Worldspace: Samara’s Yenura “in default”

Chris Forrester

16-08-2009

It seems the plan for the sale of Worldspace’s assets to a business controlled by Noah Samara is in serious trouble. The Samara company, Yenura Pte, based in Singapore, has seemingly not come up with the funds to complete the Worldspace purchase.

A quarterly fee note, filed on August 14 by Worldspace’s co-Counsel in bankruptcy and covering the quarter to June 30, talks about the “termination of the Yenura agreement”, and “termination issues” and the signing of a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to a “potential bidder” and “correspondence and drafts regarding Yenura default”.

Worldspace applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 17 last year. The purchase by Yenura of the Worldspace assets was approved by the Delaware court on April 27.

Another fee note, also filed Aug 14 by the Delaware lawyers to the official committee of Worldspace’s unsecured creditors, talks in similar terms, of “Yenura default” and their “Termination Declaration” and the preparation of a 2nd Forbearance Agreement by Yenura. Other legal documents refer to “Yenura termination issues” and letters and correspondence regarding the issuing of an NDA to a new prospective purchaser on June 29.

On July 31st Worldspace applied to the court for various extensions to the sale agreement saying: “It is critical that [Worldspace] have additional time… as the sale…[to Yenura] presently represent the best hope for creditor recoveries in these cases”.

As part of the bankruptcy, Worldspace was permitted to borrow $13m as ‘Debtors in Possession’ in order to keep the business going. That cash is being rapidly eroded not least by the never-ending series of invoices from the lawyers and other professionals supervising the bankruptcy.