Advanta creditors oppose liquidation plan

Advanta Corp. creditors, stockholders, and others offered a list of objections last week to the bankrupt Montgomery County credit card firm's liquidation plan ahead of a hearing scheduled for Thursday in Wilmington.

The committee representing Advanta's unsecured creditors said in a court filing that court approval of Advanta's proposed plan would be "futile and impose significant and unnecessary expense and delay" on the liquidation process because "it is highly likely that the vast majority of creditors" will vote against it.

That would force a second round of voting, costing the bankruptcy estate money that could otherwise be used to pay off Advanta creditors.

The company's plan, filed last month, said that retail note holders - the largest block of unsecured creditors - could expect to recover 64.4 percent to 100 percent of their investments. Retail investors, who are owed $140.6 million, reported offers as high 75 cents on the dollar for their notes from professional investors.

Unsecured creditors are owed money that is not backed by collateral.

Another major class of unsecured creditors made up largely of hedge funds and other institutional investors does not fare so well in the plan. Those creditors, owed $96.5 million, are expected to receive $28.5 million under the current plan, or only about 30 percent of what they are owed. They will receive no money until the retail investors are paid in full.

The committee's objections revolve around the treatment of $51.8 million in benefits and severance claims by Advanta's two top executives, Dennis Alter and William Rosoff. The claim by Alter, whose father founded Advanta in 1951, is $47.2 million. In the four years before the bankruptcy filing in November 2009, Alter received $54 million from Advanta in pay and other money, the committee said.

It alleged that the company, "influenced by admitted conflicts between the personal interests of the debtors' insiders" and those of creditors, did not position itself in the best possible way to block the Alter and Rosoff claims.

What's more, the plan does not do enough to secure creditors' right to pursue claims against Alter, Rosoff, and other insiders for conduct before and after the bankruptcy, the committee said.

Advanta's chief financial officer, Philip M. Browne, said the Conshohocken company would file responses Monday.

"We think this is about the hedge funds and other institutions that are not in such good shape" in the proposed plan, Browne said. He said the Alter and Rosoff claims are a matter for the judge to handle. "That's what bankruptcy judges do," he said.