which the hedge funds made certain concessions to the EC in exchange for the EC forgoing their investigation of alleged insider trading by the hedge funds while they were participating in negotiations that led to the GSA incorporated in POR v6 (and earlier PORs). Those concessions would be expected to include support by the hedge funds for EC initiatives to direct the debtors towards goals that would lead to recovery by equity. Rosen can put a brave face on things and talk all that he wants to about moving forward with POR v6 but there will be no POR v6 confirmation hearings without the hedge funds supporting them...and the not-so-subtle reminders in court today were that, if the hedge funds do that, the EC will reschedule their depositons and move ahead with those. Everyone was trotting out their stuff to see what the good judge would say or do...and the court didn't...which is good for the EC and bad for the hedge funds. The EC is tightening the screws on the hedge funds and they are going to now be forced themselves to push the debtors (i.e. Rosen and the Alvarez and Marsal bunch of hired hands) to lay it on the line for JPM Chase...which will lead to the GSA-7 for POR v7. The court gave everyone more time...which was a very good outcome for equity...probably the best we have had thus far in bankruptcy court.