Delphi auction postponed until Tuesday, lenders still expected to make credit bid

Judge postpones Delphi auction

NEW YORK — A bankruptcy judge on Friday postponed the planned auction of struggling auto supplier Delphi Corp.’s assets until Tuesday.

U.S. Judge Robert Drain ordered the auction’s delay after a chambers conference on Thursday that was attended by Delphi, its creditors committee, General Motors Co. and the U.S. government, according to a court filing.

The auction, which would weigh a possible credit bid from Delphi’s lenders against a deal reached last month with private-equity firm Platinum Equity, had been scheduled to take place on Friday.

Under the deal with Platinum, the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based firm would acquire Delphi with the help of billions of dollars in aid from GM.

In exchange, GM would get certain parts of Delphi, including its Saginaw, Mich.-based steering business, and much needed assurance of a steady supply of the parts it needs to produce its cars and trucks. Other “noncore” plants and assets would be sold off over time.

Delphi, which was GM’s parts division before being spun off in 1999, filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2005. It still produces about 10 percent of the parts used in GM’s global production and its components go into nearly all of GM’s North American production lines.

But many of the Delphi’s lenders have balked at the deal calling it a “secretly negotiated transaction” that violated Delphi’s obligations to maximize the value of the lenders’ investment.

In a court filing late Wednesday, several of Delphi’s lenders said they were confident that a credit bid submitted by the lenders will “represent a higher and better offer to Delphi” and would provide a better return for the company’s senior lenders than any other proposal.

Delphi said late last week that it received a notice from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. that it might submit a bid on behalf of the lenders this week.