by Caitlin Kenney

description
Derrick Bostrom

From CIT's Phoenix office. Click to enlarge.

CIT is trying to convince its investors to cash in their bonds early and for less money. The tender offer is part of a last-ditch effort to keep the company from collapsing. Investors who cash out will get $775 plus a $50 early delivery payment for every $1,000 of securities. The deadline's July 31.

A group of the CIT's bondholders offered the lender an emergency $3 billion loan last week, but the terms of that loan don't allow it be used to repay this debt. The company needs to get 90 percent participation from investors in order to stay afloat. Maybe it's time to appeal to a higher power for help — Santa, are you listening?

(Thanks to listener Derrick Bostrom who found the above document and others in his grandfather's old scrapbook.)