GM Creditors: From AT&T to Yazaki Corp.

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"09-50026."

That number is General Motors'(GM Quote) bankruptcy petition. The failure was so predictable that, by the end, it almost inevitably had some bearing on Visteon(VC Quote) filing for Chapter 11 last Thursday, owed $9.8 million by GM and now on the creditors' list filed with the Southern District of New York U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Judge Robert Gerber is assigned to the GM case. His decisions will result in the transition from the "old GM" to the new either being quick and smooth or mighty painful. How creditors are treated will be crucial, with some already having made arrangements with General Motors.

Those with arrangements include bond holders such as Wilmington Trust(WL Quote), founded five years before GM, holding $22.8 billion; Deutsche Bank(DB Quote), with $4.4 billion; Bank of New York Mellon(BK Quote), with $176 million. A majority of the bond holders reached an agreement with GM to accept its terms to allow for a smooth transition in bankruptcy that will give them an initial 10% stake in the new company and warrants for an additional 15%.

The second group, pre-packaged for bankruptcy, are the United Auto Workers, owed $20.6 billion; and the IUE-CWA union, owed $2.7 billion in employee obligations. The remainder of the top 50 creditors list is made up of trade debtors.

Irony will allow for Magna International(MGA Quote) to be owed $27 million by GM even as it reached a deal with GM and the German government to take over Opel and Vauxhall in Europe. Maybe in securing a deal to rescue the majority of GM Europe, Magna has guaranteed its own security and will be favorably looked upon as the new GM emerges.