Hedge Fund Busts Bid For Oneida

Xerion Capital Partners, a hedge fund firm connected to Donald Sussman, has pulled out of a play with D.E. Shaw & Co. to purchaseOneida. The two firms had offered to purchase the bankrupt tableware company for $222.5 million or more if necessary to pay the company's secured bank claims and other unsecured claims.

The hedge funds were to receive equity in the newly organized company, which would emerge from bankruptcy, through a plan funding agreement. Xerion and D.E. Shaw's offer was accepted by the company subject to a due diligence period, which expired on July 21. Ten days later Xerion killed any possibility of reviving the deal by informing D.E. Shaw it was no longer interested, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.