NW stock
 

I own a few hundred shares of NW stock which is soon to become worthless. I had bought the stock in 2000 and held on to it once it had dropped after 9/11. Has anyone else found themselves in this predicament? I am hoping the large share holders will be able to strike a deal with NW appl;icable to all share holders.

I would just plan to write it off as worthless. Unfortunately, shareholders get screwed in these situtations because you are nothing more than an unsecured creditor. The shares are wiped out after emerging and new shares are issued.

I am no tax guy but you might be able to write the whole loss off either last year (2006 tax) or this year (2007 tax).

Sorry - you bought it in 2007 or is that a mis-print?

I would sell now while you can still get a few bucks for it. Or you could wait for the next wave of merger rumors which will drive the price up. (Inexplicably - I can't figure out why anyone is still trading NWACQ).

Sorry about causing your confusion. I bought it in 2000. I meant to say bought it in 2000 7 years ago. My typing didn't catch up with the thoughts. I have already lost more than 90% of the original value. Losing the rest won't be a big loss compared to what's already lost. A merger rumour is a nice wish.

If possible, I recommend selling it now, so that you have some documentation on just how bad your loss was -- anything you get is better than taking a 100% loss.

Same thing happened with K-mart.

Bob H

Interestingly enough, Morgan Stanley has been buying NWA stock.

Conventional wisdom would be that this stock will be worthless when NWA exits BK. What does Morgan Stanley know that we don't know?

Since many senior creditors have been screwed, stockholders should expect no return.

Another perspective: if NW stock was worth anything, the Company wouldn't have entered bankruptcy.

Can you get paper stock certificates issued? It might make a neat souvenir.

yeah and you could tear them into 4x4 squares and put them next to your toilet

I asked a similar question last week:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=660807

Sell it now so that you'll at least get a little money back....the rest you can deduct as a loss

Just a WAG as to Morgan Stanley's motivation: Could it be that Morgan Stanley is merely buying stock that it borrowed to sell short a few months ago when the stock hit $7.50 per share? Perhaps MS is covering at the recently lower prices of $2.00 to $3.00 or so?

To the OP: If the creditors don't get paid 100% of what they're owed, then federal bankruptcy law prohibits any dividend to the common stockholders. There won't be any magical "deal" as your first post had mentioned. Your stock will be worthless (as in ZERO value) on the date the plan of reorganization is confirmed by the bankruptcy court. Either sell it before that date or keep holding it.

I believe I answered this previously. In all likelihood MS bought this for their own hedge fund, or more likely, for a client's hedge fund.

If I remember correctly there was an article posted in another thread that they were buying the stock as when the new stock comes out. It will be sold to people/companies based on percentages of the old stock they owned.

IE: MS owns 25% of the current stock and that is the biggest share then they will be able to buy the biggest share of stock when it comes out @ the IPO price. From the article I think it was like 25% old stock may equal 15% of the new stock.

They were also getting millions of shares as they are the broker and if not all bought they have to buy them.

I agree and would check with your broker and see if they will do this. They do make neat souveniers. I've bought several off ebay (PanAm, Eastern) for a few bucks each.

But since it's a few hundred shares, I'd sell and get something for it - notably the tax loss. Some other suckers will be selling NW certificates someday for a few bucks.