Tower clear for Cerberus

AUTO HEADLINES

June 22, 2007

Tower Automotive Inc., the world's biggest maker of auto frames, passed a deadline to receive competing bids for its business, clearing the way for a sale to Cerberus Capital Management LP for about $1 billion.

Tower, in bankruptcy since 2005, won approval in April of an outline for reorganization that would include a sale to Cerberus if no other bids were received before Thursday.

The price would give unsecured creditors less than 1 cent on each dollar owed. Bondholders would get a return of about 1.9%. If Cerberus, a private equity group based in New York, had been outbid for Tower, money available to creditors might have increased.

UAW warns retirees

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told a group of members in Marion, Ind., this week that he will work to protect retiree health-care benefits, but said some change may be needed, according to a report published Thursday by Marion's Chronicle-Tribune newspaper.

Gettelfinger declined to speculate on issues that his union and the domestic automakers will negotiate during contract talks set to begin next month. He did, however, recount a story about an exchange he had with a retiree who was adamant that the UAW should accept no compromise when it comes to preserving benefits.