Venator Materials Plc filed for bankruptcy after it struggled to boost sales for its industrial additives and pigments in recent months.
(Bloomberg) — Venator Materials Plc filed for bankruptcy after it struggled to boost sales for its industrial additives and pigments in recent months.
The British company listed both assets and liabilities in the range of more than $1 billion to $10 billion in a Chapter 11 petition filed in Southern Texas on Sunday. It said it has more than 5,000 creditors and estimated it would have funds to distribute to unsecured lenders.
Venator reached an agreement with most of its lenders and noteholders and will equitize nearly all of its funded debt, according to a Monday news release. The prepackaged bankruptcy process will be financed by a debtor-in-possession facility, which includes a commitment for $275 million in new-money financing from the company’s supporting creditors.
The company expects to emerge from bankruptcy in about two months and continue to operate as normal during the process, including paying wages and trade partners, and will retain possession and control of its assets.
Venator, which is publicly traded, solicited advice from Kirkland & Ellis and Alvarez & Marsal last year to help improve its liquidity position and cut costs as it faced an uncertain earnings outlook, Bloomberg previously reported. Venator expects to be delisted by the New York Stock Exchange, according to the news release.
The company’s authorized directors decided it’s best to enter into a restructuring agreement with certain commitment parties, according to the filing.
Resolutions of the authorized directors are subject to and conditional upon approval of the Chapter 11 case and related resolutions by Venator’s board.
Simon Turner, the company’s president and chief executive officer, emphasized on the firm’s latest earnings call in February how macroeconomic conditions had “continued to be challenging.” He added that the company had reduced spending and planned to cut back on its inventory to match demand.
Before filing, Venator was staring down at a wave of debt maturities, including a roughly $350 million first-lien term loan due in August 2024 and around $600 million of notes due in 2025.
(Updates throughout with additional detail.)
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