Receiver takes over as Novelo’s drowns in debt

One day when the full story is told it will be as juicy as any bestseller: a tale of greed, politics, mismanagement, and just plain bad luck. But those revelations will wait for another time. All we need to know now is that Novelo’s, the nation’s only nationwide bus line, has been placed in receivership by its bankers: D.F.C. and Atlantic. The company, choking on a mouthful of debt totalling some forty-eight million dollars, has been unable to keep up the interest payments let alone begin to whittle down the principal. The two major creditors have appointed Kevin Castillo as the receiver and he has in turn appointed a management team headed by retired Brigadier General Robert Garcia. Garcia is assisted by Dwayne Davis as financial controller and John Flores as operations manager, along with Mark Hulse and Ricardo Escalante as consultants. In a late press release, the Novelo family declared that the operations are now out of their hands and took the opportunity to thank their customers for forty-five years of patronage. A notice by the receiver assured those same customers that the operation of all bus routes will continue unchanged and there are no plans to reduce staffing levels.