MLive.com – A judge authorized Tower Automotive Inc. to increase the fees it has been paying to a group of hedge funds that recently offered to backstop a $250 million rights offering aimed atextricating the company from bankruptcy.
Tower’s request to increase payments to the hedge funds was met with opposition from creditors who called the automakers’ attempt at finding exit financing flawed. The creditors complained that Tower’s bidding process was not competitive and favored the hedge funds.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper, who is overseeing Tower’s Chapter 11 reorganization, hasn’t yet ruled on the proposed rights offering. That deal would put the troubled company under the control of the hedge funds  Stark Investments, Strategic Value Partners, and Wayzata Investment Partners, according to documents Tower filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.