Venture has New Team of Executives

From Detroit Free Press

FRASER, MI — Auto-plastics supplier Venture Corp. has begun its path toward exiting bankruptcy after 26 months. The banks and investment firms to which the struggling supplier owed money have taken control of it and put in a new management team.

Neither the ownership nor management group includes Larry Winget, the Macomb County businessman who helped found the Fraser, Mich.-based maker of parts such as door panels and instrument panels in 1974.

Venture’s new executives were announced Tuesday, with former Exide Technologies Chairman Eugene Davis being named Venture’s interim CEO and former Textron Automotive executive Kirk Aubry being named chief operating officer. The company is searching for a permanent CEO.

Winget and his old company had a contentious relationship after the March 2003 bankruptcy filing, with Winget fighting against a proposed reorganization plan while Venture sued him and his family, claiming they had siphoned off $314 million.

The group of 18 firms bought the assets of Venture last month, and in essence has created a new company using most of the old plants, people and lines of business as the old company. Meanwhile, the debts and other claims stay with the estate of the old company, including the lawsuit filed last year against Winget.

Aubry said the $1-billion supplier has a bright future now that it is nearly through bankruptcy. He said Venture can go out and win new business, especially from other auto suppliers that are struggling the way Venture has the last few years.

Venture won virtually no new business since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It even lost some business in late 2004 when General Motors Corp. pulled a contract to make plastic bumpers for the new Pontiac G6 sedan. It also lost a valued contract with Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co.

“We think we are now a good news story. There is so much turmoil in the auto business. There’s a chance to go after transfer business from all the folks who are where we used to be or heading toward the same struggles,” said Aubry.

A number of auto suppliers have filed for bankruptcy protection in the last few months, such as Dearborn, Mich.-based Meridian Automotive, and Wall Street auto analysts expect more supplier bankruptcies.

Slowing auto sales and production at GM and Ford Motor Co. have hurt auto suppliers. At the same time, prices for plastic, steel and health care have risen.

Aubry said Venture’s new management team met Friday with its two largest customers, GM and the Chrysler Group, to explain the new Venture’s strategy.

“The automakers didn’t want this company to go down. The fact we lost as little business as we did in bankruptcy says that. It’s amazing we held onto as much as did,” said Aubry.

He said Winget would have no involvement with the new company.

The firms that now own Venture include J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston and Barclay’s Bank PLC. The group makes up all of Venture’s pre-bankruptcy lenders.

They put in about $157 million to pay off Venture debts that were accumulated during the past 26 months, said a lawyer familiar with the case. They are still owed about $370 million, the lawyer said.

Venture has about 6,300 employees worldwide. At its peak, it employed 13,000 worldwide including 2,000 in Michigan.

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