Hawker Beechcraft Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection
Posted on February 4th, 2019
Hawker Beechcraft announced at 3:30 p.m. EDT today that it has reached an agreement with a “significant number” of its senior secured lenders and senior bondholders on the terms of a financial restructuring plan that will “strengthen the company for the future and eliminate approximately $2.5 billion in debt and approximately $125 million of annual cash interest expense.” To move this process forward, the Wichita-based OEM and certain of its subsidiaries today filed voluntary petitions under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy code. According to Hawker Beechcraft, the terms of the pre-arranged restructuring agreement will take effect when the company’s reorganization plan is confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and the Chapter 11 case is concluded. As part of the pre-arranged restructuring, Hawker Beechcraft obtained a commitment for $400 million in debtor-in-possession financing that will enable it to continue paying employees, suppliers, vendors and others in the normal course of business. Meanwhile, the company said it continues to operate normally and serve its customers around the world. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with our largest lenders and bondholders on a solution to stabilize and improve our capital structure,” said CEO Robert Miller. And he added, “Restructuring our balance sheet and recapitalizing the company in partnership with our debt holders will dramatically improve Hawker Beechcraft’s ability to compete in a rapidly changing environment.”
Well, here is another chapter in American history where a large company will simply wipe out a small veteran owned business because they get caught up in the chapter 11. Twenty Eight years in business and now our existence is questionable because the US Court system is allowing Hawker to simply say “See Ya” to small businesses that entrust companies like Hawker to do the right thing. I get the whole “The needs of the many far outweigh the needs of the few” I am a Vietnam Era Veteran who build my business on sweat equity and the one thing that never crosses my mind is “Let someone else pay for my mistakes”. How can our court system here in the US allow a small business like mine to be in a position where we have all worked so hard and pay taxes to just say, Oh it is OK for you Hawker big business to simply never have to pay back these hard working US Veterans who have put their lives and savings to build a business and work 15 hours a day for most of the 28 years we have been around.
How does this make sense, please someone tell me.