There were 1,152 bankruptcy claims traded during the month of August, with a total face value of $5.6 billion, according to a report from SecondMarket, which maintains a marketplace for such claims. That represents a significant increase from July, which saw 871 claims traded at a face value of just over $1.5 billion.
As with July, the majority of trades were for claims of Lehman Brothers Holdings, which accounted for 511 trades valued at $5 billion in August, versus 208 trades valued at about $900 million in July. In addition to a greater number of trades in Lehman in August, there were also several large-scale transfers, including a $1 billion claim bought by Lehman Brothers Special Financing, a Lehman subsidiary, from 7th Ave, Inc. In addition, Wells Fargo bought a $441 million claim from OMX Timber Finance Investments II, LLC. Deutsche Bank, meanwhile, conducted over 30 trades of Lehman claims, with a face value of just over $400 million.
Consequently, the average claim amount traded in Lehman more than doubled, to $9.88 million, from $4.32 million in July.
Since Lehman collapsed four years ago, over $90 billion of bankruptcy claims have been traded, SecondMarket said.
MF Global was the second most actively traded claim in August in terms of both number of claims traded and amount, with $445 million transferred over 309 trades. MF Global was the second most active case in July by number of claims traded, although it was surpassed that month by Fontainebleau Las Vegas Holdings in terms of dollar amount of claims traded.
American Airlines came in third on SecondMarket’s lists of most active companies by both numbers of trades and amounts of claims traded, trading 126 claims in August valued at just over $100 million.
In July, American saw trading of 71 claims with a face value of nearly $26.5 million.
Newly traded cases in August were Jervic Holding and LightSquared. Jervic filed for Chapter 11 of May 20, 2008, according to SecondMarket, while LightSquared filed on May 14, 2012. – Alan Zimmerman
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