PORT TOWNSEND – Financially embattled Port Townsend Paper Corporation has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure its debt.
The legal move has no effect on the Port Townsend mill’s 310 employees or its operations, said company president John Begley on Tuesday.
“We have restructured the debt of the company to create a more viable long-term entity,” Begley told the Peninsula Daily News.
“We have taken $50 million of debt off the balance sheet!”
The mill is Jefferson County’s largest private employer.
The company filed Chapter 11 on Monday. Annoucements went out late Monday.
Begley said the move actually secures the company’s future.
The company reached an agreement in principle late Monday night with the bondholders of more than 70 percent of the company’s senior secured notes to restructure the debt.
The action is intended to strengthen Port Townsend Paper’s competitive position and reduce its total debt by at least 33 percent, said the company’s top executive for nine years.
