It has been a rocky year for THQ, who kicked things off with the announcement that they would be filing for bankruptcy. Things only went further downhill when their initial plan, which involved selling the company to Clearlake Capital Group LP in a bid to keep it intact, was rejected. Instead, many of its assets (in the form of familiar gaming properties) were auctioned off to former competitors to the tune of $72 million, the rest sold off later for an estimated $6.6 million.
Now THQ has had its final liquidation plan approved, which will involve unsecured creditors making claims that should recover them between 20 and 52 percent of the amount they’re owed (an estimated $143 to $184 million in claims). THQ’s European subsidiaries might cut into this with their claims, but there is presently dispute over whether those claims should be allowed.
THQ argues that their European units are able to satisfy their own debts as is, so any money gained by a claim would be a surplus and therefore work its way back to THQ (and subsequently their creditors) after those subsidiaries’ liquidations. As such, they feel that any European subsidiaries’ claims should be ignored in the interests of expediting the liquidation process, which they estimate would take an additional two years to complete if said subsidiaries are allowed to make claims.
The dispute will be considered at a hearing scheduled for August 19.
Source: Bloomberg