Ritz Camera creditor objects to timing of Boater's World sale, asks court to set aside bid order

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, March 12 - Ritz Camera Centers, Inc. creditor Starbrite objected to the timing of the proposed sale of Ritz's Boater's World business and asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to set aside the order approving the sale procedures, according to a Thursday court filing.

"There is something very wrong about the timing of this sale," Starbrite said in the filing.

"The speed at which this process is moving is nearly unprecedented, unnecessary and highly prejudicial to the estate as a whole, and to the unsecured claimants in particular."

In addition, Starbrite said the sale notice process was "woefully insufficient," as the creditor still has not received any official notice of the sale and only heard about it from someone who'd read it in the press.

If it would have had enough notice, Starbrite said it would have objected to the bid procedures before they were approved on March 10. As a result, the creditor is asking the court to set aside the bid procedures approval order.

Starbrite also said the Boater's World assets were not properly shopped before Ritz's bankruptcy filing.

"The process is really nothing more than an unstructured fire sale at which none-other than close-out companies will bid, then run their own sales on the premises that the debtor could have done itself if it allowed itself sufficient time and planning to accomplish," Starbrite said in the filing.

Starbrite said the process gives it and other creditors no real chance to participate in the sale, and it expects products it sold to Ritz to "go for pennies on the dollar."

Ritz, a Beltsville, Md.-based specialty camera and image chain, filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 22. Its Chapter 11 case number is 09-10617.

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