Challenge

In April 2014, Energy Future Holdings (“EFH”) and 70 affiliated companies filed for Chapter 11 protection, with $42 billion in debt. A complex, corporate conglomerate, EFH’s highly divergent businesses included, to mention a few, a public utility in Texas, an oil and gas trading business, and a highly profitable electricity generating business.  Each business was faced with unique regulatory and legal issues, as well as diverse stakeholders, including creditors with differing interests.

Execution

Epiq successfully:

• Provided notice to 3.5 million customers and 250,000 creditors within a one week period
• Designed an intricate notice plan which included hundreds of legal advertisements, internet banner ads, and social media coverage
• Utilized an online claims center for un-manifested asbestos claims and created a specialized un-manifested asbestos claim form for collection of necessary data
• Scanned, reviewed and captured relevant data from 100,000 microfiche cards in a compressed timeframe
• onducted a dual track solicitation process to efficiently solicit votes on multiple plans of reorganization
• Quickly designed and erected in-house call centers employing state of the art interactive voice response systems to address the vast majority of consumer related inquiries without a live operator — creating immense savings as compared with less advanced systems
• Created an interactive website, dependably withstanding millions of unique visits during the case, which allowed users to access critical case information, online claims, FAQs, important dates — reducing professional time spent directly addressing constituent inquiries.

Results

Epiq assisted EFH in complying with the myriad administrative obligations of Chapter 11, including creating a novel Asbestos Bar Date process. Epiq significantly reduced the administrative burdens of EFH and its other professionals, enabling the company to emerge from bankruptcy and move forward with implementation of its Plan of Reorganization.