Original Message:
Re: The Manhattan Club Lawsuit - RedWeek's Report & Most Recent Info (by Craig R.):
I've been thinking about this enough for wild speculation.
While the best outcome would be a "timeshare owners only" Board control, that now seems very unlikely.
So, let's assume that the Eichners have agreed to sell. Who would buy, what would they buy, and what would they pay?
Let's answer the second question first. A lot depends on how the sale is structured, but I'm guessing it will be an "asset sale" where the new owners buy the revenue stream but not the legal liabilities. TMC will get cash, and I am sure that cash will be a key focus for the Eichners; they will argue that they should get a lot of it because the future liabilities (lawsuits) will be settled for pennies on the dollar.
The plaintiffs will argue that the money should stay with TMC and that any transaction that pays the Eichners is a fraud.
In any event, the money remaining will not be enough to pay those who want their money back.
But what about the revenue stream the new owners would be buying?
It seems crazy to think that the new owners would walk away from the timeshare revenues and operate the property as a hotel only. On the other hand, they would face a surly group of timeshare owners, many of whom have already abandoned their ownership and quit paying the maintenance.
I am guessing the strategy they would follow is to try to preserve as much of the revenue stream as possible, and try to convince many of the existing owners to stay.
This leads to the third item, the price. Here a lot depends on whether the Eichners have a deadline to sell, but I have to assume the AG is not brain-dead, and there is a requirement to sell soon.
If I were bidding on this deal, I would HEAVILY discount the future revenue stream from the timeshares.
In other words, I wouldn't pay much.
Finally, who would buy? I would have to believe it would be someone or entity that is very skilled at "bottom fishing", and who knows how to fix things with the customers (us) to save the revenue stream.
But, again, this is WILD speculation, especially since nobody has seen the actual settlement yet, and I am SURE I have some or a lot of this wrong.