Delaware corporation formed Tuesday, March 17, 2009.
No news from the Agriprocessors bankruptcy auction could be bad news for Postville
By Lynda Waddington, Iowa Independent
When the beleaguered Agriprocessors meatpacking plant first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a small glimmer of hope emerged in Postville. There was an opportunity for another company to take over operations at the plant, for production to continue and for the community not to lose its largest employer.
Although the final gavel was not swung today in Cedar Rapids at the bankruptcy auction, it is becoming much more likely that no agreeable buyer will emerge.
Natural Source Holdings L.L.C., a company that doesn’t garner a single Internet search engine entry, provided what the bankruptcy trustee deemed the best and highest bid: $5.5 million.
Other bidders were Kosher Standards LLC, T5 Equity Partners LLC and Private Equity Ventures LLC (an affiliate of T5).
Despite several breaks in the actual court proceedings designed to allow the bidders time to discuss their initial bids, inclusion of assets and other considerations, no stalking horse emerged.
Roughly four hours after the auction began, two creditors placed their own bids in an attempt to reclaim their own collateral.
First Bank Business Capital, Inc., a company allegedly owed $35 million in revolving loans, bid $20 million for all of it on pre-petitioned debt, all its own pre-petitioned collateral and all like-kind post-petition collateral.
MLIC Asset Holdings LLC, doing business as MetLife Ag Investments, bid $6.5 million. The bid would cover $9.6 million in debt for real estate subject to mortgage. Counsel for the company also made clear that the bid would cover “equipment and all other assets as described in the mortgage agreement.”
Although the auction proceedings will commence again at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning, it is unlikely that a third-party bidder will materialize. Without such a bidder, it is extremely unlikely that the bankruptcy trustee or the court will allow a sale for such a meager amount. The two most likely options are that the judge will either order the trustees to attempt another Chapter 11 sale, or the case will move into Chapter 7 liquidation proceedings.
Both of the other bidders have Rubashkin ties.
As I exclusively reported during today's auction, Kosher Standards LLC, appears to be a Rubashkin front traceable directly to Crown Heights and to a business linked to other Rubashkin foibles.
T5 Equity Partners is controlled by the Ghermazian brothers, the owners of Mall of America and other large properties worldwide. The Ghermazians are Orthodox Jews from Iran who now live in Canada. They have some ties to Chabad and have an associate who has done retail kosher meat business for them who is close to the Rubashkins. The T5 bid might be tzedaka, charity, rather than a true business investment.
FGBA notes on the previous post:
What
is the Liberia of corporations? Delaware. Hopped over to the Delaware
Secretary of State's website and did a search for Natural Source
Holdings, LLC. Incorporated March 17th, 2009. Unfortunately, you have
to pay to get more info from Delaware's Secretary of State. Registered
agent is Incorporating Services, Limited, Dover, DE. The indicates that not one food processor (unless NSH is a front for
a famous firm) in the entire free world put in a bid for
Agriprocessors. Either no one has any money to invest right now, or the
people who really know how to run a slaughterhouse walked away from
this one. Of course, they may figure they are better off cherry picking
at a Chapter 7 liquidation.…
What happened to Soglowek and its $40 million dollar bid?
I'd guess Soglowek was used as a false stalking horse to discourage real bidders and thereby leave room for a low priced Rubashkin-controlled bid to win.
It may also have been used in the same way by the trustee to make it appear as if he had real bidders when he did not.
Time will tell.