Creditors of Moose Jaw’s Worldwide Pork will vote later this month on a plan designed to reopen the processing plant, which has been closed since May.
Rick Van Beselaere, lawyer for the company, filed the plan in court last week.
It has changed from the original plan, he said, in that it would convert outstanding claims into common voting shares totalling at least 25 percent of a new company. The number of shares would be dependent upon the size of the claim.
The remaining 75 percent of the shares would be sold by way of new investment, Van Beselaere said, including new money, an employee labour-sponsored venture capital fund and possibly producer equity.
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The company needs about $3 million to reopen the facility.
“We need to go out there and raise that money,” he said.
The province is the largest secured creditor and supports the business plan, Van Beselaere said.
Worldwide Pork owes the government about $2 million. It also owes producers about $4 million.
Two hundred and seventy employees were laid off when the plant closed.
Under the plan, they will receive back pay worth about $275,000. They have said they are willing to participate in a plan that would get them back to work.
The company has been under court protection since July through the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.
If creditors approve the plan at a meeting scheduled for Jan. 25, the matter then goes back to court on Feb. 3 for approval from a judge.
The next step would be to reopen the plant, possibly by late February or early March.
