CarbonLite Holdings retained Force 10 Partners to lead its restructuring effort following its voluntary bankruptcy filing on March 8. Force 10 co-founder Brian Weiss will serve as chief restructuring officer.
The Force 10 team is focusing on the post-bankruptcy emergence of CarbonLite, a supplier of post-consumer recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), which is then used to produce food-grade recycled rPET material sold to beverage companies for packaging.
Force 10 was initially retained during Q4/20 to navigate underperformance and insolvency issues surrounding CarbonLite’s complicated capital structure, which has more than $380 million of indebtedness, including $240 million of secured indebtedness across three publicly-traded municipal bonds, a term loan, an ABL facility and capital lease obligations.
Force 10 is leading CarbonLite’s restructuring efforts through a combination of Section 363 asset sales, a recapitalization of certain business units and insolvency strategies. Force 10 also has negotiated $60 million of debtor-in-possession financing to assist with the continuity of business operations.
“Working with management, Force 10’s evaluation of the critical business drivers, operating infrastructure and competitive landscape are leading to increasing profitability and value,” Weiss said.
Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones is serving as bankruptcy counsel and Jefferies Financial Group is serving as investment banker for CarbonLite.
