PTC Alliance Corp. d/b/a Pittsburgh Tube Company (“Pittsburgh Tube”) and 6 affiliated entities (“Debtors”) filed petitions on October 1, 2009 in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware for relief under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Code.  The Debtors have moved for joint administration of the Debtors’ cases under case number 09-13395.  The case has been assigned to Judge Christopher S. Sontchi.

The Business of the Debtors

The affidavit in support of Debtors’ First Day Motions (the “FDM Affidavit”) included the following description of the Debtors’ businesses:

The Company is one of the largest, independent manufacturers of engineered drawn-over-mandrel (DOM), a finishing process used for specific applications, tubular steel products and chrome plated bar. It is the only producer offering both products globally.

The FDM Affidavit identifies the Debtors market segments as:

In North America, the Company primarily sells to three types of customers: (1) steel service centers (55% of sales); (2) original equipment manufacturers (30% of sales), and (3) tier 1, 2, and 3 automotive suppliers (15% of sales).

The Debtors “major customers” are identified as including Caterpillar, John Deere, Daimler, Chrysler, Volkswagen, NACCO, Hendrickson, BMW, Volvo, Delphi, JCB, Marmon/Keystone, Earle M. Jorgensen, and Ryerson.

The lead Debtor, Pittsburgh Tube, is the direct or indirect parent corporation of the other Debtors.  However, based on the estimated number of creditors and estimated value of assets in the Debtors petitions, Alliance Tubular Products Co., is by far the largest of the Debtor operating companies.

Potential for Debtor Misidentification

All of the domestic, direct and indirect subsidiaries of Pittsburgh Tube are included in the filings.  Pittsburgh Tube has two foreign subsidiaries – Wiederholt, GmbH, PTC Alliance Precision Products (Asia) Private Limited, and PTC Alliance (UK) Limited.  Neither of the foreign subsidiaries are debtors in these cases and the initial filings give no indication that either foreign subsidiary has commenced insolvency proceedings in other jurisdictions

The initial filings do not indicate the degree to which the Debtors operations are integrated with one another.  There is also no indication as to whether one of the Debtors has acted as a purchasing agent or otherwise contracted for one or more of the other Debtors.

The Debtors have moved for joint administration of the Debtors’ cases.  Joint administration is for procedural purposes only.  For substantive purposes, including the exercise by a creditor of any substantive rights, the correct Debtor entity still must be identified.  Although the Pittsburgh Tube initial bankruptcy filings do not include any flags that Debtor misidentification is likely, as the first step in assessing any multi-debtor bankruptcy, a supplier or other unsecured trade creditor should confirm the identity of the entity with whom it contracted.  A supplier should also confirm the identity of the actual recipient of any goods and services provided by the supplier.

Listing of the Debtors, Case Numbers and Petition Statistical Information

A listing of the corporate name of each of the Debtors, its case number and estimated number of creditors, assets and liabilities, as listed in each petition, is provided a table below.

Debtor Name	Case No.	Estimated No. of Creditors	Estimated Assets	Estimated Liabilities
PTC Alliance Corp.	09-13395	1-49	$10,000,001 to $50 Million	$100,000,001 to $500 Million
PACD Acquisition LLC	09-13396	200-999	$10,000,001 to $50 Million	$100,000,001 to $500 Million
Alliance Tubular Products Co.	09-13397	1,000-5,000	$50,000,001 to $100 Million	$100,000,001 to $500 Million
Enduro Industries, Inc.	09-13398	200-999	$1,000,001 to $10 Million	$100,000,001 to $500 Million
PTC Tubular Products, LLC	09-13399	200-999	$10,000,001 to $50 Million	$100,000,001 to $500 Million
Mid-West Mfg. Co.	09-13400	1-49	$1,000,001 to $10 Million	$100,000,001 to $500 Million
PT/VW Corporation	09-13401	1-49	$1,000,001 to $10 Million	$100,000,001 to $500 Million

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