Philadelphia-based PET bottle, preform and closures maker Constar International has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under the ownership of its pre-bankruptcy secured note holders.Black Diamond Capital Management of Stamford, Connecticut, is now the largest shareholder of Constar with New York-based Solus Alternative Asset Management second largest. The reorganisation was completed less than five months after the Chapter 11 reorganisation was filed in US Bankruptcy Court.
Constar also has announced that it entered into a new financing facility with Wells Fargo to provide the company with ongoing liquidity.
President and CEO Grant Beard said a June 1 news release that the combination of Constar’s improved financial condition, along with its X4 and VCT panel-less hot fill container geometries and DiamondClear oxygen-scavenging technology, positions it well to compete in the marketplace.
Constar also filed for Chapter 11 protection 30 December, 2008, and emerged from that bankruptcy 29 May, 2009.
Since being spun off in 2002 by Crown Cork & Seal as a publicly traded company, Constar has gone through several plant closings and layoffs as it struggled to cope with a variety of materials- and manufacturing-related cost increases, as well as a decline in bottled soft drink sales and beverage makers taking back bottle production.
