Autolite is a brand of First Brands Group. (Nick Oxford/Bloomberg)
February 27, 2026 12:53 PM, EST
First Brands Group has four potential buyers for factories that produce parts for automakers, including Ford Motor Co., under a proposal designed to save thousands of jobs as the bankrupt company struggles to avoid shutting down and liquidating its remaining operations.
Three of the four businesses that First Brands is hoping to sell in the coming weeks produce parts for Ford, which along with other carmakers have been keeping a handful of First Brands operations afloat by paying for parts in advance, Ford attorney Mark E. Freedlander said during a bankruptcy hearing on Feb. 27.
That arrangement includes not just cash for the parts, but also money for administrative purposes.
“This may be the most expensive parts deal in the history of auto supply,” Freedlander said. Ford is the most exposed of all the major automakers to First Brands’ insolvency case, he said.
The sales may not resolve the bitter disputes among creditors who claim to be victims of the widespread corporate fraud that brought down First Brands last year, lawyers for the company and its main lenders told the judge overseeing the company’s multi-billion dollar insolvency case.
READ MORE: Ex-First Brands Finance Exec Details Fraud in Guilty Plea
The company has been in mediation with its major creditors trying to avoid a liquidation that would shut down its remaining operations and throw thousands more employees out of work. The company has already closed some operations.
