Specialty Products loses bid to delay disclosure statement hearing

By Jim Witters

Wilmington, Del., Oct. 8 - Specialty Products Holding Corp. lost its bid to further delay a hearing on the adequacy of a disclosure statement submitted by its official committee of asbestos personal injury claimants and a future claimants' representative.

And the Specialty Products attorney said his client and its parent, RPM International Inc., may file a competing plan.

During an Oct. 8 status conference in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, judge Peter J. Walsh held to a Nov. 5 hearing date despite efforts by the debtors to push it back another month.

Gregory M. Gordon, representing Specialty Products, said his client has not seen a revised Chapter 11 plan or a revised disclosure statement, and the claimants' lawyers have not filed trust distribution procedures.

Attorneys for the official committee of asbestos personal injury claimants and the future claimants' representative told the court they will file those documents by Oct. 15.

Committee attorney Natalie Ramsey called the Specialty Products statements in court delaying tactics.

"The debtors would prefer no plan until their appeal of the claims estimation is complete," she told the court.

As previously reported, judge Judith K. Fitzgerald ruled in favor of the asbestos claimants in May, issuing a $1.67 billion estimation for current and future claims.

Under bankruptcy laws governing asbestos cases, a trust is created to administer claims and issue payments.

Gordon said that this could be the first asbestos case in which the parties are unable to reach a settlement and file a consensual plan.

The only path could be a discharge, he said.

Edwin Harron, representing the future claimants, said the bankruptcy court does not have authority to discharge asbestos personal injury claims.

The plan proposed by the committee and the future claimants' representative is for Specialty Products and does not include debtor Bondex International, Inc.

Ramsey said Bondex will have to be liquidated or reorganized at some point in the future.

Specialty Products is a subsidiary of RPM International Inc., a Medina, Ohio-based producer of specialty chemicals. The subsidiary filed for bankruptcy on May 31, 2010 under Chapter 11 case number 10-11780.

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