Some Well-Known Names On Chrysler's Secured Lenders List

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Yale University and Halliburton Co. (HAL) are among Chrysler LLC's secured lenders, according to a court document filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

The list contains names of more than 100 secured lenders, including two funds run by Oppenheimer Funds and a hedge fund run by Stairway Capital Management. Oppenheimer and Stairway are known to have rejected the Treasury Department's debt-reduction deal offered to lenders. Another dissenter, Perella Weinberg Partners LP, was originally against the deal but changed its mind Thursday.

Others on the list, including the Kensington International Ltd. fund run by Elliott Management and a fund run by York Capital Management, are also known to have accepted Treasury's deal.

News of the filing was reported earlier by Bloomberg News.

A group of about 20 lenders, calling themselves the "non-TARP lenders" to distinguish themselves from the large banks that have received government bailout funds and that agreed to the Chrysler debt restructuring terms, have been blamed by the Obama administration for helping to send Chrysler into bankruptcy proceedings. Chrysler was offering $2.25 billion to its secured lenders, on $6.9 billion worth of debt.

A call to Tom Lauria, a lawyer representing the non-TARP lenders, was not immediately returned as he was flying from New York to Miami Friday. Besides Oppenheimer and Stairway, it is unclear which lenders are among those that rejected the Treasury's deal, and how many of them are part of the non-TARP lenders group.

President Obama chided those who rejected the deal on Thursday, saying they held out for "an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout," hoping they could avoid the sacrifices that other stakeholders had made. "I don't stand with those who held out when everybody else is making sacrifices," he said.

Other big names on the list include a fund run by Oaktree Capital Management, three run by Trust Company of the West, and three others managed by Marc Lasry's distressed-investing firm, Avenue Capital Management.

-By Joseph Checkler; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4297; [e-mail]