A federal bankruptcy judge has denied a request from Interstate Bakeries Corp. to force a key bidder and its union partner to provide additional details on an offer to buy the company, the Associated Press reported yesterday. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry Venters said in a ruling issued late last week that while he acknowledged the company’s frustration over the bid by Los Angeles-based investment firm Yucaipa Cos. and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, it was too soon in the bidding process to impose new deadlines on one bidder. Bidders are required to file their proposals by Jan. 15, with an auction to be held Jan. 22 if there are multiple plans. Judge Venters will make the final decision during a Jan. 29 hearing. Interstate Bakeries, the Kansas City-based maker of Hostess Twinkies and Wonder Bread, is seeking an exit after more than three years under chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It has developed a reorganization plan based on $400 million in financing it would receive through specialty lender Silver Point Finance LLC, but the plan is contingent on the company reaching concessions from the Teamsters union, which represents about 9,500 of the company’s 25,000 employees.

Diamond wholesaler LID Ltd. filed its disclosure statement and reorganization plan on Friday, a day before its exclusive filing period was set to expire, Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday. Under the plan, banks would be repaid in full but unsecured creditors would get less than a quarter of what they are owed. With assets of about $157 million and liabilities of about $143 million, LID set out three different ways it could potentially pay back its four lending banks, which it owes about $41 million total in principal, interests, fees and costs. Finally, equity would be kept unimpaired, and shareholders keeping their stock would eventually be rewarded with an infusion of $3 million into the company upon confirmation of the plan. Along with that new value, LID said that a third party would pump $10 million into the company so it could buy the liens of lenders at 50 percent of their allowed claims, less any principal payments they had thus far received.

Consumers having problems with a financial institution could call a toll-free number and be directed to the appropriate state or federal regulatory agency for help under legislation considered yesterday by a House Financial Services subcommittee, CongressDaily reported today. The bill proposing a universal help line was endorsed by five oversight agencies, including the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of Thrift Supervision. The Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors believes the plan is unnecessary. Federal financial regulators are working on a plan to increase coordination among the agencies and a law might limit their options, said Sandra Brunstein, the Fed’s director of consumer and community affairs. 

Greek lawyers, doctors and schoolteachers will join bus drivers and construction workers in a general strike tomorrow against government plans to overhaul the pension system, Bloomberg News reported today. There will be no commercial flights into or out of the country as air traffic controllers walk off the job for 24 hours in a protest organized by the two biggest labor unions, jointly representing more than 2.5 million workers.  Greece’s pension system, ranked as being among the most generous in Europe by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, faces a crisis within a decade as the population ages, central bank Governor Nicholas Garganas has said. State spending to plug the deficits of government-run pension funds has more than doubled since 2000. The last attempt by a Greek government to introduce changes to the pension system in 2001 was greeted with large-scale street protests, forcing then-Prime Minister Costas Simitis of the socialist Pasok party to dismiss his labor minister and scrap proposals such as raising the retirement age to 65 for all workers.

Pulp and lumber producer Pope & Talbot Inc. has won court approval to borrow up to $89 million in bankruptcy financing as it works to sell off its assets by early next year, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher S. Sontchi signed off on the financing from Wells Fargo Financial Corp. and Ableco Finance on Friday. The financing package, which includes a $71 million revolving loan and an $18 million term loan, requires Pope & Talbot to sell its assets by Feb. 15. The company has already signed a deal to sell most of its lumber business to International Forest Products Ltd. for $69 million, subject to higher offers. The company has until Jan. 8 to select a lead bidder for the assets and Judge Sontchi will review the auction results at a Feb. 12 hearing.

Judge Adlai S. Hardin Jr. approved 19 parties with personal-injury or wrongful-death claims to pursue their cases against the bankrupt St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, Bankruptcy Law360 reported yesterday. Judge Hardin’s order says that after the plaintiffs’ claims are liquidated, they can collect under St. Vincent’s insurance policies and treat any remaining unpaid amount as an allowed class 3 claim. The order also noted that St. Vincent’s motion will serve as an objection to each general liability claim that was not allowed as of Friday.