Kaiser Steel Corp v. Pearl Brewing Co.Kaiser Steel Corp v. Pearl Brewing Co.
The question presented in this appeal is whether consideration paid to shareholders for their stock in connection with a leveraged buy out is exempt from the avoiding powers of a trustee under section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code, as “settlement payments” made “by or to a ... stockbroker, financial institution, or securities clearing agency.”
I. INTRODUCTION
This case involves a leveraged buy out gone bad. Making use of the modern counterpart of a centuries-old statute, Kaiser Steel Resources, Inc. (“Kaiser”), formerly known as Kaiser Steel Corporation (“Kaiser Steel”), seeks in the underlying action to retrieve amounts paid out to former Kaiser Steel shareholders in connection with a leveraged buy out of the company in 1984 (the “LBO”). Kaiser makes the relatively novel yet incrеasingly popular claim that these payments constitute a fraudulent conveyance. The current battle is much more narrow, however. It surrounds the construction of a Bankruptcy Code (the “Code”) exemption that prohibits the trustee from avoiding “settlement payments” made by or to stockbrokers, financial institutions, and clearing agencies. See
A. The Leveraged Buy Out.
In late 1983, the board of directors of Kaiser Steel agreed to the LBO. Under the plan, Kaiser Steel would merge with a new entity owned by a group of outside investors. Upon the merger, all outstanding shares of Kaiser Steel common stock would be converted into the right to receive twenty-two dollars and two shares of preferred stock (the “LBO consideration”) in the surviving entity. The money, which amounted to $162 million, was to come from Kaiser Steel’s cash reserves and a $100 million loan from Citibank secured by the corporation’s assets.
The shareholders approved the LBO on January 18, 1984. As of the effective date of the merger, February 29, 1984, the former holders of Kaiser Steel common stock were required to tender their shares to Kaiser’s disbursing agent, Bank of America, in order to receive the cash and preferred stock. The New York Stock Exchange delisted the stock the following day.
Most of the common stock was in the possession of Depository Trust Company (“DTC”), a securities clearing agency acting as depository. After the merger, DTC tendered the certificates to Bank of America and received the payments of LBO consideration. DTC then transferred these payments to the accounts of its participants, including brokers and other financial intermediaries. These intermediaries, in
B. History of the Case.
In 1987, Kaiser filed a voluntary reorganization proсeeding under Chapter 11 of the Code. Kaiser then commenced this fraudulent conveyance action against a number of defendants, seeking to avoid the LBO and recover the $162 million. In what amounted to a test case, Charles Schwab & Co. (“Schwab”), a broker eventually named in the action, moved for summary judgment on the grounds that it was not liable because it was a “mere conduit” rather than a transferee, see
On appeal, following the district court’s reversal of the bankruptcy court’s decision to deny Schwab’s summary judgment motion, we held that the payments to Schwab were settlement payments exempt from recovery under
Pending that appeal, in consolidated proceedings before the district court, other financial intermediaries moved for summary judgment on the basis of the
II. DISCUSSION
We now must decide whether our holding in Schwab — that Code
the trustee may not avoid a transfer that is a margin payment, as defined in section 101(34), [sic (38) ] 741(5) or 761(15) of this title, or settlement payment, as defined in section 101(35) [sic (39) ] or 741(8) of this title, made by or to a commodity broker, forward contract merchant, stockbroker, financial institution, or securities clearing agency....
Kaiser makes two primary arguments against applying this provision to the payments of LBO consideration. First, it maintains that these payments are not “settlement payments.” Second, it insists that even if thе payments are settlement payments, payments made “by or to” one of the enumerated entities are protected under
A. Settlement Payments.
We cannot accept Kaiser’s argument that the payments of LBO consideration to the beneficial shareholders are not settlement payments within the meaning of the statute. Our interpretation, as always, begins with the language of the statute itself.
As a natural reading suggests, and as we and others have noted, this definition is “extremely broad.” Schwab,
In applying this provision, our task is to apply the term “settlement payment” according to its plain meaning. See, e.g., Resolution Trust Corp. v. Westgate Partners, Ltd.,
With respect to the routine purchase and sale of a security, there are at least two opportunities for “settlement.”
In addition, a “customer-side settlement” also occurs between the broker and its customer. See SEC Report at 10-2,10-10 to 10-11; New York Stock Exchange, Language of Investing Glossary 30 (1981) (defining settlement as “[conclusion of a securities transaction when a customer pays a broker/dealer for securities purchased or delivers securities sold and receives from the broker the proceeds of a sale”); J. Low, The Investor’s Dictionary, 169 (1964) (“Settlement day is the day by which a buyer of securities must pay his broker for his purchases and a seller must deliver to his broker negotiable certificates for any securities he has sold.”). Logically, the term “settlement payment” may also be used to describe payments made to settle a customer’s account with its broker. Cf. 1981 Hearings at 294 (Statement by Jack Nelson, President, Natiоnal Securities Clearing Corporation) (“Prior to the Code, the securities industry knew for certain that margin, mark-to-market, deposit and settlement payments made by a securities customer or broker to a clearing broker or a clearing agency ... could not be voided”); id. at 492 (Statement by the Securities Industry Association) (referring to the “traditional right of brokers and their clearing agencies to close out the accounts of insolvent brokers and customers to retain margin, mark-tо-market and settlement payments”).
No party before us, including Kaiser, argues that a shareholder cannot make or receive a settlement payment, as that term is defined in
In Schwab, we recognized that “Kaiser’s position that
Given the wide scope and variety of securities transactions, we will not interpret the term “settlement payment” so narrowly as to exclude the exchange of stock for consideration in an LBO. As the appellees and the SEC have urged, there is no reason to narrow the plain concept of “settlement” to a single type of securities transaction. The Code has been expanded to explicitly cover five different types of financial transactions, all of which, with the exception of swap agreements, involve “settlemеnt payments” of one form or another.
While the leveraged buy out may not be a “routine” securities trade, at least as
Consequently, those shareholders who tendered their shares one day after the LBO and received the LBO consideration are treated just the same under the Code as shareholders who sold their shares in the market one day prior to the LBO and received a settlement payment reflecting the market value of the LBO consideration. Neither type of investor will be forced to disgorge the payments several years later.
B. “By or To.”
Finally, Kaiser argues that even if the payments were settlement payments,
On its face the statute is clear. The statute exempts payments made “by or to ” a stockbroker, financial institution, or clearing agency. Again, unless there is some reason to believe the clear application is absurd or otherwise unreasonable, we сan leave our inquiry at that.
Kaiser apparently does not deny that these transfers were in fact made to each beneficial shareholder, either by the shareholder’s stockbroker, a clearing agency, or a financial institution. Instead, relying on the legislative history and the exclusion of the word “equity security holder” among the parties listed in
While we acknowledge that our holding in this case is broad in its application, we are not convinced it leaves the trustee remediless by way of a suit for damages, or some similar device, against specific individuals or institutions for unlawful acts.
Accordingly, for the reasons given above, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
Notes
. The SEC filed a brief in this case and participated in oral argument. As a statutory party in corporate reorganization proceеdings, the Commission acts as a special advisor to the courts. See
. The court did not dismiss the claims against a group known as the Jacob’s Defendants.
. The definition of "settlement payment” found in section 101(39), also referred to in
. Under this system there are also at least two corresponding sets of guarantees. The brokers guarantee that they will perform even if their customers fail to perform, and the clearing agency guarantees to perform, even if individual clearing members fail to perform. Prior to settlement, these guarantees subject the brokers and the clearing agency to a potential risk of loss, should a selling party be forced to cover the obligations of a defaulting customer or clearing member in a rising market (i.e., buy securities that cost more than the party will receive), оr should a buying party be forced to buy securities in a falling market (i.e., pay more for securities than their present market value). To reduce this risk, in a fluctuating market, the clearing agency may demand certain types of “margin payments” from its clearing members, and a broker may be required to demand similar types of payments from its customers. These payments, like settlement payments, are protected under
. That this is a proper use in the industry of the term "settlement payment" may аlso be verified by several references in SEC literature. See, e.g., Exchange Act Release No. 27,505 (Dec. 5, 1989) (“Funds-only settlement payments are made to and from GSCC clearing banks by members over the cash Fed-wire.”); Exchange Act Release No. 23,488 (July 31, 1986); Exchange Act Release No. 22,778 (Jan. 8, 1986) (discussion of clearance and settlement system in which clearing agency generates settlement figures, but instead of guaranteeing settlement payment, participants are required to make the paymеnts between themselves); Exchange Act Release No. 22, 599 (Nov. 6, 1985). Cf.
Apart from protecting margin payments to brokers, the original Code provision as wеll protected only settlement payments by or to the clearing agency. Actually, on its face the 1978 predecessor of 546(e) prevented the trustee from avoiding "settlement payments] made by a clearing organization.”
. While Kaiser does not argue in the abstract that "settlement payments” may not be made to a customer, it does argue that
. See Appellant’s Opening Brief at 8-9. For example, it notes that A. Pessin & J. Ross, Words of Wall Street: 2000 Investment Terms Defined, cited restrictively to define settlement as "the completion of a securities transaction,” more fully defines the term as an “Industry term for the completion of a securities transaction (i.e., a buyer pays for and a seller delivers the security purchased to the buyer.)” “Transaction” is defined in that source as follows: “Used synonymously for a trade (i.e., a completed agreement between a buyer and a seller).” Id. at 271.
. Congress has also shown itself capable of restricting the counterparts of
.These transactions are the "securities contract,” see
. For the public customer, this symmetry of treatment is justified not only by application of the plain notion of "settlement.” As well, it is justified by Congress’ policy interests in promoting finality and “in promoting speed and certainty in resolving complex financial transactions.” H.Rep. No. 484, 101st Cong., 2d Sess. 2 (1990), reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 223, 224. See also Schwab,
For the broker trading on its own account, our holding is consistent with even the strictest notion of "settlement payment" (i.e., a notion tied to the clearance and settlement system). This is true particularly to the extent a broker's settlement obligations to a clearing agency or participant were calculated with regard to the payments of LBO consideration. Cf. Brief of Appellee at 12, Kaiser Steel Resources, Inc. v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (referring to parties’ stipulation that Schwab’s settlement obligations to clearing agency (NSCC) were calculated by reference to "daily cash settlement” figures generated by DTC). Further, as the SEC has emphasized, this holding is supported by Congress’ policy of promoting the health of the clearance and settlement system, which by all accounts is one of the fundamental aims of the 546(e) exemption. See Schwab,
For a contrary view, see Weibolt Stores, Inc. v. Schottenstein,
. It is difficult to imagine, for instance, how Congress could recognize that a settlement payment may be made by a stockbroker to its customer (whether that customer is bаnkrupt or not), see Appellant’s Opening Brief at 16 (citing reference in legislative history to “settlement payment owed to a customer”), and not realize that
Further, Kaiser’s claim that