INQUIRER: An auction of the operating assets of Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. scheduled for Wednesday will be postponed at least a week as a result of a ruling yesterday by U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno. Robreno had ruled Tuesday that the newspaper company’s senior lenders did not have a right to bid the value of about $318 million in loans in the auction, which is designed to determine the fair-market value of the company’s assets. That ruling overturned a decision by Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich, who had authorized a so-called credit bid by the lenders, a group that includes Citizens Bank, Angelo, Gordon & Co., the CIT Group Inc. and Eaton Vance Corp. The lenders filed notice of appeal yesterday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, then returned to Robreno to ask that he block next week’s auction while the appeals court weighed the case. After a 90-minute hearing, Robreno said the lenders had not justified their plea that he indefinitely block the auction. But Robreno granted a separate motion, made orally during the hearing, for a weeklong stay so that the appeals court could consider expedited arguments on his ruling. MORE
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