In PG&E Battle, Time Is Money and Money Is Time
The utility wants longer to come up with a plan to leave bankruptcy, but bondholders have one, with a tempting dollar figure already attached.
PG&E Corp. is digging out of a hole.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergMoney talks, but the big question for PG&E Corp. next week is how closely the bankruptcy judge is listening.
The battle for the future of the wildfire-prone California utility intensified this week with a fusillade of court filings. To recap, PG&E has an exclusive period until late September to file a proposal to get out of chapter 11. Late last month, though, a group of unsecured bondholders led by Elliott Management Corp., Pacific Investment Management Co., and Davidson Kempner Capital Management called on Judge Dennis Montali to end PG&E’s exclusivity and let the committee begin open negotiations for a plan of its own. Consumer and labor groups, among others, also called for the judge to end exclusivity. Now PG&E has filed its rebuttal, asking the judge to deny the motion. Separately, a group holding subrogated insurance claims filed its own rebuttal, calling on the judge to either maintain current exclusivity or, if he ends it, open it up to all competing plans. A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.