Creditors of taxpayer-owned Ally Financial’s bankrupt ResCap unit said last night that efforts to mediate a $2 billion dispute between the companies had failed.
In a bankruptcy court filing, the ResCap creditors said they would seek to sue Ally.
The unsecured creditors committee said it would not file the suit before April 30th and agreed to give ResCap until then to file a new reorganization plan — in return for the mortgage lender agreeing to give the chief restructuring officer decision-making power.
The current restructuring plan, which the creditors consider biased, expires Feb. 28.
“It is clear that these cases could benefit from a fresh perspective in the form of an independent CRO,” the filing said.
ResCap creditors want Ally to fork over an additional $2 billion-plus in cash, sources said.
Ally had offered ResCap creditors $750 million to settle all claims against the taxpayer-owned bank.
The creditors balked at the offer, saying Ally stands to get nearly $2 billion in operating-loss tax credits and was cheating them with such a low offer.
A judge ordered the two sides to work on a settlement — talks that now have clearly failed.
ResCap CEO Thomas Marano said in a deposition late last year that he believed Ally would have to contribute $2 billion to the bankruptcy, a ResCap spokesperson said.
Ally — the black sheep of the auto-related bailouts — still owes taxpayers $11.3 billion of the $17.2 billion it took.
Every additional dollar contributed by Ally to the ResCap reorganization is a dollar less in value Ally has available to pay back Treasury.
Ally, worth more than $10 billion, will sell itself or go public once it completes the restructuring.