Kodak and creditor groups object to official equity committee request

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, April 11 - Eastman Kodak Co., its official committee of unsecured creditors, its informal second-lien noteholders committee and the second-lien notes trustee have objected to a motion for appointment of an official committee of equity security holders in the company's Chapter 11 case, according to filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Kodak said the equityholders asked the U.S. Trustee to appoint an official committee less than one month into the Chapter 11 case and were denied. The company said the equityholders are using the exact same facts and arguments in asking the court to order appointment of an official equity committee.

Kodak said the equityholders are already adequately represented in the case, and "the cost to the debtors' estates of an equity committee at this early stage of the Chapter 11 proceedings would be significant."

In addition, the company said it is too early in the case to know how various important events will play out, and the shareholders' theories about a recovery for equity "are pure speculation."

The unsecured creditors' committee agreed with Kodak, saying in its objection that the shareholders' arguments "are entirely speculative, based upon unfounded conjecture about the distributable value of the debtors' estates, and are not supported by any credible evidence."

The second-lien noteholders and trustee said an equity committee would only duplicate the efforts of other stakeholders to maximize value at this point in the case, at a substantial additional cost to the Kodak estates.

A hearing is scheduled for April 18.

Kodak is a Rochester, N.Y.-based imaging technology products and services provider to the photographic and graphic communications markets. The company filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 19. Its Chapter 11 case number is 12-10202.

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