Smurfit-Stone gets green light for reorg

Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., a corrugated container and containerboard maker, said that creditors, with one exception, voted in sufficient majorities to allow the bankruptcy courts in Canada and the U.S. to approve the reorganization plans at confirmation hearings today.

The company said that a special-purpose finance subsidiary named Stone Container Finance Co. of Canada II will be dropped from the reorganization, without delaying the exit from bankruptcy.

The Chapter 11 petition in Jan. 2009 by the Chicago-based company listed assets of $7.45 billion against debt totaling $5.58 billion as of Sept. 30, 2008. Debt at the time included $1.2 billion under secured revolving credit and term loan agreements, five issues of unsecured notes totaling $2.275 billion, $388 million under an accounts receivable securitization facility, and $284 million owing on tax-exempt bonds.

The case is In re Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., 09-10235, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).