- Custom injection molder Comptec International Ltd. will present a liquidation proposal to creditors Aug. 18 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The company went into receivership July 18. It was discharged from receivership July 21 when it filed a proposal to liquidate, said a spokesman for chartered accounting firm Wolridge Mahon of Vancouver, Comptec's trustee. The spokesman said if creditors accept the liquidation plan, unsecured creditors will get an estimated 18 cents on the dollar for what they are owed.
Comptec specialized in insert and multishot molding and decorating for consumer electronics, but as work in that market migrated to lower-cost regions, it tried to diversify. For example, it acquired a maker of swim goggles a few years ago. The Wolridge spokesman said Comptec is shut down except for residual assembly operations of swim goggles.
The molder used to employ more than 200 but recently cut back to about 120. At one time it ran 40 presses in Surrey and at a plant in Custer, Wash. Company officials were not available to comment on recent capacity levels.
N.Y.-based investors put Kraton on block
HOUSTON - Officials at New York investment firm Ripplewood Holdings LLC have confirmed that Kraton Polymers LLC is for sale.
Kraton, a Houston maker of styrenic block copolymers, ``has performed very well, and now might be a good time for [Ripplewood] to get value back for our investment,'' Ripplewood Managing Director Ian Snow said by telephone July 30. ``Kraton has been a very strong-performing company in a difficult environment.''
Ripplewood acquired Kraton from Royal Dutch/Shell Group for $520 million in 2001. A recent report on a financial Web site claimed that Ripplewood is seeking $840 million for Kraton, but Snow declined to comment on that figure.
Kraton operates six plants worldwide, with about 700 million pounds of annual capacity. Kraton employs 950 and posted sales of about $650 million in 2002.
Landis seeking bids for potential sale
CHICAGO RIDGE, ILL. - Landis Plastics Inc., a family-owned molder of thin-wall packaging containers, is being shopped for a potential sale, according to several outside sources familiar with the negotiations.
The Chicago Ridge company, about to celebrate its 50th year in business in 2004, launched a second round of bidding in late July but has not completed an agreement, the sources said. Information detailing a possible sale first was sent to investment firms in June, they said.
Henry J. Landis and his son, Henry Richard Landis, founded the company, which is both an injection molder and mold maker. Henry J. Landis died in 1997, and today several members of his family own the company.
President Greg Landis did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
The company recorded an estimated $210 million in sales last year and has more than 1,400 employees and 100 injection presses, according to figures from Plastics News' ranking of injection molders.
DuPont to pay $1.1 million settlement
LOUISVILLE, KY. - DuPont Co. agreed July 31 to pay $1.1 million to settle federal government claims against it for a 1997 chemical release from its fluoroproducts plant in Louisville.
The incident released the contents of one of the plant's reactors, about 11,500 pounds of hydrogen fluoride, into the atmosphere, forcing the evacuation of four nearby chemical plants and requiring nearby residents and schoolchildren to remain indoors.
A news release from the Department of Justice said workers using pressurized steam to clean a blocked valve ``blew out'' the valve, and the company was unable to contain the release of the toxic gas for about 40 minutes.
DuPont officials could not be reached, but were quoted in the the Louisville Courier-Journal as saying they had made safety improvements at the plant since the May 19, 1997, incident.
About half of the money will go to community groups and local projects. The other half of the money will pay $550,000 in civil penalties.