Anybody Home At Suntech II? ($STP)

Apparently Suntech is still not answering any of the phone lines associated with its San Francisco office e.g. (415) 882-9922 today. Nor have there been any press release or Form 6-K updates about the involuntary bankruptcy filing or anything else.

A Credit Bubble Stocks correspondent writes regarding a contact who

"just called me from the 10th floor of 71 Stephenson. He said they are gone from that space. Two desks in reception area, no computers on the desks, no paper around. In the floor lobby around the elevator, you can see where the logo used to be and it was ripped off the wall. The security guard said they moved to 575 [Market] a couple of months ago. They had the whole floor at 71 Stephenson, which looks like it is about 15K foot from google maps..."

Will post the pictures and update about 575 Market when we hear.

Anybody Home At Suntech? ($STP)

Suntech has not put out a press release or 6-K filing since a group of judgment creditors and bondholders filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition on Monday.

Some companies might have let the market know immediately what is going on, the way other public companies like Mossimo or NRG did when involuntary petitions were filed against them.  

Meanwhile, we haven't heard from anyone who has gotten an answer at Suntech's number in San Francisco: (415) 882-9922.

A Credit Bubble Stocks honorable mention for anyone who is able to reach a Suntech employee working today.

Scott versus Amundsen

A correspondent writes in about R.F. Scott,

"Robert Falcon Scott was truly brave, but his South Pole expedition failed and ended in his death. Roald Amundsen, the first to reach the South Pole and return alive, was truly brave and truly well-organized. Scott maneuvered himself into a death trap using System D and a lack of awareness of local conditions and available tools and techniques. Amundsen made his polar trip look almost like a regular mail delivery route."

When Amundsen heard the news, he said "I would gladly forgo any honour or money if thereby I could have saved Scott his terrible death."

"Mandarin Capital warned CDB ahead of Suntech fraud scandal" ($STP)

This came out a while ago,

"Sino-Italian PE player Mandarin Capital Partners advised China Development Bank (CDB) as early as three years ago that it shouldn't invest in Suntech Power Holdings' southern Italy initiative due to concerns about fraud. The Chinese solar company has since announced that EUR560 million ($690 million) in German government bonds it used to secure financing from CDB were apparently forgeries."

GMX Resources Files Plan Support Agreement ($GMXR)

From an 8-K filing today,

"Under the plan of reorganization contemplated by the Plan Support Agreement, the current debtor-in-possession financing facility will be extended so that the Company may continue operating in Chapter 11 as it seeks confirmation of the proposed plan or reorganization. Further, in exchange for the secured portion of their claims in the approximate amount of $338 million, the holders of the Senior Secured Notes would receive 100% of the equity in the reorganized Company upon its emergence from bankruptcy and/or equity in an affiliate of the reorganized GMXR. Holders of the Company’s Senior Secured Second-Priority Notes due 2018 shall be treated as general unsecured creditors. Under the proposed plan of reorganization, if the general unsecured creditors’ class votes to accept the plan or reorganization, holders of allowed general unsecured claims would receive interests in a trust (the “Litigation Trust”) funded with (i) $1.5 million in cash; and (ii) the Debtors’ potential causes of action listed on Schedule A to the Restructuring Term Sheet. Further, if the class of holders of general unsecured claims vote to accept the plan or reorganization, the holders of Senior Secured Notes will waive recovery on their unsecured deficiency claim. If the class of holders of general unsecured claims does not vote to accept the plan of reorganization, the $1.5 million in cash will not be funded in the Litigation Trust and, the holders of Senior Secured Notes and debtor in possession lenders will participate in recovery from the Litigation Trust on account of their DIP loan claims, superpriority adequate protection claims and deficiency claim. Any equity interest in the Company, of any kind, existing prior to the consummation of the restructuring will be cancelled under the terms of the plan of reorganization."

Only a year ago, the dream was still alive for GMXR shareholders. Now, the first lien secured debt is revealed to be the fulcrum security! The equity got wiped out completely.

Robert Falcon Scott, One Hundred Years Ago in the New York Times

To help avoid recency bias, I like to read old newspaper articles, whether Forbes magazine stories from 1930 or New York Times articles from the 1870s about states' repudiation of debt.

Reading such old stories, I notice how much the English language has changed. The language of business articles in the New York Times a century ago seemed simpler but grander, as you can see in the obituary of George Gilbert Williams or in the article about the insolvency of the Liverpool United States Mail Steamship Company

Another good but sad example is the February 10, 1913 article about the discovery of Robert Falcon Scott's last camp.

"I do not think human beings ever came through such a month as we have come through, and should have got through in spite of the weather but for the sickening of a second companion, Capt. Oates, and a shortage of fuel in our depots, for which I cannot account, and, finally, but for the storm which has fallen on us within eleven miles of this depot, at which we hoped to secure the final supplies.

Surely misfortune could scarcely have exceeded this last blow!

We arrived within eleven miles of our old One Ton camp with fuel for one hot meal and food for two days. For four days we have been unable to leave the tent, the gale blowing about us. We are weak.

Writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past. We took risks. We knew we took them. Things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint but to bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last.

But if we have been willing to give our lives to this enterprise, which is for the honor of our country, I appeal to our countrymen to see that those who depend on us are properly cared for. Had we lived I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman."

How devastating that England today scarcely resembles the England of Scott, only a hundred years ago.

$282 Million for Company With Over $500 Million in Defaulted Bonds, $560,000 in Unpaid Judgments

How could you pay $282 million for the common stock of a company whose creditors have taken it to court, gotten a judgment, remain unpaid, and whose board members have resigned citing "severe cash flow drain with unclear prospect of securing new capital," "failure to pay outside legal counsel," and "potential erosion of internal controls"?