LyondellBasell, this one could hurt!!!

[Gina]

Marilyn you are in my prayers, I hope this will not effect you. I pray for the country to like Janet mentioned I do to think this will get worse before it gets better..

[Janet]

As long as we have each other to lean on...and Marilyn...lean on us...I honestly feel I could make it through most anything.

[Marilyn]

The news this afternoon was no better, in fact it could be even worse because the forecast now is that the fall of LyondellBasell is probably inevitable. We determined today how to continue to work with them and not expose us any more than necessary should they default. We just hope that their requirements in the next 30 days will not be too great. According to the news today, they have until Sunday to make their payments. If they default, I'm not sure what will happen next.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...3_FORTUNE5.htm

"In a regulatory filing Wednesday, LyondellBasell said lenders had agreed to postpone $160 million in fee payments to Jan. 4 from Dec. 29. The deadline for the payment had been extended previously from Dec. 19. It also postponed $120 million of interest due on some debt.
LyondellBasell's biggest lenders include Citigroup (C), Merrill Lynch & Co. ( MER) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS). Spokespeople for all three declined to comment."

These are things you don't want to read about one of your key customers. They are a very good company, very good people and the purchase that got them in trouble seemed to be a good thing at the time. They got caught just like some of us did with our 401K's. They needed a crystal ball even more than we did!!

[DianaB]

That's too bad. We should all be worried about what's going on.

[Janet]

I don't want it to hurt anyone, but I sure don't want my family and friends hurt by all this.

[Marilyn]

I spoke with one of the guys that I work with, Shane, this afternoon. He was out looking for a home to rent today. We were his landlords, until this past summer when we sold the home he is living in to a gentleman in the oil business. The new owner planned to continue to rent the home to Shane and his family. However, he notified Shane yesterday, that due to the price of oil dropping so suddenly, he is having financial troubles and must move out of his home in town and move into the rent house. When Shane paid his rent yesterday, he was given a 30 day eviction notice. I feel so bad. If we hadn't sold the property, this wouldn't be happening. Although, selling when we did was a really good thing for us.

It looks like none of us will be spared some hardship as a result of these times.

[Marilyn]

Well, it happened......
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090106/lyond...ankruptcy.html

I've been working feverishly trying to minimize our loss potential ever since first starting this thread. My e-mails and phones fell silent about 3 p.m. when the news hit.

I really do not know at this time what this means. It was like a crash had occurred, but there was no noise. Those of us in the frey of things were just stunned. We were racing against the clock and the time ran out.