VBT Board to discuss reopening Visteon’s bankruptcy

By Diane Madigan
Independent Special Writer
At the Oct. 8 meeting of the Van Buren Township Local Development Finance Authority, a unanimous recommendation was made for the VBT Board to instruct legal counsel to file a petition to reopen the Visteon bankruptcy and initiate other legal action by Nov. 30. Supervisor Linda Combs said this item would be discussed at the Oct. 14 VBT work/study meeting.
Supervisor Combs also said that it’s up to the township board to decide if this request fits with the township’s strategy in negotiations with Visteon.
LDFA member Doug Peters said he believes “Time is of the essence”. If the bankruptcy is opened soon, Visteon must include this in its annual report.
Combs said, “The best-case scenario is we would get Visteon to the table and they would agree to pay us a sum that we would be able to pay down the debt with. That, with the money coming in from the LDFA (approximately $504,000 for 2013) would be the best-case scenario. The worse-case would be we would need to get a millage. It may be an option but it’s not something we’re considering at the present time.”
VBT’s attorney at Clark Hill sent a letter to Visteon on Sept. 9 which included a report from the PFM Group on financial projections. The report indicated LDFA will likely run out of funds to make payments on Visteon bonds in 2018. The letter also asked Visteon to schedule a meeting with the township within the next 30 days. As of Oct. 8 there had been no response.
PFM is a financial management group that was hired by the LDFA in June 2012 for $2,573. At that time, PFM developed scenarios in dealing with refinancing the bonds in 2014 and dealing with a potential loss of personal property tax revenue.