Hearing to OK sale of P&Cs is Monday

A hearing Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court should seal the sale of beleaguered Penn Traffic Co. to Tops Markets.

The hearing to approve the sale is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. in Wilmington, Del., where Penn Traffic filed Nov. 18 for bankruptcy protection. It is the Syracuse company's third time in bankruptcy court in the past decade and its final one. It intends to sell its assets to the highest bidder.

As of a court-imposed deadline of Tuesday, Tops was the highest bidder, offering $85 million for all 79 Penn Traffic stores, including P&C Foods. That proposed sale has met with some limited objections, primarily from landlords wondering what the sale means for Penn Traffic leases, but has the approval of Penn Traffic's official committee of unsecured creditors and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents about 4,800 Penn Traffic employees.

Five Penn Traffic employees sent a letter to Judge Peter J. Welsh just before Tuesday's deadline, claiming they have formed an employee stock ownership plan and had obtained the financing needed to buy the company out of bankruptcy.

The group filed a motion Wednesday asking for more time to submit a formal bid, but as of Friday afternoon, Judge Welsh had taken no action on it.

Penn Traffic indicated in court documents filed Friday that it intends to go forward with its request for approval to sell to Tops. Tops has indicated it wants to have a closing on the sale no later than Thursday.