Clovis Oncology: U.S. trustee appoints official equity committee

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., May 8 – The U.S. trustee overseeing Clovis Oncology, Inc.’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case appointed an official committee of equity holders, according to a notice filed Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Friday.

Regions 3 and 9 U.S. trustee Andrew R. Vara appointed five individuals to the committee.

As previously reported, Clovis had filed a motion seeking an order that would disband any official equity committee immediately after it was appointed.

The company had said the appointment at this late juncture as the Chapter 11 cases are approaching the final stage could jeopardize the process.

However, Vara quickly responded to the motion before filing the notice of appointment.

In his response, he said that shareholders have been reaching out to the trustee to appoint an official equity committee.

Vara opted not to appoint a committee in January, but said he reserved the right to reverse that decision.

At the beginning of April, a formal letter was submitted for a committee to be appointed.

At that time, Vara was interested in the appointment of a committee and reached out to the debtor, but the debtor wanted more time as they worked on the disclosure statement hearing and to finalize the Rubraca assets sale.

The trustee agreed to wait, but did not hear back from the parties until about two weeks later.

Noted by the trustee, the trajectory of the cases is the design of the debtors.

In December, it looked like there was no chance to recover any equity.

However, there is now an asset sale on the table that could potentially contribute some value flowing to the equity class.

The plan proposed by the debtor extinguishes and cancels all equity.

“The U.S. trustee is not prepared to leave a class of stakeholders disenfranchised based upon the debtors’ asserted valuation,” the objection said.

The court set a status conference for Tuesday to consider the matter.

Clovis Oncology is a Boulder, Colo.-based biopharmaceutical company. The company filed bankruptcy on Dec. 11 under Chapter 11 case number 22-11292.

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