Tue, Dec 30, 2008
One Year To The Day Since Pieper Installed As Chairman
The next chapter in the ongoing, tired soap opera that is
Eclipse Aviation will occur a little later than originally
planned... but also has something of a cosmic twist to it.
Court records indicate a public auction for the troubled
planemaker's assets will be held January 14, one week later than
originally forecast. The Associated Press reports the auction will
go forth providing there is more than one bidder for the
company.
ANN has received several reports indicating at least one
additional bidder will contest ETIRC Aviation -- Eclipse's largest
shareholder -- for the company, though so far no one has publicly
come forward. The deadline for bids is January 13.
As ANN reported, Eclipse filed for Chapter 11
protection November 25 in US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. That
announcement followed months of turmoil for the inaugural
very-light jet manufacturer, including the ousting of company
founder Vern Raburn as CEO, employee layoffs and a well-publicized,
pre-Thanksgiving delay in paying those employees that still
remained.
ETIRC, led by current acting CEO Roel Pieper, intends to
purchase Eclipse for $198 million. The company is technically still
in operation, propped up by post-petition, debtor-in-possession
(DIP) financing... though there's little (to no) sign of actual
production underway at Eclipse's facilities in Albuquerque, NM.
It's not without some irony that the current auction date --
January 14, 2009 -- will be one year to the day
that Pieper triumphantly announced ETIRC's expanded role in
Eclipse,
to the tune of a $100+ million investment that kept the
company going through the first half of the year. That
was also when Pieper (below) was named the "non-executive Chairman"
of Eclipse.
Oh, how far he's come since then...
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