Nortek exits bankruptcy after 2 months

By PBN Staff

PROVIDENCE – Nortek Inc. and its affiliated domestic companies have completed their financial restructuring and emerged from bankruptcy, only 57 days after the filing of a prepackaged plan of reorganization.

“This reorganization process has clearly made Nortek a financially healthier and stronger company that is better positioned for the future,” Richard L. Bready, chairman and CEO, said in a news release Thursday. “We were able to achieve our goal of successfully emerging from prepackaged bankruptcy in a short period of time due, in large part, to the extraordinary cooperation of our bondholders and lenders.”

The reorganization eliminated about $1.3 billion of Nortek’s debt. The company, which had $2.3 billion in revenue last year, listed $1.65 billion in assets and $2.78 billion in liabilities in its bankruptcy filing.

A new $250 million asset-based credit facility is now available for general business operations, Bready said, providing Nortek “with necessary flexibility to meet its liquidity needs and fund future growth operations.”

According to Bloomberg News, 95 percent of the new stock will go to those who hold the comopany’s 8.5 percent and 9.875 subordinated notes. Some 5 percent of the new stock will go to holders of 10 percent secured notes, plus $750 million in new debt. Creditors share 2 percent of the stock plus warrants. Trade suppliers will be paid in full.

Nortek makes home products such as range hoods, bath fans and other residential and commercial ventilation and security goods. It was bought in 2004 by Thomas H. Lee Partners, a private-equity firm in Boston, for about $1.75 billion. The company had been taken private a year earlier by Kelso & Co. and Nortek executives, including Bready.

Additional information is available at nortek-inc.com.