Court Confirms USEC?s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Plan

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Delaware District has confirmed USEC’s plans for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, completing the final step for USEC to restructure its debt and change its name to Centrus Energy Corp. USEC filed for Chapter 11 in March in an effort to replace $530 million in debt that largely comes due in October. The court approval comes after the great majority of USEC’s creditors voted to approve the plan last month. “We are completing the final steps of a restructuring process that will strengthen our balance sheet and will enable the company to build on its decades of reliability and technical innovation,” USEC CEO and President John Welch said in a statement. “Since our voluntary filing in March, we have moved to accomplish the objectives of this process. We are now in a stronger position to continue serving the nuclear fuel needs of our utility customers around the world and the national and energy security needs of the United States.”

 

USEC hopes to put its restructuring plan will go into effect in late September, when the name change will officially occur and its stock will be traded under the new ticker symbol “LEU.” According to the plan, USEC’s $530 million debt and its preferred stock will be replaced by $240.4 million in debt and new common stock. Creditors would receive $200 million in new debt and 79 percent in common stock, while preferred investors Toshiba and B&W would each receive $20.19 million of the new debt and about 8 percent of the new common stock.