A Regina judge has approved a plan to restructure Moose Jaw’s Worldwide Pork, paving the way for the slaughter and processing facility to re-open in early March.
However, the plan hinges on raising about $3 million.
Glen Lekach, a lawyer for Worldwide Pork, said raising that money through a combination of equity investment and traditional loan financing is a chief condition of the court’s approval.
“We are in the process of meeting with lenders and equity investors,” he said Feb. 6.
The plant’s employees are expected to participate through a labour-sponsored venture capital fund. When the plant closed last May, 270 employees were laid off.
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They were among voting creditors who approved the plan at a meeting in late January. The 96.7 percent of voting creditors who agreed to the plan represented 90.7 percent of the approximately $13 million in claims.
Lekach said the next court date, on Feb. 23, will be to deal with one late creditor claim. On Feb. 24, lawyers will again be in court to establish a new share structure.
Creditors will be issued shares based on the amount of their claims.
“We are also contemplating a preferred set of shares for producers who want to secure shackle space,” said Lekach.
The largest secured creditor, the Agricultural Credit Corp. of Saskatchewan, will receive common shares for the $2 million it’s owed. Lekach said the parties involved in the restructuring hope the government will also “participate in some fresh loans or equity.”
The government has said it would help the facility but would wait until the court process is concluded.
Meanwhile, the company has enough financing to operate until an anticipated re-opening date of March 6. It recently hired a chief executive officer, Donald Fancourt of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.
Lekach said Fancourt and other managers have been working with producers to source hogs.
The plant closed after producers stopped deliveries because they hadn’t been paid. Worldwide owes them nearly $4 million.
