Apollo Management - Realogy ... Icahn.. - When Billionairs Battle.. Who Wins

Screw over the Real Estate Consumer and Go Bankrupt.

You need to Look Out for you. If you EVER buy or sell real estate, your life - your assets really are at stake and you may not even know until years down the Road. And by that time your Realtor has Spent ALLyour money, and HUGE companies like Apollo Management go bankrupt and they are Billionairs.. nobody has your back.

Dec. 19th 2008

Icahn Wins Round in Realogy Battle

Carl C. Icahn, the billionaire investor, scored a court victory Thursday over his longtime friend and fellow billionaire, Leon D. Black.Mr. Icahn’s investment firm, High River LP, sued a real estate company controlled by Mr. Black’s private equity firm, Apollo Management, on Nov. 26.

Mr. Icahn is seeking to prevent the company, Realogy, from refinancing $1.1 billion of debt, asserting the move would hurt certain Realogy bondholders and delay the inevitable failure of the company.A Delaware judge on Thursday ruled that Realogy’s planned $1.1 billion debt exchange violates contracts in the lending agreements with Mr.

Icahn and other bondholders.“If Realogy wishes to engage in the proposed transaction, it would need to obtain agreement from the required number of its bank lenders to amend or waive certain provisions of the credit agreement,”Vice Chancellor Stephen Lamb of Delaware Chancery Court wrote in his decision.Mr. Icahn and the trustee that holds the Realogy bonds, Bank of New York Mellon, had sought a court order to block the exchange, but Judge Lamb stopped short of halting the exchange offer.

Apollo bought Realogy, owner of Century 21 and Coldwell Banker, for $6.6 billion in April 2007, just as the housing market was starting to implode. Now, with home values sinking, Realogy is asking its bondholders, including Mr. Icahn, to exchange $1.15 billion in oldbonds for about $500 million in new loans to reduce its debt and ride out the slump.

Mr. Icahn and other holders of Realogy’s senior secured debt, which would be paid off first in the event of a bankruptcy, claim Realogy’s credit agreement does not allow it to issue the new debt.Mr. Icahn said in an interview on CNBC that the lawsuit against Mr. Black didn’t harm their friendship.“Leon actually invited me to a party at his house” after he filed the lawsuit, “but I couldn’t go,” Mr. Icahn said.

– Zachery Kouwe

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/icahn-wins-round-in-legal-battle-over-realogy/

There Seems to be No End In Site to the Hold the Real Estate Cartel has over You the Real Estate Consumer. Is Nobody Watching this Folks ? Apparently Not.