Cleveland partner Kelly Burgan was quoted in the February 16, 2010, Cleveland Plain Dealer article, "Chrysler has Offer of $27.5M for Twinsburg Stamping Plant."
According to the article, Chrysler has a $27.5 million offer to buy its Twinsburg (Ohio) stamping plant, and real estate experts believe the buyer may want to use the plant, not just sell off the equipment and redevelop the 195-acre site. Chrysler disclosed the potential sale in bankruptcy court filings. Under bankruptcy rules, the bidder becomes the "stalking horse" candidate for buying the plant—in other words, the opening bidder.
Almost every major sale in bankruptcy goes through the bidding process, said Burgan, who has represented business debtors, creditors and creditors' committees in bankruptcies. Burgan said the stalking horse candidate generally wins the bid, but competitors have won some high-profile price wars. "I wouldn't call it extremely rare, but it is uncommon," Burgan said. The judge overseeing the case or a group of creditors could also oppose the deal if either felt that the offers were too low, but Burgan said that also is rare.