Visteon creditors seek appointment of separate pension plan committee

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Feb. 11 - Visteon Corp.'s official committee of unsecured creditors has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to order the U.S. Trustee to appoint an official committee of pension plan participants, according to a Thursday court filing.

According to the motion, the court directed the U.S. Trustee to change the composition of the unsecured creditors committee in January to include one or more pension plan participants, or, in the alternative, to appoint an official pension plan participant committee.

After that, representatives of the creditors committee, an informal committee of plan participants, the IUE-CWA and UAW told the U.S. Trustee that they believe the interests of the pension plan participants would be best served by appointment of a separate official committee.

However, the committee said the U.S. Trustee appointed three additional members to the unsecured creditors committee on Feb. 1, including the president of UAW Local 1695, the director of the union's pension fund and 401K plan and a representative of the company's program supply electronics division.

"Two of the three new appointees are rank and file employees of the debtors - unprecedented appointments in the experience of the official committee's professionals," the committee said in the motion.

"While the official committee believes that the representatives of the pension plan participants will strictly maintain confidentiality and will take an objective view of operational matters relative to the debtors' businesses, other key participants in these cases (such as potential plan sponsors, lenders, and management) may not share that comfort level.

"As a result, the presence of the representatives of the pension plan participants on the official committee may well substantially inhibit the official committee's ability to engage these other participants, and to negotiate and resolve the important operational and financial restructuring issues these cases present."

The committee is also asking the court to order the U.S. Trustee to reconstitute the unsecured creditors group's membership back to the way it was before the pension plan representatives were appointed.

Visteon, a Van Buren Township, Mich., global automotive supplier, filed for bankruptcy on May 28, 2009. Its Chapter 11 case number is 09-11786.

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