Federal-Mogul files reorganization plan, targets summer emergence from Ch. 11

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (March 10)—Federal-Mogul Corp., which has been operating under Chapter 11 protection since October 2001, has filed its reorganization plan with the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The plan now is subject to a vote of various classes of creditors and court approval, as well as Federal-Mogul's submission and the court's approval of its disclosure statement. Federal-Mogul said it also will file a U.K. Scheme of Arrangements to keep the British administration process in parallel with the U.S. bankruptcy process. Under the proposed deal, billions of dollars worth of debt and asbestos claims will convert to equity in the reorganized company, making it a closely held public corporation. Federal-Mogul's creditors will get 49.9 percent of the new common stock, and 50.1 percent of the stock will go to a trust established to pay current and future asbestos claims. The seal maker's trade creditors in the U.S. and U.K. will receive one or more cash distributions, but the exact amounts have not been determined. The approximately $1.6 billion in prepetition senior secured lender claims will be restructured into a combination of six-and-a-half-year maturity senior secured term loans and 11-year maturity junior secured notes. The company expects to emerge from Chapter 11 this summer.