Conseco files Chapter 11, 3rd largest BK after Enron and Worldcom

[BlackJack]

Chicago, Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Conseco Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection tonight to stem mounting losses and restructure more than $6 billion of debt incurred while the insurance and finance company acquired smaller rivals.

The Conseco bankruptcy is the third-largest U.S. Chapter 11 filing, after WorldCom Inc. and Enron Corp. The Carmel, Indiana- based company listed $52.3 billion in assets and $51.2 billion in debts in documents filed in bankruptcy court in Chicago late tonight.

The bankruptcy comes 2 1/2 years after Conseco hired former General Electric Capital Corp. Chief Executive Gary Wendt to attempt to reverse losses from its foray into mobile-home lending. The company said in October that Wendt, who got a $45 million signing bonus when he joined, would step down as chief executive officer and remain chairman.

``It shows how hard it is to turn a company around when it starts to go south,'' said Rick Rickertsen, chief operating officer at Washington buyout firm Thayer Capital Partners. ``At one point they were in the money and it looked like one of the greatest Phoenix-bird turnarounds. But in a tough credit environment it's hard to turn things around.''

[BlackJack]

Recovery is just around the corner.

[PRND21]

The Carmel, Indiana- based company listed $52.3 billion in assets and $51.2 billion in debts

So what's the problem? Pay your debts.

[July 4th]

foray into mobile-home lending

There's the problem. When the doublewides got foreclosed on, they were already gone.

[Bogey78O]

Don't worry fellow workers. This is a corporation and thus it hurts only evil rich people.

/sarcasm

[BlackJack]

Roger Clinton took off with the doublewide.

[Professional]

If you have insurance assets or annuities with them, you might consider a new carrier...

[Professional]

Assets like pensions and goodwill? Yeah, I thought WCOM had assets...

[steveegg]

And another one's gone, and another one's gone. Another one bites the dust.

Which exhibit is this in the Debt Bubble burst? I lost count.

[PRND21]

Assets like pensions and goodwill? Yeah, I thought WCOM had assets...

I hear you, I have WCOM stock. ;(

[Professional]

WCOM, unlike Conseco, was an absolute corrupt lie that was supported by lots of major players on Wall Street. Only a year before they went bankrupt, they floated one of the biggest bond issues in history. Only one year! The rating was an A, which gave them fairly cheap access to the credit markets. The book value 4 months before bankruptcy was $20 per share and earnings forecast by the street at $1 for 2003. Lies, damn corrupt lies. And Merrill gets a $100 million dollar fine, what a frickin joke. Merrill, Sollie, GS, DW, PW, should all be sued out of business, but they wont.

[Professional]

Since 1943, junk debt had only one case of 3 consecutive less than 5% positive returns, and 6 back to back occasions. We are now in 5 consecutive years. I think THAT says a lot about how shoddy Wall Street had become. This whole bad stock market is actually about how bad the corporate bond market is.

[Bobibutu]

X post
Good ridance - they bought our insurance group in 1995 and promptly terminated over 1500 hard working agents - our CEO and CAO pocketed 64 mil in the deal - painful to remember it - I hope they don't get away with their "golden parachutes" - a pox on them all - sorry for the bitterness - it is still heavy.

and the whole thing was a stock market rip from the git go - we were fish! sucked in to the scam - we worked so hard and believed Mr. Peter Nauert - kind alike Klinton - U hate the SOB until you meet him - then he charms the socks of yu.

[Bobibutu]

Interesting how replys shut off when personal experience arises - or is it just lack of interest.

[Karsus]

A lot of posters find it hard to blindly defend companies once someone posts how those companies treat their (former) workers. That is why they shut up.

[Karsus]

GDP is up. But most everything else is down. Do you think that maybe, just maybe, the goverment cooked the GDP numbers? They cook all the other numbers so why not the GDP numbers?

[sarcasm]

Government cook the books?

NOW, ABOUT THAT DEFICIT. . .

< SNIP >

Here's what O'Neill wrote on the Treasury Department Web site: "Accrual based financial reporting is critical to gaining a comprehensive understanding of the U.S. Government's operations. For fiscal 2001, our results were an accrual-based deficit of $515 billion in contrast to a $127 billion surplus reported last Fall."

[Karsus]

So much for the 'Principled' GWB White House. I just love how GWB is turning out to be almost a mirror image of Clinton White House (minus the sex scandels)

[jimtorr]

Ummm, 2001 was all about throwing out the Clinton numbers. GW inherited the false reporting.

You may have noticed that the half-trillion deficit was actually reported? The Algore president would never have reported on that at all.