VPX’s creditor committee balks at attempts to form second one

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., Dec. 13 – Vital Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s (VPX Sports) official committee of unsecured creditors objected to an attempt by some creditors to form another official committee, according to court documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida.

As previously reported, creditor Monster Energy Co. and several others have asked the court to appoint an official committee of creditors holding non-trade claims.

The existing committee said on Monday that the motion makes “unfounded and dangerous assumptions” regarding the current functionality of the committee.

As background, on Nov. 22, after consulting with the existing committee regarding the attempts to appoint another committee, the U.S. trustee reconstituted the existing seven-member committee by adding the four new members to address the concerns of the litigation claim movants.

The committee said it welcomed the two new members that accepted the invitation, both of which hold significant litigation-based claims against the debtors.

The other two new members, American Bottling Co., Inc. and Warner Music Group Corp., declined to participate and resigned from the committee.

After that, Monster and the other litigation claim movants, including American Bottling, filed their motion seeking the second committee.

“Ironically, the motion argues that the litigation claim movants are not adequately represented by the committee, even though one of the movants, ABC, had been appointed to the committee and could have represented itself and similarly situated creditors had it not resigned,” the committee said.

The committee said the motion fails to provide any evidence that the litigation claim movants are inadequately represented and instead “proffers factually inaccurate mischaracterizations” of the committee and its members.

“The bottom line is that there is no precedent for forming a second unsecured creditors’ committee under the circumstances present here,” the committee said.

The Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based maker of Bang energy drinks and other products filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 10 under case number 22-17842.

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