UPDATE: Smurfit-Stone Container Corp Files For Chapter 11
January 26 2009 - 8:01AM
Dow Jones News
Cardboard box manufacturer Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. (SSCC)
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, strapped for cash due to
sliding sales.
An operator of 162 manufacturing plants mostly in the U.S. and
Canada, Smurfit-Stone owns timberland, paper mills and recycling
centers.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the Chicago company listed
assets worth $7.45 billion and debts near $5.6 billion.
(This article also appears in Daily Bankruptcy Review, a
publication from Dow Jones & Co.)
Debts include $1.2 billion in secured bank loans from a
syndicate led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), $2.275 billion in
unsecured bonds, $388 million in debts linked to an accounts
receivable financing arrangement, and $284 million worth of
tax-exempt utility systems bonds, according to documents filed in
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.
Smurfit-Stone had warned it might resort to bankruptcy to
weather a liquidity crisis linked to the economic downturn. With
about $316 million worth of net debt payments coming due this year,
the company was struggling to find the free cash to meet its
obligations. Smurfit-Stone boxes are used to deliver consumer
goods, so slumping sales elsewhere have hit its revenue.
-By Peg Brickley, Dow Jones Newswires; 215-462-0953;
peg.brickley@dowjones.com
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