January Bled off $382 Million in Red Ink

UAL, the parent of United Airlines, filed its financials for January on Tuesday, and they showed a one-month loss of $382 million.

Whatever could be released simultneously as "good news" came from a court ruling that says the trustee for the Employee Stock Ownership Plan would be allowed sell 3.9 million more shares without endangering the company's net operating losses [a tax-advantage legal construction].

With the preservation of the NOLs, there remains the chance that the company may, in the near future, no longer be classified as "employee-owned," a classification it will lose if employee ownership drops below 20%. If that should happen, the unions, which have held special privileges on United's Board since 1995, may lose those special voting rights.

United is facing a deadline of St Patrick's Day, to tell the Court whether it wants to scrap all its union contracts, a circumstance which, as is obvious, could make any attempt to reorganize in a timely manner, nearly impossible.

All that news combined to drag United's stock below $1 per share, a level where, if the price were to languish there, would cause a delisting of UAL from the NYSE.

FMI: www.ual.com